Miami opens 'teacher-less' classrooms

On the first day of her senior year at North Miami Beach Senior High School, Naomi Baptiste expected to be greeted by a teacher when she walked into her pre-calculus class, states The New York Times.

“All there were were computers in the class,” says Naomi, who walked into a room of confused students. “We found out that over the summer they signed us up for these courses.” Naomi is one of over 7 000 students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools enrolled in a programme in which core subjects are taken using computers in a classroom with no teacher.

A 'facilitator' is in the room to make sure students progress. That person also deals with any technical problems. These virtual classrooms, called e-learning labs, were put in place last August as a result of Florida's 'Class Size Reduction Amendment', passed in 2002. The amendment limits the number of students allowed in classrooms, but not in virtual labs.

Sussex Downs College, in partnership with Unison South East, has, for the last nine months, been taking part in a pilot scheme to help learning reps achieve a level two in maths and English using the e-learning initiative, notes the Eastbourne Herald.

This has been set up to support learners who, for various reasons, cannot attend conventional classroom learning. It has resulted in six Unison learning reps obtaining their level two certificates in maths and English alongside full-time jobs and union duties.

Lou Lucas, Unison learning projects training manager, identified the learners' needs and Anita Gayton, supported them to achieve their skills for life qualification in her role as e-learning coordinator with the support of Roger Wilkinson from Sussex Downs College.

Keychoice Network has teamed up with Marlborough Training & Consultancy to create an e-learning tool, reveals Post Online.

Designed to support Keychoice Network's membership of almost 900 brokers, Keylearning aims to address their fundamental needs by providing a range of courses including topics not covered on any other system.

Keylearning aims to offer managers access to a clear reporting system, helping them to highlight training needs across the company and pinpoint specific individual or group requirements.