Tag Archives: CPD

Seven e-learning resources from C4EO

The Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in CYP Services (C4EO) have produced seven interactive e-learning resources that present the main findings from research, tailored specifically to support your role in achieving outcomes for children and young people.
You can choose the group on the home page that most suits your role, whether you are a strategic leader, a senior manager, information specialist or a frontline practitioner. The information is tailored to each group, with reflection points to help you evaluate your own practice or to discuss issues with your teams and partner agencies.
Seven topics are covered in a common format:
1. Child Poverty
2. Disability
3. Early Years
4. Families, Parents and Carers
5. Safeguarding
6. Schools and Communities
7. Vulnerable Children
These are comprehensive packages comprising audio and video clips, quizzes, tests and interactive UK maps, all backed-up by substantial links to references. They are aimed at an audience who already possess skills and knowledge in the field, and it would be easy to spend a day or more on each topic if all the references are followed.
It took me some time to get the hang of navigating via the five sub-divided tabs, but when I got there, I welcomed the provision of transcripts of the audio and video clips, and the checklist of issues at the end is a helpful form of self-assessment.
No log-in is required, and they are released under an Open Government Licence so text and graphics may be freely reproduced for the purposes of any personal or educational use or private research.
http://www.c4eo.org.uk/elearning/

Pre-Birth to Three

scot PBto3The rights of the child, relationships, responsive care and respect are the four key principles which form the basis of this interactive online national guidance and CPD (Continuing Professional Development) resource.
It’s target audience is adults working with and for babies and young children;  an equivalent hard copy pack including a DVD, a CD and a poster, was issued to all early years establishments in Scotland. The interactive online version combines all of the materials contained in the pack.
This comprehensive collection comprises over 5 hours of video footage, pdf documents, references and further reading. To guide learners, each of the nine elements of the guidance has Reflection and Action pointers, a case study and further signposts to research to support Continuing Professional Development.
Link:  http://bit.ly/16pD2oh

The collection does not have a beginning – middle – end structure; the components are free-standing, making it user-friendly for trainers. However this does mean that an individual e-learner may find the lack of structure an initial hurdle.  Individual e-learners may also find it a bit less interactive than they are used to, and in my opinion the collection would be improved by including some online quizzes or exercises.
Education Scotland have a strong presence on iTunes U, where the separate videos from this collection can be downloaded in mp4 format for offline use. They are available in both high-quality format for trainers/group use, and iPod quality for individual use.

The Open Government Licence allows trainers to download these materials and adapt them for different contexts – a valuable option, as while the policy documents are mostly specific to Scotland, the principles, theory and research apply across the UK.
My favourite feature of the package is that it is designed to be shared with parents and carers (including a tailored pdf leaflet & poster) which will help early years workers wishing to involve parents and carers in developing services collaboratively.
Pre-Birth to Three is © Crown copyright 2012. It may re-used free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence.