Aiming for Transformation The Role of ICT in Schools of the Future NEC 15th March 2006

1
Aiming for Transformation The Role of ICT in
Schools of the FutureNEC 15th March 2006

• Steve Moss
• Education ICT Adviser
• Partnerships for Schools
• steve.moss_at_p4s.org.uk

2
One of the clinical definitions of insanity is
doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting to get a different result.
3
A unique opportunity

• BSF gives us the chance to create new physical
  and virtual workplaces at the same time.
• The two taken together constitute a 21st century
  environment for learning

4
The 21st Century Learning Environment
Virtual workplace online learning platform
Physical workplaces schools, homes, libraries
5
Enhancing the Educational Experience

• In the physical workplace, learning spaces should
  be well served with infrastructure and
  presentation tools projection, sound, AV
  consoles, interactive teaching technologies are
  all desirable and should improve teaching.
• The physical workplace should be enhanced by the
  use of ICT smart buildings, access control,
  security, high quality IP infrastructure.
• In the virtual workplace, personalisation and
  flexibility to meet learners needs are crucial.
• The virtual workplace should be learner-centric
  and match the highest quality MIS with innovative
  content management and creation facilities.

6
ICT Making a Difference

• 3 ways in which ICT has the capacity to enhance
  teaching and learning in classrooms
  significantly.
• The capacity to present or represent ideas
  dynamically or in multiple forms
• The facility for providing feedback to pupils as
  they are working
• The capacity to present information in easily
  changed forms
• Ways Forward With ICT
• Higgins et al, University of Newcastle 1999

7
Learner-centric MIS

• Must provide information in an appropriate form
  for
• Learners
• Teachers
• Other school staff
• Parents / carers
• and should be easily configurable by each of
  these groups.

8
Personalised Learning Environment

• Should enable learners and teachers to find,
  organise and create content and learning
  resources in ways which are flexible and not
  necessarily based on taxonomies or atomised
  classifications. It has to be more than a content
  delivery system.
• Learners must feel that the experience is a
  personal one.
• The PLE should also recognise and facilitate the
  social dimensions of learning encouraging
  collaborative work.

9
E-mature leadership, management and teachers

• The greatest barriers to educational
  transformation through BSF are not technological
  or financial they are mental.
• There must be sufficient investment in programmes
  to support change management or new ICT systems
  may simply end up reinforcing old practices. Or
  causing confusion because they are not congruent
  with management thinking.

10
Strategic Technology Infrastructure

• A move away from the notion that school is a
  single, physical location requires a strategic
  approach to the provision and procurement of
  infrastructure, software and services.
• How do we square greater school autonomy with the
  needs of learners in an increasingly virtual
  learning space?