Zero to hero – engaging teachers to teach network engineering

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Andrew Smith, The Open University.

Andrew Smith, The Open University.

Since early January 2017, the School of Computing and Communications (represented by Senior Lecturer in Networking, Andrew Smith), the Open Media and Informal Learning (OMIL) Unit and the Open University’s Development Office have all been working with Cisco on a sponsored project to create content about computer networking for teachers (and school children). The content covers the national curriculum ‘computing’ domains of computer hardware and network engineering.

The resources are hosted on OpenLearn Create – the creative commons portal of the OpenLearn MOOCs.

We are working with Birmingham City University and Computing at Schools to create, curate and host content sponsored by Cisco.

Cisco, Birmingham City University, Computing at Schools and The Open University.

Cisco, Birmingham City University, Computing at Schools and The Open University.

As of October 2017, the first collection is live and announced by Cisco. Additional content focused on further networking and hardware technologies will be added.

This collaboration is part of a larger initiative – Cisco and the Open University are working on a number of funded projects to help teachers develop their own knowledge of networking technologies, and provide them with the tools to teach this to their students.