David is PCET Networks FE Champion this month!

FE CHAMPIONS JULY 2007

David Sugden

Interview

PCET Network: Tell us a little about yourself

David started his work in Further Education as a Chef - Lecturer, teaching all levels of cookery to all ages of student at Huddersfield, Barnsley and Dewsbury. In 1996 he discovered the Internet and began to incorporate web technologies into the development of learning materials. He learned basic html and developed web pages for his students to access as required. His 'fish' web was touted by many as exemplary. In 2001 he was commended by FERL for his work. The following year he was the runner up for their ILT Practitioner of the year award. Also in 2002 he received the LSDA Practitioner award for 'The use of new and emerging technologies' - mainly for his work with SMS texting.

He holds an MSc Multimedia and Education

Until September 2005 David was the e-Learning Manager at Dewsbury College in West Yorkshire, where he was a leader in all aspects of e-Learning staff development. He was one of the National Learning Network’s (NLN) ILT subject mentors and still works in a miar field up and down the country.

PCET Network: How does your site benefit FE Tutors?

David’s site can be of great benefit to FE tutors because of his long experience in the sector.  He is passionate about the use of e-Learning (ILT) and approaches the subject in a practical yet palatable way.

He works widely up and down the country and comes across all types of good practice and advice for those engaged in teaching and learning. This enables him to share these experiences wherever he goes.

PCET Network: Do you have any good advice that you wish to give to FE Tutors in regards to teaching, learning & assessment?

David’s work (and by extension his web site), aims to support FE tutors in their development of e-Learning (ILT) skills. All aspects of teaching, learning and assessment can be supported and enhanced by the considered use of e-Learning tools, tips and techniques.

His advice would be to try at least one new thing every month. Some things look far scarier than they really are. For example – add [comments] to Word© documents which are to be presented to the learner on-screen. This technique can add value to a text based learning episode. It only takes 2 minutes to learn from instructions to be found elsewhere on the PCET site.

PCET Network: What would you say to someone that is thinking about becoming an FE Tutor?

Be prepared for some hard but rewarding work.

FE teaching is in the process of being professionalized, with much more emphasis being put on the skills of teaching, mentoring and facilitation than ever before. This is good for the sector and should help good teachers to become better teachers.

PCET Network: Do you have any interesting hobbies or pastimes?

I suppose that my current hobby is the development of a number of blogs (web logs). The main one is at http://www.village-e-learning.co.uk/blog.htm but others can be found on Blogger.com and MySpace. Ever since being encouraged to keep a diary by school teacher, I have enjoyed making brief notes about my daily life. These are often amusing and nostalgic when read some time in the future. My blogs reflect upon life in general and upon the work I do – often these intermingle.

PCET Network is pleased to introduce David Sugden as the PCET Network FE Champion for July 2007.

Note: If you feel that you, or a tutor that you know, deserves to be recognised as an FE Champion, then please submit their name and email address to info@pcet.net – quoting FE Champion in the subject field.