EDS - Community of Practice
Welcome to the Essential Digital Skills (EDS) Community of Practice.
Welcome to the ETF’s Community of Practice for digital skills which is packed with ideas and resources shared by your colleagues.
To get automatic alerts when new posts and resources have been added, please sign up and/or login. You don't have to post but it's great if you can like and share posts, and also comment. Even better if you want to share an idea or a resource you use in your teaching, or ask a question - that way the community builds.
View this informal video by one of our regular contributors on how to join and make use of the community.
If you want to talk about end of module assessment come along tomorrow Weds 19th @ 1pm
( @Ish Hussain you posted previously about this)
Book here: Live chat
Post by Anisa Teladia
This week, with 2 of my L1 ESOl classes, I introduced them to powerpoint. In 1 class, nobody had used it before. In the other class, 1 of the learner's had done some work on it previously but with the help of her child. At the beginning of term, we have to go through all the essential things, like safeguarding, Prevent and British Values and, so I thought instead of me telling them about it, it would be a good opportunity for them to teach the rest of the class about it. The learners are used to doing presentations, so I thought i could take it 1 step further and do a powerpoint with a presentation. I had thought that maybe a few of them might know how to use it as I thought they had done an ICT course, so the plan was to pair a strong learner with a weak learner but this wasn't the case. I had to show them how to open powerpoint. I had prepared a sheet with the key features diagram. For the first 20 minutes, we worked together, step by step, with me guiding them by showing them on the board but getting them to do it at the same time. I showed them how to input text, edit it and put images. By the end of the lesson, each pair had completed a prresentation with 3-6 slides, some of them even put a link to a video so within 1 lesson, they went from not knowing how to use it to completing a presentation. A very satisfactory lesson
This downloadable Essential Digital Skills Toolkit, based on the DfE framework, has been developed to enable individuals, groups and organisations to measure their digital skills .
https://www.skillsforlifenetwork.com/resource/essential-digital-skills-toolkit/
New education for sustainable development (ESD) resources for educators, teachers and practitioners who teach English for speakers of other languages are now available to download free of charge.
The resources were commissioned by the Education and Training Founation, delivered by HOLEX and developed and tested by Manchester Adult Education Service, Idea Store at Tower Hamlets Council and Westminster Adult Education Service. Although developed within an adult education context, these resources will be applicable to ESOL teams in other further education settings too.
https://www.skillsforlifenetwork.com/resource/esd-resources-for-esol-practitioners/
The 25 Best Books for English Learners:
https://barclayslifeskills.com/educators/adult-learning/modules/keeping-safe-against-cybercrime/
Has anyone used this free resource available on Barclays life skills.
It is a really good video, which highlights some important parts about being safe online
Post by Lauren Brizon
Happy New Year everyone. Just wondered if any of you are teaching for providers who are registered with NCFE?
Post by Lauren Brizon
Google has a nice tool for digital wellbeing (skill 5) - could be set as homework for learners to reflect on https://wellbeing.google/
Post by Ish Hussain
Hi everyone, I am delivering Essental Digital Skills Entry 3 to my ESOL learners and we are approaching the end of the course. I was wondering if anyone has created and end of module exam/test. I have found a course outline and the end exam is 'creating and editing' documents and digital media.
Any ideas or example would be a great help.
Post by Sara Khan
Is there anyone here who teaches Pre-Entry/E1 ESOL?
Can you share your/your students' experiences of incorporating digital skills within the ESOL provision?Thanks
Interesting session coming up on January 17th, 12-1pm, about using Zoom as a teaching tool with ESOL learners. Nusrat Bhatti from the WEA will talk about her extensive experience with Zoom and offer a few tips on how best to use it with your learners.
Sign up for free at
https://booking.etfoundation.co.uk/course/details/1221/Taking-EDS-Teaching-Further?sh=1769956&ci_id=6046
Post by David Camilleri
Exam board differences
There are now a number of different exam boards offering the Essential Digital Skills Qualification:
- Which exam board do you use?
- Have you noticed any differences between the different exam board specifications?
I would be really interested to hear your insights!
Digital skills are embedded in teaching across the curriculum. In some organisations, these skills have been mapped to the EDS standards and framework - some different approaches are described in this video https://youtu.be/PqK4R3jcmgg
In non-IT courses, do you think it is useful to map digital skills to EDS standards?
Post by Anke Jacobs
In response to people's comments on Wednesday that learners still like printed worksheets, and that we should not take an all-digital, but well-balanced approach, here's another link to a grammar website which I find useful for differentiated or whole class consolidation and homework: https://www.englishbanana.com/
The worksheets are levelled, organised by grammar topic and printable. There are also whole downloadable books available which make the selection of homework tasks easy. You could compare the students' answers in class (use the exercises for flipped learning) or give them the answers which are at the back of the digital books for self- or peer-marking.
As I said on Wednesday, these sorts of resources do not replace well-planned and structured lessons, but are useful supplementary tools and usually well received by the students because they actually enjoy worksheets. Once they've become more confident through practice and repetition, they can apply what they've learnt in more creative ways.
Why not have a look at the website and then put a comment in the box below?
Exploring Google Keep notes
Today's Exploring Tools session looked at Google Keep notes, a free app in the Google suite for creating and editing documents when you're on the move and away from a computer.
Google Keep is a very simple way to introduce the topic of creating and editing documents because it's so easy to use.
The following video shows the basics of Google Keep and looks at some ideas for collaborative activities:
The file attached to this post is a PDF of the presentation for the session.
As we discussed during the session, Google Keep is particularly useful for learners who need to create a document when they don't have access to a computer, but also for teachers to record their ideas for a lesson when they're waiting for a bus or taking the dog for a walk! When you later have access to a computer, it's simple to transfer the note to a Google or Word document.
It's also useful for shopping and packing lists or for copying a recipe onto your phone when you don't want your laptop in the kitchen.
If you have used Google Keep in your home activities or with your learners, please share your ideas on how to use it in a reply to this post.
Post by Anke Jacobs
Hi everyone
Thank you for attending the Live Chat event earlier today and for showing an interest by participating in the Q&A part. I hope many more people will watch the video and learn something new from my presentation.
Here's the link address: https://youtu.be/vessQlQb6v8
And here is the link to the Perfect English Grammar website's homepage: Perfect English Grammar (perfect-english-grammar.com)
Finally, this is the PowerPoint link: https://tinyurl.com/ankejgrammar
If anyone has any questions, I'll be pleased to answer them for you.
Kind regards
Anke
Note: the interactive exercises and grammar explanations are free, as are the downloadable, printable pdfs. However, the levelled grammar courses incur a fee.
Post by Matthew Herman
Hi all. Look forward to this Essential Digital Skills Community of Practice Live Chats Session #1 in a few minutes
Embedding digital skills into English Grammar practice, 1-1.30pm, Wednesday January 5th
This session will outline use of a free, quality website with interactive exercises for ESOL students which makes worksheets redundant and increases the learners' confidence.
Part of our Live Chat series, it will be delivered by Essential Digital Skills (EDS) Champion Anke Jacobs from Birmingham Adult Education Service.
The aim of the EDS Champion role is to help foster communities of practice across the sector for different aspects of essential digital skills delivery. The Live chat sessions provide an opportunity for discussion on an EDS topic each week.
Register (for free) here: https://enhance.etfoundation.co.uk/eds/event/175/embedding-digital-skills-into-english-grammar-practice
Course Evaluators required
On behalf of the Education and Training Foundation, ccConsultancy Ltd have developed two FutureLearn online courses: one for practitioners participating or considering participating in action research and another for those who are leading action research projects. They are now looking for individuals to work through the courses and evaluate the content. If you teach or manage in the post 16 sector, and you can answer yes to any of the following questions, the ccConsultancy team would like to hear from you! Are you:
- interested in improving your own or your teams' practice?- new to action research?- an experienced action researcher?- ready for something new to excite and motivate you in 2022?
The review period will be from 17th January to 11th March 2022. Each course consists of 6 weeks and each week is notionally 1.5 hours, though you can work at your own pace. Interested? Find out more and express your interest here
Jisc's Digifest 2022 brings together the UK's learning and teaching community to consider the next stage in the evolution of learning. It's a two-day event (8-9 March 2022) which you can join in person at the ICC, Birmingham or online.
Following on from the 2020/21 digital experience insights teaching staff survey, Jisc's Clare Killen delves into the report's findings and discusses the opportunities to rethink more traditional approaches to teaching.
For anyone looking for learner focused resources, this may be useful.
The Pearson awarding body is offering a series of bite-sized interactive courses for learners aged 16-18 and 19+ covering the five Essential Digital Skills areas in the national standards. Called iEDS, the stated aim of the courses is to engage learners and build confidence. They are mapped to Pearson's EDS qualifications but can apparently be used with any awarding body.
The courses are chargeable and cost the same for non-Pearson centres.
Pearson provide a demo video and an information leaflet. There is also a web page.
Has anyone used these resources and would you be able to comment?
Exploring how to use Google Jamboard
Todays Exploring Tool session looked at Google Jamboard a free interactive white board for online collaboration and idea sharing.
The following video shows the basics of Jamboard and looks at some ideas for collaborative activities:
The file attached to this post is a PDF of the Jamboard we explored and includes some additional ideas contributed by those in the session.
If you want even more ideas on using Jamboard a web search will bring up lots of idea and other videos. In the session we mentioned graphic organisers and again there area lot online but the links provide some examples:
25 FREE Google Drawings graphic organizers - and how to make your own - Ditch That Textbook
12 FREE Jamboard Templates for In-Person or Distance Learning - Make Way For Tech
In essence if you can create a collaborative worksheet for use in the classroom you can certainly mirror that online.
If you have used Google Jamboard in your lessons please share your ideas in a reply to this post.
Post by Julie Bernard
Hello, does anyone have an initial assessment for Essential Digital Skills, in particular module 2?
Thank you
Hello There, I am uploading the Scheme of Work for Step into Digital, this is a pre Esstential Digtial Skills Qualification Entry 3 course which was created by the WEA. This could be of help for those teaching the EDSQ entry 3 (Face to Face/Online Learning).
Find out how FE practitioners from Kendal College and South Lakes Community Learning have been using emojis to help learners develop their vocabulary acquisition skills and confidence in using new words.
Thanks for joining me on the Community of Practice yesterday. We looked at how Canva has helped to engage learners in vocational courses. If you missed the session the recording is in the link below. I've also attached the slides. I'm running a session today at 12 which will expand on this topic and give practitioners time to explore Canva further.
Recent Activity
-
Post by Nusrat Bhatti14 Wks ago11 likes 15 repliesMy name is Nusrat and I am one of the EDS Champions who is leading the EDS Reflective Exploration for the Workers Education Association (WEA). Together with my practitioners, I will be drawing upon...
-
Post by Nick Jeans11.4d ago3 likes 4 repliesExploring Google Keep notes Today's Exploring Tools session looked at Google Keep notes, a free app in the Google suite for creating and editing documents when you're on the move and away from a...
-
Post by Leanne Selway6.3d agoResource 6 likes 3 repliesKeeping safe against Cybercrimehttps://barclayslifeskills.com/educators/adult-learning/modules/keeping-safe-against-cybercrime/ Has anyone used this free resource available on Barclays life skills. It is a really good video,...
Latest resources
-
Post by Nick Jeans5.2d agoResourceEssential Digital Skills ToolkitThis downloadable Essential Digital Skills Toolkit, based on the DfE framework, has been developed to enable individuals, groups and organisations to measure their digital skills ....
-
Post by Leanne Selway6.3d agoResourceKeeping safe against Cybercrimehttps://barclayslifeskills.com/educators/adult-learning/modules/keeping-safe-against-cybercrime/ Has anyone used this free resource available on Barclays life skills. It is a really good video,...
-
Post by Mary Moss8.5d agoResourceEmbedding Essential Digital SkillsDigital skills are embedded in teaching across the curriculum. In some organisations, these skills have been mapped to the EDS standards and framework - some different approaches are...
-
Post by Anke Jacobs11.3d agoResourceENGLISH BANANA - Resources for teaching and learning English, ESL, ESOL and EFLIn response to people's comments on Wednesday that learners still like printed worksheets, and that we should not take an all-digital, but well-balanced approach, here's another link to a grammar...
