Despite so much doom and gloom about pending cuts in the public sector and anxieties about the introduction of free

schools, there is still considerable optimism about education in the UK and the central role of ICT in it. The BESA annual survey (see page 6) is an indication of this, as is the interview with Margaret Allen of Promethean Planet on page 10 and A Class Act (page 18).

Children’s lives are imbued by technology and their eagerness to embrace it provides teachers with a powerful tool to influence children’s behaviour in school – a topic that ICT for Education’s series of conferences has explored from many different angles. The fourth in the series takes place in Manchester, on 15th October, at the Hilton Deansgate Hotel.

The opening session is promoting green ICT and its benefits in your school, with new speakers Peter Hopton, Green IT Consultant, Destination Unlimited and Chris Bullock, Climate Change Savers. This is followed by one of the most popular speakers of the series, Eamonn Duffy, Oaks Collegiate Liaison Teacher, who will talk about nurturing positive behaviour through monitoring and safeguarding pupils through ICT in schools.

Another star turn comes hard on his heels in the shape of Tim Rylands, teaching consultant, learning and creativity, whose theme of using ICT to inspire and motivate – raising levels of creativity in children of all abilities. It was much commented at our Brighton Conference in mid September.

The last formal session of the day is using ICT to promote pupil well-being and bridge the gap between primary and secondary social life and academic progress, by Daniel Locke-Wheaton, assistant head teacher and e-learning adviser, Great Barr High School. His session was very popular at our Birmingham event at the beginning of July.

There is a great chance to network and visit the accompanying exhibition during coffee breaks and lunch, and the day is concluded with a Q&A session when delegates have the chance to quiz the speakers. For more information and to book your delegate place go to www.ictforeducation.co.uk and don’t despair if you can’t make Manchester, the final conference of the year takes place in Bristol on 5th November. Fireworks indeed.

The British Educational Suppliers Association’s (BESA) has found that

schools are optimistic about the future of ICT in education in its 14th annual survey (also see article on page 10). ICT in UK State Schools surveyed 1,379 UK schools (812 primary, 567 secondary) in July 2010 discovered that 58% of primary schools and 51% of secondary schools felt they were likely to maintain planned ICT investments for 2011/12.

Furthermore, 71% of primary and 70% of secondary schools felt that they provided teachers with good access to computer equipment for curriculum purposes. Some 88% of primary schools felt that they provide good internet access levels to teachers compared with 75% in 2006 and only 30% in 2001.

However, only 48% of primary schools’ ICT leaders said they felt their schools were well resourced when asked about digital content,

although this compares favourably with 25% in 2008.

Secondary schools were less confident about the adequacy of their digital content with 32% of ICT leaders considering themselves to be well resourced, but they reported an expected improvement in 2011.

Other areas of ICT provision in schools, such as interactive whiteboards, used in most classrooms in the UK, were viewed with similar optimism. By 2011/12 it is estimated that 70% of secondary schools will consider themselves well-resourced. In primary schools the outlook was even more positive with only 10% expected to say they are under resourced.

Projected budgets for 2011/12 are expected to be the same as in 2004/5, but schools are likely to spread their ICT investments into new technologies, meaning that the proportion

of budgets spent on desktop and laptop computers probably won’t increase much. In addition, the unit price of technology continually declines resulting in more volume for the same level of funding.

Nevertheless, although schools are buying more computers than are being made redundant, the net increases are small: the big net increases prior to 2005 means that the average age of computers in UK maintained schools is rising.

The provision of Wi-Fi networks across schools continues to rise with an average of 9Mb/s provision in primary schools (compared with 3Mb/s in 2007) and 31Mb/s in secondary. Some 75% of primary and 92% of secondary schools have access to wireless networks, with secondary schools’ demand being more than twice the bandwidth available (68Mbps) to meet their needs.

Ray Barker, director of BESA comments, “The BESA ICT in UK State Schools research indicates that after year-on-year increases in ICT budgets since 2001, we are now naturally experiencing a reduction in estimated ICT allocations from school budgets. However, despite schools being faced with many financial pressures, the survey indicates schools are managing the cuts sensibly and with optimism. This is in part due to the efficient procurement of resources by many schools as well as a drop in prices of individual units. They may be spending less, but they can get more for their money.”

He continues: “Those schools indicating they feel under-equipped in vital ICT equipment, such as laptop computers and internet access for pupils, do so mainly because their levels of expectation have grown over recent years. The figures show that there have never been so many computers and interactive whiteboards in UK classrooms.”

The survey was carried out in conjunction with the National Education Research Panel.

In what is believed to be the largest study of its kind, 547 education establishments in England and Wales assessed their own e-safety

provision, providing new insights. The report was conducted by the University of Plymouth and South

West Grid for Learning (SWGfL). It reveals that the filtering of unwanted and harmful websites and the adoption of e-safety policy by schools is generally strong, but that staff training is one of the weakest areas.

Primary schools generally rated themselves lower than their secondary counterparts, and there was evidence to suggest that there are fewer opportunities to provide children in rural and semi-rural schools with e-safety advice compared to those in urban areas.

Mobile phones were identified as being a challenge for primary and secondary schools. The report indicates that primary schools are often challenged by the issues of passwords and technical security – possibly because expertise can be lacking in smaller schools.

As a result of the findings, SWGfL has created a certified Continuous Professional Development training course, introducing the EPICT Online Safety qualification. This is an online course for all

professionals, not just in schools, to research e-safety further within the context of their own workplace and submit an assignment that will, if successful, demonstrate professional standards.

The aim is to give all professionals who work with young people a greater level of understanding of the issues and how to improve e-safety provision. There’s more information at www.swgfl.org.uk/epict

The participating schools in England and Wales used the 360 Degree Safe E-Safety tool (www.360safe.org.uk) to assess their own e-safety provision against 28 criteria. It is free to use and also provides advice on improvements. Dr Andy Phippen of the School of Management, University of Plymouth, comments, “Self-review is a well established practice within the UK school system and accreditation visits to date have demonstrated that self-review ratings have been generally accurate.”

This report will become an annual publication by the South West Grid for Learning. The hope is that the database will to grow as more establishments sign up and will increase in authority as the tool and its adoption matures.

Video games should be taught more in schools

to address the skills crisis that is hampering the UK IT and digital industries, according to the Council for Industry and Higher Education. It has released a report calling on the government to get more individuals from the video games industry involved in GCSEs, A Levels and university degrees.

In a report, The Fuse, the group suggests that the current ICT curriculum fails to prepare students properly for a computing degree or a career in digital technology (see article on page 12).

“The current curriculum concentrates on word processing and office productivity tools, but fails to educate students about the vital computing principles which underpin games and internet services,’ the report states.

It calls on UK developers – which is represented by their trade body TIGA – to promote student volunteer schemes through schools and universities.

The Fuse’s editor, Dr David Docherty, – CEO

Awarding body Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR) has launched an online community

for teachers, examiners and assessors involved in Maths, English and ICT.

It offers a platform where teachers can engage with each others to share best practice, offer guidance and access a range support materials produced by other teachers. These include lesson plans, presentations, videos and links to other helpful sites. Users can search the site, including by module, and use content tagging to make retrieving material simple.

The plan is that the new community will provide a friendly environment for collaboration and co-creation of ideas in the form of online consultations and peer-to-peer discussion, including two-way dialogue between OCR and teachers.

OCR provides a wide of qualifications including AS/A Levels, GCSEs, OCR Nationals, Key Skills, Entry Level qualifications, NVQs and vocational qualifications in areas such as IT, business, languages, teaching/training, administration and secretarial skills.

of the Council and chair of the Digital TV Group – warns that the UK risks lagging countries including China, the US and Japan if the educational establishments don’t change their approach.

He adds, “Clearly children are interested in computer games, and we want them to be taught the computing principles and hard maths and science that are behind the games. At the moment ICT is just a box-ticking exercise. Lots of schoolchildren use Facebook and play games but do not think of it as ICT. We need to make it relevant to the world in which they live.”

Q: The government seems to be moving the curriculum away from ICT to more traditional subjects. One of the first things it did was announce the closure of Becta – how concerned are you?A: ICT is normal now, it doesn’t need particular emphasis. Becta had an early role to play, for example, in the interactive white board roll-out and training to help teachers adopt and adapt to the use of ICT. Not all teachers are doing it, but there has been great progress. Primary school teachers are, in general, a creative bunch. Their challenge is to ensure they bring the depth of different media into the classroom.

For instance, they need to interact with

cameras, white boards and the web to help them deliver effective teaching. It’s a great opportunity for people like Promethean, we’re there to enhance, not replace or change, the way good teaching takes place. Technology should save teachers time and multimedia should give the children exposure to all these different elements.

Q: What are your major concerns right now about children’s experience in the classroom?A: I’ve had the most contact with primary school teachers and the biggest question they are grappling with is children’s ability to communicate with their peers. It’s an area

of massive concern. Nowadays there is a lot of engagement with machines from an early age, but our children have to be tomorrow’s leaders and one of the most basic skills is to be able to speak and listen to other people.

Q: How are educators addressing this?A: Children need to be able to offer an opinion, justify it based on evidence and be willing and able to modify it using new information. Teachers can teach these skills through good questioning, pictures and so on, but obviously we support the use of expression devices. Teachers can piggyback on the fact that the children are keen to use them.

Every child has a device in their hand which gives them a sense of ownership and contribution. It is easy for them to express their opinion. It’s not a test or as embarrassing as being asked to put your hand up – and anyway lots of children are reluctant to commit to an opinion in that way. Often many children just wait to see what others think and copy them, rather than register what they think.

You can take this a step further too, pairing up children who have expressed opposing opinions so they can argue about the subject and discuss it – we find a significant number of children change their opinion after such pairings.

Q: In the era of the iPhone, aren’t children bored with such a simple terminal?A: We’ve find that children from five to 15 are keen to use them and are anything but bored by them. They elicit a contribution from everyone. When you ask children to put their hands up, the situation favours the loud, confident children, but teachers need to keep the interest and momentum going for everyone.

Q: Given children’s seemingly insatiable appetite for technology and its use, isn’t the government’s stance regressive?A: It’s an exciting time. For the last five or six years local authorities (LAs) were given centralised control – Becta was in charge of allocating £50 million, approximately half in London and the rest across the rest of the country. Some LAs were very creative, but lots weren’t, and schools had no control over how the money was spent. Now if schools are given money directly, they are more in control of how they want to develop teaching and learning. That needs to happen.

Q: Yes but in practice, lots of schools lack the expertise, the burden tends to fall on enthusiastic amateurs among the teaching staff, which isn’t a good situation, surely?A: Some £230 million funding was given out for white boards, but then there wasn’t anything allocated for training. It shouldn’t be about a geeky person making all the decisions, rather how a Year 5 teacher – who is typically a younger person – gets on with it. It’s very hard for a Key Stage 1 teacher having to make do with what they’ve been told.

They need the same type of expertise as children are used to at home where they typically use a Wii, PSP, mobile phone and a PC. An overhead projector and acetates aren’t going to cut it with kids. Teachers are making the right decisions by and large: they are professionals and it’s wrong to suggest they make wrong decisions on ICT. The key is training.

Q: Where will this training come from? Who pays for and provides the training?A: Someone needs to sit down and clarify how to support teachers best in the classroom. There is no debate about the use and role of ICT in every child’s teaching and learning, but there is about how to do it best.

We need government bodies to clarify what schools should be doing and it needs to begin with training. You can’t do everything at the drop of a hat – we don’t need bodies bashing teachers for not making the most of IT. Arguably £230 million [funding for the Learning Schools Programme announced in 1999 whose aim was to train all teachers and school librarians how to use ICT in classroom teaching] was in fact spent teaching us to use Microsoft Office. We can’t do that again, but we can spend money much better. More than 70% of classrooms have whiteboards now, and we need to work out how we can we find creative ways of using them to get every child engaged and motivated.

The board is a big computer screen, you can save, revisit, reuse – they should save teachers a lot of time, but the eLearning Credits, which provided funds to the tune of £10,000 for software per school per year,

was never used properly. It mostly resulted in lots of schools having cupboards full of software they’ve never used.

Q: What do you see as the way forward?A: I think the ex-curricula approach is coming back into primary schools, so they will be less regulated and teaching less compartmentalised. To accommodate children’s learning we need to be more open, less test-driven with less focus on getting facts straight.

We need to be engaged and creative first, and exude energy. We need every child to be motivated, stimulated and excited about learning, which means getting the teachers equipped and trained. Children needn’t focus on getting everything right all the time, education isn’t just about the right answer. Let’s not have children that are worn down by tests and answers so that by the age of ten, they’ve forgotten the joy of learning new things.

Some teachers believe the answer to whether computer games have a valuable role to play in the classroom is a definite yes, but

others are passionately against their use in education. For the vast majority of teachers, the answer is probably: “I think so, but I don’t really know,” although computer games are so pervasive.

A 2005 survey found that 78% of 16-19 year olds in the UK play games at home. For 8-11 and 12-15 year-olds, the figures are 87% and 88% respectively. Nor are computer games just the preserves of males:

the survey found that 45% of games players were female. Educational computer games have been around for years, but today, the emphasis is on schools using commercial off-the-shelf games (COTS) designed for consoles such as the Nintendo DS and Wii, Microsoft Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation 2 and 3, and PSP hand-held portable.

Some argue that computer games are a part of the culture of most young people and that education should be tapping into this lifestyle. Marc Prensky, an American designer and consultant who works in the area of education and learning, coined the

phrase “digital natives,” to describe how young people have grown up in an age of digital technology, and view it in the same way that previous generations saw radio and television as part of the furniture. Prensky has no doubts about the educational value of computer games: “Most of today’s kids learn far more from their 30 to100 hours of computer games than they do in schools,” he said in 2002.

Other supporters of computer games may not be so dogmatic about the potential benefits of computer games, but nevertheless, think that education should

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embrace the technology: “So many young people choose to play games outside the formal learning environment,” says Mary Ulicsak, senior researcher at Futurelab, an organisation concerned with twenty-first century teaching and learning, “this motivation can be transferred into the classroom. The structure of games and the way they engage young people make them potentially powerful learning tools.”

Derek Robertson is national advisor for emerging technologies and learning at the Consolarium, the Scottish Centre for Games and Learning, established by Learning and Teaching Scotland. “Games can create a culture of improvement and a collegiate, supportive atmosphere, where children collaborate and support others,” he says.

There is a wide gap, though, between the experiences of students and teachers when it comes to computer games. Last year,

Futurelab published a report: Computer Games, Schools and Young People, which included a survey of 1,600 teachers in English state primary and secondary schools. The survey found that 42% of the teachers surveyed never play computer games for their own leisure, however, 35% had used computer games in their teaching and 60% of teachers would consider using computer games in their teaching in the future. Teachers saw the potential for computer games to improve ICT skills; motor/cognitive skills or improve behaviour.

The findings weren’t all positive: just under half of the teachers surveyed thought that playing computer games could lead to young people developing anti-social behaviour. Even so, the report’s author, Ben Williamson, concludes that, “Games should be seen as having the same cultural significance like literature, scientific concepts,

music, television, the press and so on... Computer gaming should be seen as a cultural activity amongst many young people, which educators should seek to appreciate and understand, and seek to connect to young people’s intellectual and social development.”

Some teachers have already embraced computer games. Matt McGinley, a teacher at Christ the Redeemer primary school in West Belfast, got his class to build a Formula

Mind control game: see panel on page 14

Games can encourage sharing and support

Nintendo DS. See panel on page 14

One car simulator using a life-size car, Sony PS games console, Formula One simulation game and a large display screen. “The children wanted to know what it felt like to be a grand prix driver,” he says, “and we used it for many classroom activities, such as geography [the car’s national flags were used as a starting point] and maths [raising sponsorship].

“The class was the envy of the school and other pupils paid 50p to have a go in the simulator,” says McGinley, who also has no doubts about the value of computer games in education: “Children are using this technology at home. We can’t stand by; we have to move with the technology.”

Pupils at Gavinburn Primary School in Dumbartonshire have been using the game Guitar Hero, with children learning music

and conducting interviews in French (for the band’s virtual overseas tour). Other Gavinburn students have been using the Nintendo Wii Mario Kart game for art and design work. The Futurelab survey found that many teachers felt that one of the barriers to using computer games in schools was the cost of the hardware and software, but Gillian Perry, Gavinburn Primary’s headteacher, says: “The technology is not that expensive when compared with a laptop, and we use one console per class. The games are not particularly expensive.”

There is more evidence that many teachers are positive about computer games. The British Educational Suppliers Association (Besa) recently published a report, The ICT Use by primary Pupils at School and at Home, based on responses from 406 primary schools. Three quarters of the schools felt that pupils having access to consoles like the Nintendo DS as being beneficial to children’s educational development. (See page 6 on new Besa research.)

Besa’s director Ray Barker isn’t surprised by the results. “What goes on at home is different from what happens in schools,” he says, “A lot of children are using a whole range of technology and using it in a fairly sophisticated way.” Barker acknowledges

that computer games have influenced educational software, which now offer more sophisticated graphics, but adds that when computer games are used in schools, they tend to be utilised in a fairly conservative way, due to the nature of today’s curriculum and assessment systems.

Barker says there should be compelling reasons for using computer games in schools: “The fact that computer games are interesting and fun isn’t enough; kids like Mars bars, but that doesn’t mean we should allow them in schools. From a traditionalist’s point of view: there’s not enough research to support the view that kids playing computer games is a valid form of education.”

Ulicsak concedes that: “There’s not been a large scale study looking at the impact of computer games. There are many small-scale, qualitative studies taking place, and they have yielded some interesting results.” A 2009 report by European Schoolnet (an international partnership of more than 20 European education ministries), How are digital games used in schools? lists more than 40 examples of computer games and learning research stretching over 20 years, and concludes that the results are “mixed,” when it comes to assessing their educational impact. >Simulating Formula One

Not just for playing

An example of such contradictory results can be found with the game Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, designed for the Nintendo DS. The game aims to exercise the brain through a series of numerical and verbal exercises, which its makers say could help to improve memory and stave off mental decline in later years. It should be noted that, Nintendo makes no scientific claims for the game.

The consumer group Which? commissioned three experts to examine Nintendo’s game, and they found no evidence to support the claims. The BBC science programme Bang Goes The Theory tested a series of brain training games, following almost 11,500 people over six weeks, and found no significant differences between the improvements seen in people who used the brain training games and those who simply went on the internet.

There is evidence that computer games can improve mental performance, however. A study by London Metropolitan University of

32 people with brain injury found that playing brain training games for 15 minutes a day led to notable improvements in memory recall. Derek Robertson has worked with Dr David Miller from the University of Dundee’s School of Education, Social Work and Community Education on two studies that involved using Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training. The first study, in 2007, involved three primary schools in Dundee, which had a similar social-economic make-up. Primary Year 6 pupils (aged 9-10) were involved in the study.

School A was given 30 Nintendo DS consoles and copies of Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, and used the game for ten to 20 minutes each morning for ten weeks. School B was given another brain training game, and School C, was the control group, which used no games. The children were given a numeracy test at the beginning and end of the ten-week period.

All groups showed an improvement over the course of the ten weeks, but the biggest change was in the Nintendo group. Here, the average score went up ten points from 76/100 to 86/100. The Nintendo group also showed an improvement across the board, particularly in children who had scored in the 20s, 30s and 40s in the first test, with one learning support pupil jumping from 25/100 to 68/100, Robertson and Miller report.

A second study, undertaken a year later, was more extensive and involved 32 school, four local authorities and 634 pupils in a

randomised controlled trial. One group used Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training for thirty minutes a day, five days a week for nine weeks, while the second group was asked not to change its normal routine.

Computational tests taken before and after the trial period showed that both groups made statistically significant gains, but that the games group’s improvement was 50% higher than the control group. Other improvements were noted by teachers, including improved attendance and punctuality (probably due to the fact that the games were used first thing in the morning), improved academic work, and improved interpersonal relationships.

Robertson says the results show that: “These things work if teachers use them in an appropriate way. The BBC research only involved three day’s work and in a different context: we were working from an educational perspective – does this have an impact on children’s ability?”

Robertson adds that: “We believe that computer games can help play a part in the suite of resources that can take learning forward. You have to look at how technology plays a huge part in young people’s lives and how we can use that technology to advance learning and make them more effective learners.” The Scottish educational system has embraced computer games and from this autumn, games design becomes an integral part of the Scottish curriculum.

Greenford High School in Southall, Middlesex, has come a long way since 1939 when it was built, opening its doors to pupils in the

first week of the Second World War. Not the most auspicious start, but that hasn’t held it back and the school is now a flourishing centre of learning for about 1,800 pupils. The

embracing of technology has been central to Greenford School’s success in recent years.

Paul Nock, assistant head teacher and all-round e-learning champion at Greenford,

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explains the school’s attitude to technology. He says, “We’re very ICT-based here. Our staff use it on a daily basis for information and communication, and even simple things like booking ICT suites or conference rooms. As the head of e-learning, the main thing I’ve tried to implement is exposing staff to the possibilities of technology and creating a wow factor that makes them want to go away and engage with ICT.”

Back in 2001 when Nock joined the school, it had a couple of ICT suites and a rudimentary website. “At that point I was head of languages and director of specialism and wanted to embrace technology to get the kids interested in languages – I saw it had huge potential for the subject,” he adds. From those first tentative steps Nock started pushing ICT usage out to other departments.

“We then moved to a brand new PFI [Private Finance Initiative] school on the same site about three years ago,” he continues, “and, because of our interest in IT, the head teacher and I were tasked with managing a £1.3 million budget to cover the IT infrastructure. That’s when I really became involved in where this school was going to go with ICT over the next ten or 20 years.”

Nock’s vision, as well as that of the school, is that technology should be seen as an everyday tool to enhance achievement. “I want it to motivate, engage and challenge the pupils. I want it to provide innovation – after all, we live in a world where we don’t

know what skills our children might need, but we have to try and empower them through technology, as it’s obviously going to be tech-based.”

The school uses Dell netbooks as part of what Dell is pushing as its Connected Classroom learning platform. Dell launched the platform for UK schools at the BETT 2010 show. The idea is to help schools go beyond having fixed PCs locked in computer rooms to integrating ICT into every aspect of the school environment.

James Quarles, director of marketing, EMEA and part of Dell’s education team, explains the netbooks are just one piece of the Connected Classroom concept, saying, “They aren’t stuck in a computing lab,

nor are they tethered to the walls. They’re collaborative devices that get twice the amount of usage by students compared to devices that are desk-based. And all these netbooks are stored vertically on a cart that can be wheeled into any classroom and provides power as well as WiFi connectivity from a central point. It can then be secured at night or when not in use. At Greenford, it will simplify the whole administration of equipment.”

Simplifying the installation, use and support of ICT equipment is central to Dell’s offering, According to Quarles: “The worst thing you can have with an ICT deployment is a large impact on what I call the teaching cognitive load, where a teacher has to work

twice as hard to learn all the features of a particular piece of ICT equipment, how it is integrated into the curriculum, turning power on and off, and so on. In many instances, it’s just too difficult.”

This point is echoed by Tommy Ittu, ICT and computing teacher at Greenford. He comments, “The biggest challenge is getting the teachers to embrace the technology the way the pupils have. They see it as an extra hurdle or extra thing to learn.” To overcome this resistance, Ittu explains that the ICT department has established an open-door policy, so that staff can come in at any time and ask for help or guidance. The department is also looking to set up drop-in sessions on Wednesday afternoons to give staff tips on how they can best use ICT in their lessons.

Meanwhile, Ittu completely buys into the idea of a Connected Classroom. “My vision of the classroom of the future is one without walls,” he says, “and one where there are no desktop computers anymore. The truth is that most of us already have quite powerful mobile devices, such as netbooks. And if not, I’d like to see a future where when the pupil comes in at Year 7 they are given or the school subsidises the purchase of a laptop or netbook.

“Even now, I can simply tell the kids to go to a particular webpage, download an application or open a file on the go. We use technology in the classroom in all sorts of ways. For instance, we use a lot of blogs and wikis. So I might give them homework and ask them to respond in a blog, which I’ll mark online. But I also love the fact they can comment on each other’s work through the blogs. There’s almost no paperwork in my classes now.”

As well as doing away with desktop computers, Ittu also sees no reason why schools should be forking out on expensive applications. “Education is one area where we can truly harness the power of cloud computing”, he argues. “My ideal world would be where the school doesn’t have computers. Instead, the school provides the wireless network infrastructure, but uses something like Google Apps for its general software needs, which will cut costs enormously.”

Talking to those at the Greenford School, you begin to realise that for them it’s not all

about having a school stuffed to the rafters with the latest and greatest bits of IT kit. It’s more a case of being creative with relatively simple ICT tools. For instance, at one point the school wanted the GCSE students to come in on a Saturday to do some extra work, and one of the students suggested doing it as a web conference via Skype.

The suggestion was no doubt borne out of an understandable reluctance on the part of the pupils to find themselves in school on a Saturday, but the exercise was an unqualified success. “It worked really well,” says Ittu, “and we’ve done it a few times now. We also record the Skype sessions and post them on our virtual learning environment as podcasts, so others are able to benefit from them.”

This isn’t an isolated case, with inspiration often coming from pupils. As Ittu says, it’s very much a case of pushing at an open door. “They love the technology. I try and arrange classes whereby I get a lot of input

from them and they always suggest different ways we can do lessons. For instance, they might come in on a Monday morning with an interesting website they’ve discovered and think that we could use in a lesson.”

As well as realising ICT can help them in their studies, the pupils are also very aware that technology is allowing them to help each other. Take this comment from Aisha, a 15-year-old in Year 10: “One of the great things about the internet is that when it comes to things like revising with friends, you don’t necessarily have to arrange a time and location meet up. I usually do it over the internet via MSN or email. We’ll help each other through online chats. It’s so much easier and saves a lot of time.”

While there is still debate in some quarters about the ‘real’, measurable benefits of technology in education, Dell’s Quarles is adamant that in facilitating this peer-led help, ICT really is having a positive effect at Greenford: “Students helping each other with in-their-own-language explanations truly changes outcomes, and technology can enable this. The Nirvana is to try and use technology in a scalable and repeatable fashion to enable things like feedback groups and peer learning.’

Expanding on this theme, Quarles insists. “We do not believe that access to ICT solely or more computing horsepower in the classroom automatically equals better learning outcomes. Interestingly, the most effective teaching practice related to outcomes is self-grading. So as the student is handing in an assignment, or even while in class learning, they self-report how well they are following and understanding. The difference between catching it at this stage – and not when the grades are issued – is tremendous. You avoid pupils disengaging from the class and becoming disruptive.”

Assistant head teacher Nock, shares Quarles’ pragmatic approach to ICT usage in education and is also adamant about the positive effect it is having on his school. He concludes, “I admit there’s evidence to suggest that technology actually hasn’t improved achievement yet and, yes, it’s a very difficult thing to quantify, but I would argue though is that here in Greenford it is definitely engaging, motivating and inspiring students, and you can apply that to all the staff as well.”

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Classroom Monitor, the online markbook for teachers, provides ongoing assessment for secondary schools that is

easy for parents and students to access. In addition to being straightforward for non-ICT specialists to use, its interactivity and use of colour coding is a great help in letting teachers and students see where they are.

For teachers responsible for Assessing, Pupils, Progress (APP) over a number of cohorts and subjects, the task can be all about ticking boxes on different, paper forms and keeping them in a folder until the time OFSTED knocks at the door. In contrast, Classroom Monitor Secondary allows students and parents access to APP, across subject areas, through a very easy to use interface which originated in the primary sector. It was developed by Prime Principle, which is based in Nottingham.

As soon as you log onto the software you are faced with an intuitive, simple screen: five icons quickly link you to the

main teacher sections of the software, which are assessment, test reports, target setting, analyse and reports. A useful character displays a welcome message and hints on getting started, and although it reminds me of the annoying help dog from an old version of Microsoft Office, this one is far more helpful for the novice user and designed for non-ICT specialists.

Within the assessment option you have two choices: class mark book or pupil mark book. The software can be fully integrated with your school’s management information system (MIS) so clicking on your own class is made quick and easy as the software only displays the classes you teach.

When the class is selected, you are given a screen similar to paper-based grids that are used in many subject areas. On the left hand side there are the APP level descriptors for your subject area and, running horizontally, are the names of the students in your class.

It is the interactivity of this assessment grid that allows teacher and students to see what progress is being made and gives you the opportunity to attach files for evidence. If a student has been unasessed in maths, Level 5 (they are able to recognise and describe number patterns) you simply click on the relevant cell and change the letter to: U (unassessed) T (target) A (almost) or M (met), This has a big visual impact on the students as each uses a traffic light system to indicate how closely the APP criteria have been met.

When you are asked where the evidence is for a particular level, sometimes it’s a case of finding the student’s exercise book

and thumbing through it until you get to the correct place. This interactive mark grid lets you right click on any cell and add evidence just as you would attach a file to an email. You can also adjust the levels for a whole class and if you are want to take the grid to a parents evening where there are no computers available, there is a simple export option to Microsoft Excel available. Also, dare I say it? – the whole system is online so if you want to do some APP work away from school you can.

The pupil mark book option lets teachers look at all the assessments across subject areas, which at the moment this can be difficult if you are a form tutor and need to see how well the student is doing overall. Having all the APP levels and links to evidence makes learning conversations more relevant and real to the student.

Having supporting assessment material at your fingertips at a mentor meeting only adds to the points being made. The small page option near the name of the student allows you edit the report, something that can be added to when the student reaches the next level, rather than at the time of the deadline for the whole school’s report. The interactivity and the simple choices make the interface easier to use than other assessment

systems I’ve tried. The analysis option breaks down into

different criteria to apply by: strategy, different assessments, academic year, cohort, category, and even other options such as gender. This gives you an incredible overview and whether you are a class teacher or the head of a school, the analysis tool saves time.

To analyse a whole cohort and then compare males to females is powerful and can give you excellent quality information on which to base real strategic decisions. At

this point, and others during the trial, the help character is displaying video files that show you how to create various aspects of the analyse tool. At all levels within school this is a great help feature and not obtrusive to the more experienced user of ICT.

There are options on the production of reports which can be totally customised or use the pre-set statement banks which are useful for non specialist of the subject area. You can easily manage the statement bank by adding more statements or deleting some.

There is an option for setting pupil targets that can be used during a target setting day or in learning conversations. Teachers can set the start and end date, and select how many levels the student should aim to increase by. A help number is always displayed in the bottom left and during my conversations with the company, I always got through to a real person who knew the software back to front, and was friendly and helpful to boot. These features may not be used at first, but their availability along with the provision of parental access increases the overall effectiveness of the software.

APP is set to stay in education for the foreseeable future and, when used correctly, is a very helpful strategy that has won considerable support, and whereas ICT can often be used in schools as an add-on to what is already available, rather than increase efficiently and add to the learning of the students we teach, I found Classroom Monitor supports the learning of students while it’s easy for teachers to use and a boon to their tracking students against APP descriptors.

As mentioned, although the reporting and tool may not be used in the first instance, the cross curricular tracking and monitoring aspects of this are simple enough for all to use, yet sufficiently sophisticated to produce flexible reports. Excellent software to use.

So he drew himself up and walked boldly on; holding his head higher than before, and the courtiers held on to the train that wasn’t there at all.

The Emperor’s New Clothes, Hans Christian Andersen

Cynicism is the default habit of thought for the contemporary teacher. The blizzard of new initiatives visited upon schools

through imperial directives leaves the beleaguered educator anxious that their job is unmanageable. As one big idea gives way to the next, the feeling of institutional incoherence grows stronger. The teaching profession is increasingly reduced to the role of the boy in Andersen’s fable who points at the gaudy procession before him and mocks.

This air of disaffection is understandable, but corrosive. The consequence of a chronic fatigue induced by innovation overload is to dismiss all change. Instead of a dynamic profession there emerges a form of institutional inertia which resists change as an article of faith. In this climate, the remarkable potential for creative and interactive learning through ICT may well continue to be lost.

The drive to integrate ICT into the curriculum is not new. Still, more than 12 years since the allocation of lottery funding to support the Learning Schools Programme, there are staff rooms throughout the UK with teachers unconvinced of the pedagogical value of ICT in the classroom.

Given teachers’ instinctive resistance to the shock of the new, how might schools give meaningful breadth and depth to the embedding of ICT in the curriculum achieve their objectives?

ICT is not an educational cure-all. Harper Lee, the reclusive 84 year-old author of To Kill a Mockingbird, recently stated, “In

an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.” She is, of course, right. By any useful index (cost, function, accessibility) the paperback exceeds an e-reader by some distance.

An empty room of the mind, is one in which information is transferred rather rather than engaged with, using the necessary furnishing. We recognise that a computer is not always the best option for learning. Selecting the right software for the right job makes learning much more enriching; this is the classroom in which research means more than “cut and paste” and design goes beyond the limits of clipart.

We are not teaching 84 year-old pupils. To adapt Marc Prensky’s classification, any teacher over the age of 30 is a digital

immigrant; those under 30 are digital natives. Children interact with technology in virtually every phase of their existence whether it is through Facebook, i-Tunes or the Orange network. Discernment of this fact will heighten a child’s sense of engagement with their task and, potentially, secure more positive behaviour.

The ubiquitous interactive whiteboard (IWB) is a wonderful tool, but is frequently underused. I am scarred by the silence of a science class when I was at school in which the only noise was the squeaking cylinder of an overhead projector. To use an IWB in the same way is a lamentable waste of resources and an act of cruelty. Such resources should be deployed to invite pupils to move, edit or colour the focus of attention to provide an interactive experience.

The placement of computer hardware around the school is key to the efficacy of a broad dissemination of ICT. Small clusters of four to six PCs in different locations around the school allows opportunities for learning more than centralised computer rooms. Good classroom management approaches are needed to ensure pupils are able to work at a range of activities, only one of which involves ICT. A school that acknowledges some of these observations will be well underway in making computer-based learning something which has penetrated the heart of the curriculum across a range of subjects.

In this environment ICT is no longer a naked object exposed to teacher ridicule, but a resplendent colour in the rainbow robes of learning.