National support services for educational technology

In addition to local support from the Centre for Academic Practice, IT Services and the Library, there are a large number of national, HEFCE-funded support services, initiatives and development programmes that you can draw upon for assistance and expertise.

All have expertise in the application of ICT - generic or subject-orientated - dealing with issues of project planning, design and implementation, development of tools and resources, evaluation or dissemination. As well as offering institutional/departmental visits, most provide a good source of additional information through their web sites.

Current organisations

The Learning and Teaching Support Network, established in January 2000 is funded by the UK higher education funding bodies under the broad umbrella of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILTHE). LTSN aims to promote and share good practice and innovation in learning and teaching, including ICT approaches. The LTSN subject centres replace the Computers in Teaching Initiative subject centres.

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is a member organisation (which you can join as a individual, although Warwick is an institutional member giving you member rates on events and access to online publications and briefings). ALT promotes good practice in the use of learning technologies in HE and FE through its Journal (ALT-J), Newsletter (ALT-N) and web service (www.alt.ac.uk). The ALT annual conference is a key event in this field of learning and teaching and probably the most relevant to those with an interest in educational technology.

The Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) now offers an Embedding Learning Technologies Award, providing lecturers and support staff with the opportunity to gain accredited qualification and recognition for professional development in this area.

Jiscmail is a centrally funded service to UK HE administrating a huge range of electronic discussion groups. These enable academic and support staff to exchange information, news and views on specific topics of interest, many of which relate to the use of ICT. The full list of groups is available from the JISCMAIL web site, and there are certain to be ones relevant to your own subject or area of personal interest.

Previous initiatives - resources still available

The Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) funded 76 projects in the first two phases, involving the development of new ICT-based learning materials and the university-wide implementation issues. The materials developed as part of the programme generally fall into the category of stand-alone CAL, and are available at cost to the rest of the HE sector. A third phase focused on implementation, evaluation and institutional embedding.

The Electronic Libraries programme (eLib) consists of around 60 projects which aim to provide a body of electronic resources to HE, and to encourage the use of ICT in library and information services.

The JISC Technology Applications Programme (JTAP) reported on best practice in the community, funding projects which demonstrated the application of technology. It also funded four web 'clearing houses' to share information about specific areas such as the use of IT to support staff and students with disabilities and videoconferencing.

The Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative (LTDI) is a Scottish initiative which produced a whole range of popular and very useful publications including Implementing Learning Technology, the Information Directory and the Evaluation Cookbook. These are all still available from the LTDI web site, along with the BrITe Ideas resource to assist lecturers in thinking about good ways to introduce ICT into your own teaching.

Links to further sources of national support