College wins funds for mobile learning project

City of Wolverhampton College has won a slice of a national £6 million project to buy the latest handheld technology to help students learn outside the classroom.

The college has teamed up with Wolverhampton Learning Partnership and Wolverhampton City Council to launch Learning2Go-Further!, a new project that focuses on mobile learning.

The initiative, funded by the Learning and Skills Network (LSN) aims to provide learners with the ability to study anytime, anywhere through Internet ready, portable devices.

Work based learning coordinator Gail Burton said: "Many of our students, for example those on Apprenticeships, undertake a lot of their learning in the workplace. They might come into college for one day a week but the rest of their time is spent on placement with assessors going out to them.

"These devices will really benefit remote learners as staff will be able to load worksheets and useful websites onto their devices for students to refer to and through an online e-community learners can support one another."

The findings of the project will be used in national research regarding the impact of handheld technology upon learning.

The scheme, which is part of the LSN’s MoLeNet programme, builds on from the successful Learning2Go project, in primary and secondary schools, where 1,500 pupils were given handheld devices.