One of the things about working in IT as an industry is, that we have been following a 24/7 "work as a state of mind" model for as long as I can remember. The ability to see work as a continuous process enables us to better manage the complexity of our fast moving industry. Further, it allows us a chance to balance home life commitments since I can work from home just as well as I can in the office.
Technology has allowed me personally, to work in a constant state but, at a level and pace that suits me. I know from time stamps on emails within the SWOT team, my staff also follow a similar pattern of anywhere, anytime working.
It is not a company policy, I must stress this. When I talk to my team about there working practices, it is clear that working with technology, especially systems that support true mobility, enables them to work as and when it best suits them. Of course we all have deadlines to meet in our business lives, but, working with technology, allows a greater level of flexibility as to where and how we work or learn.
Part of working in IT is about keeping up, and rightly so. Technology shifts ever onwards as we all know. To keep up our commitments professionally to both our vendors and ultimately clients, all of the SWOT team are in a constant learning cycles, with exams and assessments taking place bi annually in most cases, but with so much tech, this is a constant stream of research, understanding and proving competency, believe me.
Luckily for us in IT, much of our learning at least, is managed via distance e-learning. A lot via learning outfits such as Pearson Vue who many of you may know. Some of the great courses include a combination of many media streams, video, audio and all can be accessed on demand, securely and at a pace and time to suit us as individuals.
So why am I telling you about this stuff.....?
At SWOT, we can see a big shift in education within our schools system. The change is being driven largely by the students. Many young students attending school in the UK today will almost certainly be using technology at home, either network enabled PC’s Laptops or Tablets, or mobile devices such as, smart phones or cellular devices, Internet enabled TV’s or games consoles. The way they interact with the tech, what they view, at what time, in what location can all be determined by them. They are empowered by this ability and we see the young students really embracing technology in much the same way we have working at SWOT.
At SWOT we feel that simply having a device, with which you can access data at any time, and in a fashion to suit you the user, naturally leads to an anywhere, anytime curiosity and mental state.
So what for UK education?
We feel that by embracing technology within the academic system, schools could create a 24/7 learning state of mind within all UK students. Not only this but, it can be used to reach a more personal level of learning ensuring the pace and complexity of content is engaging and relevant to each student. Oh not just the students, the teachers who are also learners too.
The challenges for schools looking to move towards a 24/7 learning model can seem daunting.
Adopting practices such as, mobility and e-learning from the business world and repackaging these to suit schools, colleges and universities will enable delivery of your learning content and at a personal level to all students. SWOT-NET has a wide range of 1st rate services, systems and applications to power up academic networks.
Being able to deliver and measure personal education really is possible today. There are real world examples where technologies such as, VWAN, Wireless, LAN, SAAS, LMS
+ CMS and Cloud Services etc are being successfully deployed within the academic community.
AT SWOT we have been working with schools and colleges here in the UK delivering world class systems to support Simple Ways Of Teaching and 24/7 learning.
We would be very happy to talk to you if 24/7 learning is something you feel your school or college might benefit from, or you would like to know more about our Simple Ways Of Teaching solutions, you can reach our friendly staff by using the following link here http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/
All the best
Andy and the SWOT Team
Features and news for all SWOT NET activity in the academic space, plus a bag full of knowledge share, including best practice deployment methodology and tech deep dive sessions supporting ICT for teaching and learning.
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