This article looks into the uses of digital and online tools in distance learning to improve literacy and numeracy of offenders in New Zealand prisons. Looking at the benefits and restrictions of digital education within the prison environment, this article discusses the solutions that Open Polytechnic, in partnership with the the New Zealand Government, has put in place to give prisoners further opportunity for rehabilitation, and ultimately prepare them for re-entry into society, the workforce or further study.
I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to talk to you about skills development. There is no doubt that governments and institutions around the world have reached a critical stage where we must increase our efforts to find creative solutions to world-wide skills shortages, deficits and challenges.// In addressing the issue of skills development I will be talking specifically about technical and vocational education and training – TVET – and the role of open and flexible learning in this domain.
This article looks into the uses of digital and online tools in distance learning to improve literacy and numeracy of offenders in New Zealand prisons. Looking at the benefits and restrictions of digital education within the prison environment, this article discusses the solutions that Open Polytechnic, in partnership with the the New Zealand Government, has put in place to give prisoners further opportunity for rehabilitation, and ultimately prepare them for re-entry into society, the workforce or further study.
As long ago as 1992, Greville Rumble was writing about the "competitive vulnerabilities" of single-mode distance teaching institutions [universities]. In the intervening years the challenges he described have only intensified, especially so as advancing information and communication technologies have enabled increasing numbers of campus-based tertiary institutions to enter distance learning, usually targeting the part-time adult learner market that was formerly the preserve of single-mode distance learning providers.There are also wider and larger pressures at play. Disruptive digital technologies, globalisation of education, constrained government funding, shifting student expectations, and changes in demand for future skills, are all driving the need both to re-examine fundamental aspects of the ODFL (open, distance and flexible learning) model (as indeed they are for tertiary education more generally), and to re-consider the core ODFL principle of "learner-centricity" and what it might mean within this changing context. The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand has recently undertaken a major programme of digital and organisational transformation to meet the changing needs of its distinctive learner constituency, and to enhance the organisation's flexibility in responding to changing external factors. This institutional reengineering that disaggregates functions and unbundles processes and services, holds potential for both improved performance and enhanced partnering opportunities within a network of provision.
