This week the TEL Tales Festival Team are excited to bring a jam packed programme of webinars and online training events as part of this week long event. The past months have seen a huge transformation in the way we teach and we think it’s about time we paused, took a deep breath (or sigh of relief) and pat ourselves heartily on the back. If you’d have shown us, on a crystal ball, in 2019 that the whole university would move to online delivery in the space of a fortnight we would have spat out our tea; that, it transpires, was remarkably possible. The effort, determination, blood sweat and tears that such a transformation required from all staff is not to be underestimated. We learnt to teach in new ways and our students took it all in their stride. The metrics showing the sudden spike in VLE use, content capture and online webinar instances evidences how adaptable we are as a Higher Education provider. Some may say, educators across school, FE and HE are the unsung heroes of 2020 for pivoting so quickly.
The TEL Tales: Blended Learning Festival celebrates the great body of knowledge we have acquired and marks our continued journey into the Blended Learning stratosphere. We’ve been teaching at a distance for decades; now distance learning and our expertise with educational technology is front and centre. Next academic year will not be without its challenges and a continued commitment to high quality online and face to face delivery will shape our teaching and learning going forward. The week makes sure that everyone has access to the ingredients they need to cook up a storm.
So, what does this week have in store?
I’m personally looking forward to this week’s programme and having a much needed debrief following Teaching Block Two. What have we learnt? What have we gained? What areas do we need to upskill in?
Each day we will hold ‘Tea at 3’ which is a themed informal discussion. Like so many sector events, we are looking forward to the sharing that happens across disciplines. There will be a selection of webinars covering a myriad of topics and tools – look out for the TEL Me How for more practical training. Many sessions are repeated, including the popular Using the Moodle Template webinar and with consent, we will be able to record everything for those that miss out on the live event.
Here are some highlights for the week ahead :
- Meeting the Challenges of Remote Personal Tutoring
- An Introduction to Creating Accessible Content
- Using Vevox to Create Live Conversations with Students
- Learning Well: Resources for supporting student well-being online
- The Power of Panopto
We look forward to seeing you there!
Amy Barlow, Head of Academic Development
Don’t forget to follow all the latest festival information and daily line-ups of our sessions on Instagram at @telportsmouth and Twitter at @TelPortsmouth
Leave a Reply