MANAGING ICT ICT and the futu


In March, SecEd hosted an ICT symposium in association with Dell. We gathered 14 school teachers and leaders together, alongside other ICT in education experts and a student, to discuss what the future of ICT in our schools looks like. Almost four months on, Emma Lee Potter revisits the issues debated and finds out what impact the day had on some of its participants


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HERE HAVE been a lot of changes in the education world since SecEd and Dell held their ICT symposium back in March. Michael Gove is now the education


secretary; Becta, the government agency which led the national drive to


ensure the effective use of technology through learning, is to be closed; and from September state schools will be allowed to teach iGCSEs in key subjects. One thing that has not altered, though, is teachers’


passion and enthusiasm for ICT in education. Almost four months after the symposium, which was hosted at the British Council’s London offices, we went back to the delegates who took part and asked them about the impact the event had had, both on them and their schools. It soon emerged that the most valuable aspects of


the debate had been the opportunity to share ideas and good practice – on everything from using technology to enliven day-to-day teaching to developing online staff CPD. Equally, the delegates from Dell, committed to helping students fulfil their potential through education and technology, were excited by the ideas they had heard and keen to look at some in further detail. “It was an exceptional discussion,” said James


Quarles, Dell’s director of public sector marketing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “I’m always impressed by the creative ways in which teachers are supporting lots of experimentation with devices (phones and PCs), software and internet applications. “No matter how tech-savvy I’ve become by working


in the industry, the stories from the roundtable of using PlayStation Portables (PSPs) to improve techniques in gym class, listening to lessons on iPods and virtually connecting with painters in an art class were far beyond my own imagination. The examples just reinforced our commitment to have a very active connection with teachers and student voice as we envisage our next generation learning aids.” One of the delegates who made everyone sit up with


the innovative strategies he had devised was Chris Baker, leader of e-learning at John CabotAcademy in Bristol. Originally a PE teacher, Mr Baker has only been


teaching for five years and won the Becta Next Generation Learning Teaching Award in 2009 for the South West region.His initiatives at John Cabot include launching a staff “e-learning star” of the week, using the school’s virtual learning environment (VLE) to provide online CPD for staff, and even getting pupils to watch videos of exercises like the high jump on their PSPs while they wait for their turn in PE lessons. Another idea that caught everyone’s eye was his


high-tech and instantaneous approach to gauging pupils’ progress.At the end of a particular task he asks students to “colour your screens” red, amber or green to show whether they have understood the learning that has taken place. “It’s a really simple way to get a gut feeling from the pupils,” he explained. Mr Quarles said that he had been struck by many of


the innovations he heard during the symposium but the “colour your screens” idea “really stood out”. “What a fantastic idea,” he told SecEd. “Teachers


get instant feedback on a student’s understanding of the class that day, as opposed to waiting until the examination at the end of the term, and it enables them to more quickly put processes in place for additional tutoring and assistance. Plus it supports collaborative learning as the pupils whose screens are green are encouraged to walk round the room to help those who signalled red or amber.” Following the event, Mr Quarles visited John Cabot


Academy to see first-hand how the school, its 85 teaching staff and 1,100 pupils are using e-learning


roundtable were far beyond my own imagination James Quarles, Dell


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strategies like this in the classroom. Mr Quarles continued: “Chris’s enthusiasm, coupled with strong support from the leadership of the academy, has created a very exciting environment for teaching. The ‘red, amber, green’ desktop feedback application they have developed has a very powerful effect on engagement. Students were not shy at all in voicing confusion or difficulty in completing a lesson. Chris could quickly determine mid-lesson the success of his pace and examples. “Likewise, the team has developed an Assessment


for Learning (AfL) online site for students to update their progress and for teachers to visually track completion across periods. Considerable research has shown that both practices hold great potential if they can be implemented in a way that teachers can adopt simply into their instruction. “From ICT courses to arts and the wood-shop,


teachers at John Cabot have integrated the best technology into their classes, which are filled with PCs connected to their Moodle VLE and digital whiteboards. They have also developed their own online tools to further instruction. “Most importantly, the staff have a commitment


to continuous evaluation and improvement, actively searching for ways to upgrade their lessons and share with others. It’s therefore no surprise that their five or more A* to C scores have improved from 83 per cent to 94 per cent in the last two years.” Meanwhile, Mr Baker was delighted by the reactions


No matter how tech-savvy I’ve become by working in the industry, the stories from the


of Mr Quarles and the other delegates to his innovations – and keen to follow up some of their ideas too. “I felt very privileged to be invited to this event,”


he said. “I am quite new to the profession and am always pleased when one of my ideas is respected by people who have been in teaching for a long time. I was particularly interested to hear the headteachers talking about the idea that technology companies shouldn’t be equipment providers, but equipment partners.” The symposium included debate around how


schools can engage with technology companies to explore partnership potential. Mr Baker said he was very interested in the approaches used by other schools when it comes to buying technology equipment. One delegate said his school got five sessions of


staff training thrown in, while another school had applied to become a technology repair centre, enabling it to carry out its own repairs. “After the debate I told Andrew Ling, who is our


head of infrastructure, about this,” said Mr Baker. “Since then he has been asking questions along the lines of ‘we want to buy computers – what can you do for us in terms of maintenance, support and CPD?’” John Cabot Academy does a lot of work with the


Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) and regularly hosts innovation exchanges. “We try to share good practice rather than just sit on


it,” said Mr Baker. “Another thing we do is to carry out electronic e-learning audits every year, both of teacher usage, competence and training and of student usage. We ask teaching staff about the areas of technology they’d most like training in and that basically creates our delegate list for training sessions. “With the students we ask them ‘what’s successful,


what’s not successful, what are the barriers to stop you from using technology, what would you like to start using?’ From this we have discovered that filtering is a frustration but that they like the fact that resources are online 24-hours-a-day. “They also really enjoy the self-marking quizzes


and the instant feedback they get from those.Any way you can close the gap between action and response is the way forward – particularly the fact that students can fill out a test online, click ‘submit’ and then the next page tells them their grade and what they did right.” Mr Baker is constantly thinking up new initiatives


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he would like to introduce at his school. These range from using the school’s VLE in more creative ways, rather than simply as “a resource depository”, looking at how social networking sites can impact on education and increasing the use of mobile technology around the school. We are constantly pushing to use technology in innovative, creative ways,” he said. “Once you find something you’re excited and passionate about, there are no limits in terms of the energy and effort you want to put into it.”


SecEd SecEd • July 1 2010


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