Tourism

There are a number of developing video and film resources which are available on-line,
either to view or to download. Educational Media OnLine
(http://www.hotelmule.com/index.p ... ewspace-itemid-1384) is another
JISC funded service hosted by Edina, still under development, which provides to subscribing
institutions, downloadable digitised film which can be used for learning, teaching
and research purposes. There are a number of film collections with those most relevant to
tourism being from Amber Films — a collection of documentaries and feature films on
the social history of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Moving History is a developing resource provided by the Centre for British Film and
Television Studies (http://www.hotelmule.com/index.p ... ewspace-itemid-1385)
which has film from the UK’s 12 public
sector moving image archives and which documents social history in the UK. The BBC
also hosts two projects which provide film and oral history archive material that would be
of value to those studying tourism. The first — Nation on Filmis a joint BBC and Open-
University series which can be searched by topic or location. The collection on family and
community  has film clips on outings, events and holidays at home which date from the 1930s
to the 1970s.
The site also allows for visitors to view clips and add their own memories and reminiscences.
Oral histories are available through the Twentieth Century Vox -
website which archives material from BBC programmes on oral history since
1997. The area of the site on lifestyles is of particular relevance to UK tourism, with oral
histories about British holidays, including working holidays.

Tourism

The availability of all these resources in tourism, whether paper-based books and journals or
web-based written, film or audio material supposes that learners will know how to be independent
learners and to be able to use these resources in a way which will allow them to construct
their own meanings and achieve their own learning objectives. However, as students
come from increasingly diverse backgrounds and previous learning experience it cannot be
assumed that this will always be so. It is therefore important for teachers to consider carefully
the curriculum design they adopt, and the skills that learners need in order to be able to make
effective use of the resources provided. This may include technological skills, skills of critical
thinking, analysis and evaluation or the organisation of resources, perhaps via a virtual learning
space where the staff retain control of availability of resources or where a core of resources
are centralised with others being freely available but not under the control of the teacher.
Resource-based learning may be considered an attractive approach when trying to
teach large numbers of students with less resource, and the use of virtual learning environments
(VLEs) can provide access to material as a substitute or in addition to face-toface
teaching. This can be approached in an incremental way (Gibbs & Parson, 1994) but
normally requires the teacher to organise material, or at least provide access to material.

Tourism

In January 2005 it was announced that substantial funding was to be awarded to 74 Centres
for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) in UK universities. The CETL initiative
has two main aims: to reward excellent teaching practice, and to invest further in that practice
so that CETLs funding delivers substantial benefits to students, teachers and institutions.
This will inevitably generate further resources and further developments in
pedagogy so that these resources may be used more effectively both by teachers in curriculum
design, and by students in the ways that they learn.
The Higher Education Academy has also had government funding secured over a longer
period with the aim of further embedding professional practice in teaching. In recognising
the need to find more effective and efficient ways of helping students learn, the future
agenda for subject centres emphasises the sharing and transfer of knowledge and practice
between disciplines as well as developing innovations. Subject centres will be working to
include further education teachers who teach at higher education levels, an area of particular
importance to tourism, with the aim of making resources freely available to this sector
and to generate new materials to meet specific needs. The ultimate aim is to enhance
the experience of students in higher education despite continuing change in the environment
and pressure on resources.