News & Events - General

Last week Kingston College held a prestigious ceremony to celebrate winning an Association of Colleges Beacon Award for its innovative use of iPods as a teaching tool, sponsored by FENC. The event, also launched the new MoLeNET Academy, which Kingston College is opening in partnership with the Learning and Skills Network.

The ceremony, which was attended by Kingston’s Mayor Councillor Ian R McDonald, Jill Attewell, Programme Manager for MoLeNET and David Holland, Chief Executive for FENC who sponsor the Beacon Awards, also enabled student attendees to showcase mobile learning. Kingston College’s Vice Principal Roger Lowe got into the spirit of the evening by hair styling the dummy model heads alongside hairdressing students using podcasts.

Last year, Kingston College won the FENC Beacon Award for the Creative Production, Adaptation and Delivery of Learning Resources. The Award recognises the effective use of learning resources to benefit students. The College’s activity in this area was based on the KAPTIVATE Project (Kingston Access to Podcast Technology for Interactive Virtual Assessment and Teacher Education), which formed part of the Learning and Skills Network’s Mobile Learning Network (MoLeNET) programme during 2008-9. The initiative involved the roll-out of some 600 iPod Touch devices to students in 15 curriculum areas.

Kingston College is proud to be selected as one of eight colleges in the country to host a MoLeNET Academy in conjunction with the Learning and Skills Network. Academies have been located in colleges regarded as centres of excellence for their work in mobile and e-learning. Kingston College's Academy will provide a focal point for the professional development of its own staff as well as a base from which training events will be run for the regional community in areas relating to the integration of mobile technology into learning and teaching.

Andrew Williams, Director of ILT commented: I am proud to have been connected with two such exciting initiatives. The ceremony was a joyful occasion and a fitting tribute to everyone involved in the projects. Our Beacon Award rewarded the creativity and enterprise of the staff and students who have been so effective in using mobile technology for learning and the MoLeNET Academy will provide an excellent platform for us to share this good practice.

Jill Attewell, Manager, Technology for Learning and MoLeNET Programme Manager said: “I am delighted that Kingston College is hosting a MoLeNET Academy.  Their success in bidding to set up the Academy is recognition of their expertise in mobile learning developed during their two MoLeNET projects and this expertise will now assist more teachers, their learners and colleges to benefit from mobile learning.”