Just in time teaching

I was reading an article about how a school might look like with personalised learning and a time-table suited to match. To support student independent learning they use a lot of on-line learning and make time for teachers to design resources. Students then access these in their own time, when they need it. It made me think about how I have been using just-in-time learning in journalism and the role of technology. How might it change from teacher in control of the learning to student in control?

One aspect of Holisitic Education is the notion of learning for the present as well as for a distant future. So enterprises, like producing a magazine, are wonderful for creating reasons for students to learn just now - either just-in-time skills to help them do a task, or just-too-late when they might have made mistakes - they have debriefing, learn from that what to do next time and/or discover the need for training.

So if some students were wanting to get advertisers I might suggest a training session which I run beforehand to learn the principles of cost-benefit selling and to do some role plays... or they might want to be gung ho and go out there without training, and very likely come back with no advertisers. After such "failure" or meeting obstacles they are ripe for learning and realise that they need it. I find often that a few experiences of just-too-late are far better in helping students be independent learners - they begin to look for the training they need, rather than me pre-empting and dishing it out for them.

So here I am - the trainer in the classroom... but with the availability of on-line tutorials, screen casts and training CDs now, the student has access to a more diverse and more readily available training resources.

But how do they know where to look and what to ask for? So I am still working on how to give them an expectation to look for something themselves and know where to look.... and to learn to ask people in the class who might have done it before. And googling might not be the most efficient option.

We have a journalism portal with quite a few connections to websites and some on-line training courses - eg BBC journalist site - how to do interviews etc. But the students don't really use this as a resource. I think part of the problem is the lack of graphics which the portal software doesn't allow for - so there is just a list of websites. So I need to find some time to create something with pictures that indicate what the websites can provide and create a culture of going to look here if you need something.

But then students need to experience finding what they need here to keep coming back. So I need to do quite a bit of work vetting potential websites, ensuring they load on our system, and provide quality learning experiences. But I also need to realise that this is just a stepping stone - an exemplar of what they should expect of quality on-line training to help them be more discerning when they google for themselves.

Another issue with the screen casts and tutorials is that students really need ear phones. So I am wondering whether requiring students to have their own ear phones to take to class (and not leave at home) might be part of the new learning culture.... and not seen as not participating in class!

Meanwhile, my new editor Lewis, the game master, asked the IT help services if there was a training CD for Frontpage (so he can edit the on-line magazine and learn new tricks) and organized his own training without any indication to me. He knew what he needed and where to get it.

My students will soon be doing a midyear reflection on the journalism criteria - and working out what level of the journalism game they want to be assessed at. I think it is a good opportunity to ask them where they think they need more training - in journalism skills, using technology, management....

How can I do this much sooner in this course?