Independent Learner

Alan Clarke
Associate Director - ICT and
Learning
NIACE
 Hyperconnected

How many of you use?

– 1 to 3 ICT devices and 1 to 3 applications

– 4 to 6 ICT devices and 3 to 9 applications
– 7 or more ICT devices and 9 or more
applications

16% of population of study

36% of population of study
 Independent Learning

How many of you have undertaken some

independent learning?

E.g. MIT, Yale, Openlearn (OU) etc or

something similar

How many of you completed the programme?

 Context

• Informal Learning Consultation

• Growth in Open Educational
Resources
• Net generation
• 70% of workforce of 2020 already
working
• Formal learning in informal settings
• Mobile connectivity
• Falling costs of equipment (One
laptop per child)
• Web 2.0 and beyond
 Aims

• What skills do you need to benefit

from e-learning?

• How do we develop these skills?

• How do they relate to traditional

study skills?
 What are E-learning Skills?
 Technical (Digital) Skills
 Information Literacy
 Confidence as a learner
 Self-esteem
 Communication Skills
 Time management
 Acceptance of responsibility
 Planning
 Collaboration
 Problem Solving
(Clarke, A (2008) E-learning Skills, Palgrave McMillan)
 Learner Expectation
Net Generation (HE)
 Access to and use of ICT is
integrated
into education and training
 Use of personal technology
 Separation of personal and
education
spaces? Struggle to see how
social
networking can be used in
learning
 Access to Internet the norm
 Value face-to-face access to
 Learner Expectation
Older learners
 Some motivated to learn
through and
with ICT
 Lack of confidence
 Returning to learning – some
doubts
 Want to build on their life
experiences
 Less personal use of social
networking
 Narrower range of use of ICT
 Digital Exclusion
Older people
 Mori survey in 2004 showed that
about a third of the adult
population, some 17 million people,
did not use the Internet.

 Non-users tended to be older (over

55 years) with no formal
qualifications and unemployed

 Some had rejected ICT after trying

it (3 million?)
 Digital Exclusion
Young People
 Ricardo Sabates, NIACE unpublished
work in progress
 Use of ICT by young people in England
 Lack of access to a home computer
correlates to many aspects of
deprivation
 17% of 14 years have no access to
home computer
 18% only used home computer
occasionally to support their
education
 Made less use of school computers
 National Office of Statistics

 Rapid growth in home access to

broadband

 But …. Households without access

tend to have many of the features
of social and economic
disadvantage

 Geographical variation in speed

and access
 Information Literacy

• Finding (searching for) information

• Understanding the form, format
and how to access information
• Media literacy
• Judging the quality of information
• Publishing information

Based on Wikipedia
Traditional and E-learning Skills

• Listening and speaking

• Reading and Writing Online (e.g.
short messages)
• Teacher centred
• More learner centred (more
personal responsibility)
• More freedom when to learn (time
management)
• Similar but emphasis changes
 How to develop e-learning
skills?
• Integrate skills development into
learning programme
• Change in responsibility for own
learning
• Communication
• Collaboration/co-operation
• Learning and Technical Support
• Feedback about learning skills
 Summary

• Potential for independent learners

• Challenge of both net and other
generations being in education and
training together
• Digital Divide includes young and
older people
• Skills – technical, learning and
information skills
• Integrate skill development in
courses
 CONTACTS

alan.clarke@niace.org.uk