Introducing SCITT?
It is managed by the University of Nottingham’s School of Education, and is a postgraduate distance learning course that allows trainee primary school teachers to be taught and mentored by experienced practicing teachers, thereby providing first-hand experience of the classroom. As a regionally-based project, the School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) study programme employs Questmark videoconferencing as an important means of communication.
How are Questmark helping the project?
Some of the schools involved in the project already had videoconferencing in place, but to ensure all the lead schools in each of SCITT’s six regions were similarly equipped, six more systems were installed. Now the network is being expanded, upgraded and supported by Questmark, with four LifeSize Room systems with the likelihood of future increase.
What are the systems actually used for?
At present, the systems are primarily used for administrative purposes such as regional training meetings; a use enabled by Questmark’s multipoint bridging service that has allowed between three and six centres to be link into a session. However, as Philip Hood, SCITT’s Academic Manager explains:
‘We have also used videoconferencing for a training session with a gifted Art teacher in a school in Tavistock, Devon, being observed and questioned by 70 trainees from Nottingham, while giving a lesson. This was exciting and a very successful link and we are looking to develop this application along with small group observations and discussions comparing teaching practices and experiences.’
As you can see, there is a market for videoconferencing and thus a lot of room for expansion within SCITT as well as other sectors of the schooling system.