Back  to the

But working with schools is not a new idea, and many universities are already a long way down the path, some of them on projects funded by JISC through the Developing Community Content and eContent programmes to support digitisation.

Paola Marchionni, who managed the programmes, says that institutions are taking advantage of Web 2.0 technologies to take digitisation a step further. They are using it to pursue the open access agenda, engaging the wider community to add value to existing material, or co-create new content. And, in doing so, they are discovering practical, low-cost and highly imaginative ways to fill the gaps in resources that exist in some key subject areas, and switching more people on to lifelong learning.

The Faculty Podcasts is a project that could have been created in response to Mr Gove’s recent call for students to be stretched more and spoon-fed less, and for improved standards.

The idea has been to create a website that offers university level lectures to secondary school students via podcast to help them to start thinking about what subjects to study, at which institution, and what career options may be open to them when they graduate. In the ongoing struggle to attract the most well-motivated and best-prepared candidates, university departments have been keen to promote themselves by contributing podcasts, and employers have made their own contributions, both to the site and through sponsorship.

The Faculties site is still being developed and there are plans to expand it to cover every A-level subject, and to create more of the ‘stretch and challenge’ material that schools say they want. But it already features nearly 400 video podcasts, all keyword searchable and linked to exam board unit codes.

Project director and history lecturer at the University of Leeds, James Harris, says: “The Faculties clearly demonstrates how the smart use of technology can minimise the cost to universities of their outreach work. In a three-month period, The Faculties attracted 230,000 page views from 60,000 unique users, and it is already being used in around 20 per cent of secondary schools.”

Also helping to prepare secondary school students for their HE career is STEM WISHEES (Writing in Schools Higher Education & Employment Settings) a project being managed by Dr Teresa McConlogue, Thinking Writing Advisor at Queen Mary, University of London.

Building on existing links with schools, STEM Wishees has focused on collecting written texts from students working in the STEM subjects and providing critiques by teachers and lecturers with a view to boosting the literacy skills of graduates in these subjects, in response to concerns raised by employer organisations. Spanning six months during 2011, the STEM Wishees project now boasts a website featuring 140 texts, 50 podcasts and ten tutorials.

You can follow the STEM Wishees Project on Twitter.

Other projects take the broader view, and involve wider communities.

Paola says: “The technologies that we now have allow institutions to engage people of all ages and abilities with a range of subjects, and to have fun doing it.”

iSpot Local is just one example. Part of a global biodiversity initiative, iSpot Local ran three BioBlitz events in schools in the South West during the Spring and Summer of 2011, at which pupils and their families competed to identify and log wildlife in a specific location over a 24 hour period. Using everything from traditional net moth traps to stealth cameras and digital sound recording equipment, people got involved and found out new things about their environments – and themselves. Dr Doug Clow of the Open University said: “This has been about learning – lifelong, cradle to grave. People come to BioBlitzes and they move on to more learning.”

And there have been other notable projects, focusing on topics as diverse as the First World War through The Great War Archive and Scots Words and Place Names that have enabled the wider community to contribute memories, family stories and anecdotes that are being recorded and used to enrich our understanding of history and culture.