Leadership and Management
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Subject Leadership> BETT 2004
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Charles Clarke's keynote speech, 7 January 2004:
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Expenditure
on ICT table 
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The minister announced an agreement
with Microsoft to save schools money on their software.
The deal is worth £46 million so this means schools over the
next 5/6 years will have £46m more in their budgets as a
result of this.
He invited other suppliers to negotiate similar deals through
Becta.
He moved from the previous focus on infrastructure to the need
to focus on standards.
Initial findings show that Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs)
combined with digital content make learning more motivating
for pupils as well as increasing the effectiveness of lessons Charles Clarke was a keen advocate of Interactive Whiteboards
and said he was personally impressed by their use. He
believes that Interactive Whiteboards are tools to assist
teachers with creating engaging, exciting, exhilarating
lessons and facilitate whole class teaching. They enable
teachers to enrich lessons with video, Internet, presentations
etc whilst still allowing teachers to use their traditional
board skills. They also allow manipulation by pupils of
objects which is especially effective in Science and Maths.
The impact 2 study showed that when used effectively ICT can
lead to accelerated progress. For some subjects (DT and
Science) equivalent to 0.5 grade at GCSE. There was also
an accelerated progress at both KS2 and KS3.
University of Warwick research also indicates that the impact
of ICT is happening irrespective of socioeconomic background.
The minister noted the need for a step change in the way we
use technology with regard to the following three aspects:
The key question being "How do we use ICT to improve
teaching and learning for each child in each
institution?"
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Pedagogic Challenge
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There is the need to understand
appropriate use of technology at all ages and in all
contexts. We need to "focus ruthlessly" on
understanding the pedagogy of ICT use.
He also went on to say -
"It is not enough to get the kit: we have to have
the kit but we also have to have teachers who are trained and
confident in using the kit and we have to understand how to
use each particular bit of kit in a way which focuses on
particular educational standards"
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Distance Learning / Modular Learning
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| He mentioned the e-skills passport,
developed by the Sector Skills Council for the ICT industry
being introduced. He suggested the need to seek to
understand how we can let people study / develop in a place
appropriate to them. How do we best use technology to
develop skills for every citizen from child to
pensioner. There is a need to increase the
"attainment" of each individual.
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Global Potential
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He noted that at this year's BETT an international delegation
from 31 countries was being held alongside BETT and that this
would now happen annually.
Pupils are growing up in a global world with the knowledge that
things happening across the world can have an impact on
them. He discussed the setting up of a global gateway by
the British Council and DfES, likening it to "a dating
agency" for schools to find international partners.
All subjects will benefit and be enriched by communication
exchanges.
He talked about the e-confident school which allows teachers to
use the technology confidently to drive up standards (see Doug
Brown speech notes and NCSL website for further information).
Charles Clarke announced new funding to expand Interactive
Whiteboard purchase and build on previous successful pilot
projects. £25 million has been made available for 2003/04
and an additional £25 million will be available for
2004/05. This will enable expansion of the school's
interactive whiteboard project and build on successful pilot
projects which have been undertaken from 2002 to 2004. NB
Information on the Interactive Whiteboard project - Embedding
ICT in the literacy and numeracy strategies can be found at http://edu.ncl.ac.uk/iwp/intro.asp.
There will also be funding to provide whiteboards for initial
Teacher Training; All providers of initial teacher
training will be offered grants.
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Key Funding announcement
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Schools can invest devolved formula capital money in
technology. Charles Clarke is changing the policy because
of the recognised infrastructure nature of ICT. This could
be used to purchase Interactive Whiteboards or computers and he
hopes this will further increase spending on ICT in
schools. It will be for the headteacher and governors to
decide how to make best use of their devolved capital. He
emphasized the need to focus on outcomes, pedagogy and changes.
Dominic Savage from BESA in his response to Charles, identified
the need to share what is going on across all schools and the
important role the software industry needs to play in this.
The full transcript of the speech can be found at:
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/ictinschools/uploads/
genericdocs/BETT%20SoS%20transcript%20070104.doc
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