A British SME, which has developed an online learning platform for some of the UK’s leading retailers, will demonstrate how commercial organisations implementing its technology are simultaneously supporting the social goal of delivering free secondary education content to any student anywhere in the world.
Fuse Universal used last week’s Learning Technologies exhibition to introduce The Fuse School, a not-for-profit enterprise bringing together teachers, videographers and animators to co-create fun and accessible video lessons. Launching with Chemistry in the next few months, The Fuse School are hopeful of adding Biology and Physics content later this year. All content has been prepared in bite sized chunks, lasting around two to four minutes each. All resources are available free of charge to anyone in the world regardless of location or wealth.
Content created for Fuse Universal’s “Fuse School” has already been watched for more than one million minutes and received more than 700,000 hits on YouTube pre-launch from countries all around the world.
At Learning Technologies Fuse will demonstrate how its online platform is being used within organisations such as Phones 4u, Panasonic and Dixons Retail to enable employees to take control of their own learning.
The platform enables peer to peer, point of need, video-centred learning; creating what Steve Dineen calls “true learning organisations”. The platform enables individuals to quickly and easily capture and share knowledge, questions and ideas in video, audio or text format. Communities of practice are set up where staff can share knowledge and collaborate with one another; and get quick access to the information they need from anywhere, 24 hours a day 7 days a week from any mobile device or desktop, and importantly they get recognition for the contributions that they make.
With Fuse School, the company has adopted a Cloud-based approach to collaborative content production, Fuse has often relied on great school teachers offering their time for free in exchange for their schools gaining access to the resulting eLearning materials.
“We wanted to digitise the best teachers in the world and make their knowledge available free of charge,” explains CEO Steve Dineen. “We have been blown away by the interest and feedback already received pre-launch and this has made us even more determined that ‘ The Fuse School’ should provide great education, free of charge, to millions of learners who need it most in the hope that it will help them improve their lives and communities.”
All the content can be accessed on mobile devices or computers via YouTube, as well as in a more structured layout and with additional supporting materials through the Fuse School’s free web-based platform.
