Learning and Teaching
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Learning Platforms
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There is a national target for all schools to have
personalised workspace for pupils by 2008 and a learning
platform which fully integrates curriculum and management
systems by 2010. The DfES document Harnessing Technology
includes information on these targets and has associated
videos demonstrating what this might look like in practice.
There are a number of papers and references to learning
platforms that can be accessed below to provide information
about learning platforms and to support schools with
planning for this culture change. |
Preparing to Implement a Learning Platform
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A number of actions are listed below which could support
schools with beginning to implement some of the changes that
will be required in order to implement a learning platform.
These have been organised under the headings identified in
the Strategic Development of ICT (SLICT) model shown in the
diagram:
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Vision |
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Review |
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Implement |
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Publications |
Vision - Clarify the School Vision relating to learning
platforms
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- How do you want learners, teachers, parents and managers
to benefit from use of a learning platform?
- Use the Harnessing Technology video on ‘Learning Today -
A Day in the Life of Anton’ to look at learning platform
developments and discuss what might be beneficial for your
school.
- Look at additional case study examples on the South West
Grid for Learning and discuss how these may / may not be
relevant in your own school situation. Use the case studies
in the Leadership Team Toolkit as a starting point for
discussing requirements with your leadership team.
- Look at the ‘Day in the Life’ appendix at the back of
the learning and teaching book
- Use the Strategic Leadership in ICT (SLICT) programme to
provide the senior management team with the opportunity to
focus on developing this vision or in the case primary
schools use it to clarify your own vision through discussion
with other head teachers. Information about this can be
accessed on the training part of the web site. Link
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Review the current position
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- Use the Becta matrix to review your current position and
identify the school starting point.
- The Learning platform functionality matrix also gives
examples linked to each element, enables review information
to be saved and amended and suggests possible actions
displayed in an action plan
http://matrix.becta.org.uk/
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Click here for the Excel version of the matrix
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(24kB)
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Implementation
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- Use case studies from the Leadership team toolkit to
identify strategies for implementation that would be
effective for your own school circumstances
- They provide key questions, contextual information,
summary of strategies and how they were used as well as
video footage to promote discussion with management teams
- Identify the staged actions that might be required over
the next few years to work towards this change. Some
suggested actions might be:
• Ensure pupils and staff have individual log ons and give
them a reason to log on to the portal or web site regularly
in order to access information, for example, minutes of
meetings, newsletters.
• Develop shared and agreed systems of storing information
on the school network or portal that all staff need to use,
for example, to monitor planning or share multimedia
resources.
• Move towards electronic communication systems with staff,
for example, ensure you have a group list of staff e-mail
addresses and that these are used for some types of
communications.
• Work towards developing electronic communications with
parents who have access, for example, provide e-mail updates
to parents who would prefer this method of communication
• Use the portal or extranet, for example for:
– Staff communication and updates
– Setting pupil activities
– Virtual staff room
– Staff access to key documents from home
– Homework activities
– Discussion groups for more able pupils
– Consultation with governors
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Publications
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The South West Grid for Learning have produced primary and
secondary Learning Platform packs, which outline the
guidance and support that is available for your schools
through the grid.
http://www.swgfl.org.uk/services/learning_platforms/
Teachernet has links to a number of relevant publications
which can be accessed below:
Learning Platforms – Making it Personal Primary
http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=downloadoptions&PageMode=publications
&ProductId=DFES-2101-2005&
Learning Platforms – Making it Personal Secondary
http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=downloadoptions&PageMode=publications
&ProductId=DfES+2102+2005&
The Becta publication on Planning for Personalised Online
Learning focuses on issues associated with online learning,
the implications for schools, planning in support of this
and learning platforms.
http://becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/publications_detail.cfm?show=latest&orderby=title_asc&letter=ALL&pubid=297&cart=
Becta have produced a set of functional requirements for
learning platform software and systems which can be accessed
here.
http://industry.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=17320
The South West Grid for Learning web site also has a number
of links to learning platforms which includes local
developments and school case studies in addition to some of
the links above.
http://www.swgfl.org.uk/services/learning_platforms/lplatformssub.asp?page=inpractice
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