The Academy of St. Francis of Assisi

Presentations Using Animoto

Animoto is a great presentation. I have been using it recently with my students- they have found it a quick and easy way of producing professional quality presentations- I fear the days of death by PowerPoint are numbered! It is also a neat way of introducing the students to web 2.0, as they can create blogs and (network permissions allowing) they are able to post their presentations on the blog. Therefore creating contant and sharing it instantly- give it a try.

I have used this as a great way into Unit 8 (New Technologies and E Commerce) of the OCR Nationals- the response has been universally excellent!

OCR Nationals: Getting your school started.

Quite a few schools have been asking me how to get started with the OCR Nationals coure for ICT and if I had any tips- so here goes.

Before anything else you are doing the right thing. The OCR Nationals allow students to show what they can do- it is a skills based qualification and is assessed as such. To give a little perspective, we took the decision to transfer our year 11 bottom set class from AiDA as it looked highly likely, at the end of year 10, that they would fail.

(That is not to say the DiDA suite are not excellent qualifications, its just that I teach inner city students who some times struggle with the literacy elements of the DiDA qualification- if your school is in the 60%+ 5 A*-C category I would highly recommend it as an alternative to GCSE, that your students will thouroughly enjoy!)

In the end 80% passed and their attitudfe towards the qualification was to the credit of themselves and the qualification. This year our entire year 9, 10 and 11 cohorts are following the OCR National course.

To get started- you must register as a centre with OCR- this is in addition to registering for GCSE qualifications- so must be done. Find out more here.

Then you need to get a handle on the units that you are studying at what version of the qualfication that you will be studying.

I would recommend the following units Unit 1 (ICT skills for Business), Unit 2 web design (but start the half unit- unit 21 web graphics first!), unit 4 multimedia, unit 5 desktop publishing, unit 7 databases, unit 8 technological innovation and e commerce.

You have to do the equivalent of 6 full units in order to pass the qualification- having the spare half unit is really useful because if a student fails to complete a unit for any reason- they will come out with more value.

The observant amongst you will see I have left out the spreadsheet unit (unit 6)- if you have brighter students who are interested in studying an ICT course at KS5 I would heartily recommend it- but it is significantly tougher than other units and resembles a AS level project.

Which ever combination you decide to cover with your students I would recommend that you read the assessment objectives very carefully indeed. The stringency and rigour of this qualification comes from the assessment process comes from moderation. Every part of the pass criteria of every unit needs to be evidenced in order to achieve this qualification- the GNVQ idea of equivalence must be forgotten- if one piece of the moderated sample fails then the whole group being moderated fails- I would suggest organising three moderator visits in the first year of the qualification with the first concentrating on a small sample which have been moderated as a department- so everybody is confident with gradings.

I would seriously recommend the sample assignments that have been produced by OCR- these will lead you and your students through the assessment process.

One thing we have found useful, is providing PowerPoint presentations at Pass, Merit and Distinction level for every assessment objective of every unit. This has greatly eased the assessment process as the evidence the students provide is in the order that the paperwork requires of it- this also speeds up moderation greatly- the moderators also like the sample assignments as they are able to compare more easily the work being produced by your school to that of other.

When we started the qualification lasy year we subscribed to the Thomas Telford materials (there are others!) whilst these provide assignments and structure, the £3000 a year does seem very steep and after a while you begin to realise that you probably will not use 90% of what they have provided you with.

I would recommend amking some web pages with the basic bones of the qualification and then providing links to apprpriate web site, when combined with the PowerPoints I suggested before you have a good start to some quality materials. If you then want a good range of resources I would recommend those provided by NWLG.

The good news, if your school is a member is that they are free and open source, so you can link them into what ever you want and do with them what you will. If you are outside the North West of England then they will cost a one off fee of £800 and then you can do with them what you will. Our students have thoroughly enjoyed them.

Well if you are still with me you must be keen! I hope these notes help, however, if you do have any queries, fill in a comment and I will reply!

All the best and happy teaching!

Mike

Teaching web design- do the students know more than the teachers?

From original discussion posting (nextgen teachers)

Our digital native student are becoming increasingly web literate. This has caused major curriculum issues- especially when it comes to web design. Students ( who even though they don't know what web 2.0 is) are used to the freedoms that this gives. They frequently have MySpace, Bebo and Piczo web sites that allow them to publish to the web freely and easily. This means that when they sit in an ICT lesson and are learning how to use applications software to create web pages- they start with enthusiasm and very quickly find it long winded and boring.

This is not to say that teaching web design is something that should not be considered and becomes irrelevant. As educators we can teach the features of good web design (especially layout, content and copyright issues) that can actually improve their presentation of out of schools content- teaching the skills that the students will use in their day to day web interactions. This provides masssive challenges to teachers:

At the Academy, we took the decision to allow our year 8 students to create their own MySpace style sites within our ICT lessons. We did this because, after a straw poll of students we found that whilst only 30% had access to the internet at home, 60% had some form of web site and 90% had visited these sites. This provided a massive opportunity, as using this theme not only placed our lessons within the students frame of reference, we also were able to personalise the learning experience for our learners.

We used Dreamweaver. We tried to ensure that the students included concepts like housestyle, standardisation and audience. We have had mixed success.The students attitude towards the work was and is fantastic and we had kids running to school in order to access computer rooms before school opened. It did allow us to cover parts of web design that we would not normally cover and it was a much more real experience. We had control. The learners where allowed to use the online features that are created for MySpace sites and thelike- this allowed learners to embed videos and introduce more interactive elements- we found http://www.musicjesus.com/ very useful as it provided the javascript that was required.

The problems where that some of the students still created things that were not suitable and we had lots of flashing glittery sites. It was also difficult for students to share their work and we were uncomfortable with the students uploading their sites to the internet- however, we did put a few on our intranet.

In the future I think we will ask the students to add content on some issues that are important to them- maybe includinjg some sort of environmental page to widen the amount of content included. However, the organic nature of what they produced demonstrated that they cared about their work- and it had a refreshing honesty- they didn't give me what I they thought I wanted, instead it was what they wanted- but using the skills I had taught them (because they could see that it made the end result better!) The student reaction to this was worth it and it is something we will explore further!

Free Stuff..... who needs Flash and photoshop?

Before committing to spend potentially hundreds (for home users) or thousands (for school departments) on licences for Flash and photoshop you may want to try the following online tools.

Lunapic
This was introduced to me by my students who had been using it to customise their myspace sites. It has all the features you would want in a simple graphics package. Features include:

1. Simple interface.
2. Graphics creation.
3. Animation.
4. Drawing tools

I would need more than just this web site if I was doing a graphics specific project, however, our students now see this web site as the first port of call for image manipulation when wanting to enhance presentations or documents.

Flickr

Online community and can be used as a tool to share photos with groups of students. Great way for students to share what they are doing over the summer. Need to be careful with security issues- although is a good way of introducing ideas of online safety and information literacy.

Flaming Text

A site that students have been using for some time, but starting to look a little dated and short of ideas. However, it is still very good at creating text based graphics and buttons. Straightforward and easy to use; and is also a good way of introducing students to different ways of representing colour when creating web sites etc. Works especially well in conjunction with MS Paint.

Cool Text

Your students will love this, no matter what age they are. Very good for students who are struggling to understand the concept of "house style" as there are loads of unusual fonts that are based on album covers, films and the like. They add more authenticity and professionalism to web sites and presentations.

Blogger

Blogger is an excellent tool for allowing students to publish work on the Internet in a safe and controlled way. I would suggest a teacher setting up an account and a blog first and then inviting the students to participate. The blog can be limited to whoever you want to view it- for ICT teachers its a great way of parents being able to participate. A very effective way of allowing students to develop ideas and concentrate on connective writing. Here one that some of my students have been working on. Further insight can be gained at www.weblogg-ed.com.

Information Literacy

Information literacy is the most important development in education over recent years. The change is a simple one- students find out how to find information and evaluate its validity rather than learning a series of "facts".

The understanding of information literacy has developed with the internet. However, most writing on the subject has been aimed at either businesses or the Higher Education sector. As a 11-16 classroom practitioner I am dealing with students who have never had any time without the internet- the first wen sites appeared when I was at university in the early 90's- I as most adults am at a distinct disadvantage.

My first exposure to the concept of information literacy was several years ago when Edexcel introduced their DiDA course. Here was a fully web literate qualification developed with the specific goal of enabling students to become "power" users of ICT. DiDA was good but flawed. The qualification involved you having to use ICT to create every piece of coursework and this had to eb included in an "e" portfolio- however, one of the secrets of information literacy is knowing when not to use computers and when other methods will be better.

I am currently writing a scheme of work involving introducing learners to the new internet- blogs, wikis, aggregators, rss and the like. I realised I had to do this when I found that I could no longer update wikipaedia entries from the school network- apparently so many students had tried to corrupt existing entries that wikipaedia decided that they were not going to play ball- understandable really.

I am hoping that this will aid students learning in a real way and develop information literacy skills that they will be able to use.

At the same time, I think it is our duty as educators to reassess what we mean as literacy. I would see information literacy as a higher level skill than simply spelling or grammar and could be used as a framework for the other two. This will involve a new set of pedagogy's for teaching literacy and a massive amount of upskilling for educators.

What do you think?

(try typing information literacy into Google- and see what you get!!!)

Getting the buggers to learn.....

I must mention a few books and resources that I have been using recently as they may prove useful to you:

Getting the Buggers to Learn: Duncan Grey

A great general book if you are interested in information literacy, learning skills, approaches to learning and learner centred environments. I found the part on information literacy especially interesting and this linked into:

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Marc Prensky

You want to know why students behaviour is better in an ICT lesson than others. You want to know why the 5 year olds in front of you seem to have no fear of digital media, when colleagues in the staffroom actively avoid it? This guy has the answers. Very well thought out and easily accessible- tgis could be seen as the short history of digitilisation! Which leads to:

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms: Will Richardson

Richardson is an author who can explain complicated concpets in such a way to make them easily understood and accessible- the sign of a good teacher. His book gives loads of ideas and examples of how to use digital media in the classroom. I have found inspiration in his book and it has genuinely affected my teaching and the way I have used ICT in my classes.

Global ICT: Alex Savage

You want to see an example of building environmental awareness into your teaching- well try this- I have and it works! Alex is an AST from Notre Dame High School in Norwich and in addition to his excellent resources that are available from the school web site, he also publishes avery informative blog- there's nothing like putting your money where your mouth is! There is an RSS feed available so its well worth opeining a bloglines account and poiting a feed in the direction of Alex!

Going Global- Importance of environmentalism

Well! Haven't we made a mess!

The western world spends 200 years using as many of the world's resources as possible- finding as many uses for previously unusable "stuff" as possible! Creating new stuff, from the previously unusable stuff and find that it really has a bad effect on the essential stuff!

What a bloody mess! (I could use stronger language- but some of my students may be reading this!

The problem we have is that we have got into our current environmental mess by a human attitude of short termism. As human beings we find it very difficult to understand how our actions will impact on the world in 40 years, 50 years. We just presume that humans will adapt they always have in the past- thats why we dominate the planet in the way we do.

But heres the thing! When our forefathers where making their mess- there weren't 6 billion of them- the reason that they had their particular attitude is that resources did seem endless- we now know that that is not the case.

In school we have adopted a scheme of work (in the ICT department) that was created at the Notre Dame High School in Norwich by Alex Savage. Global ICT has made a real impact on the environmental awareness of our learners. This is because they learn their ICT skills in an environmental context. The lessons fulfill the needs of the National Curriculum and are laid out in a way that ensures students can access them- even with literacy and attitude problems- in my opinion the guy's a genius- although an extremely modest one!

I feel that young people in the UK today have a lot of people wanting to write them off and criticize the "hoodie" culture. However, this is only a reflection of the society that allows these things to happen by ignoring the social problems that are happening on its doorstep.

The youth of today are fantastic. Their attitude towards the environment is very different. They realise that attitudes need to change- and they are willing to change them!

Reflection on my membership of an online learning community

I have been completing an online degree at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, England. The title of the course is Masters in "e" learning. The course has involved both tutor led and "E" learning based sessions. The "e" learning based sessions have taken place using a webCT based Virtual Learning Environment.

My initial thoughts towards the learning community where extremely positive. I had recently started the course and everything was pretty new- sure I felt confident on the Internet- but I hadn't really used it for anything more than buying some airline tickets and checking some email! I was playing a full part in discussions- I was online every day. When I published my first posting I waited to see if anyone would reply- was it worth it- what would they think. I can remember the elation when not only someone replied- but they asked questions that showed that they had actually thought about what I had said!

However, as time went on I found it increasingly difficult, due to work commitments, to get online every day- this also meant I had less time to think about postings and what I was trying to say. This was compounded by me finding I was unable to access the VLE when I had allocated time to it and this led to me approaching the postings in an increasingly asynchronous manner.

I was still trying to take part in online discussion- however, keeping a discussion thread alive when you are only accessing the VLE once a week was very difficult because conversation just doesn't happen that way.

My postings got shorter- partly because this was the only way for me to keep track about what I had said- but also because I just couldn't cope with the amount time I needed to reply to the well thought out replies I was receiving.

This was all compounded by the access problems and further issues with my account- by half way through the term I had been frozen out four times and each time I had to make a specific journey into Edge Hill to sort it out- that said the technical support where then very supportive and efficient.

Maybe my problems where down to me being an "e" immigrant rather than an "e" native, but I eventually found myself accessing my account from Edge Hill- partly because I had confidence that I would be able to access the community when I needed it- but also because having a set time and place for my learning to be completed in made it easier for me to control and adjust to. On reflection my approach was much more conventional than I anticipated.

My postings where getting less and less frequent as work commitments seemed to unerringly clash with those in college.

What does this mean for me?

Firstly, I understand why students who were used to the format became lurkers- choosing to observe discussions from the fringes rather take a more active role and contribute little and later. This meant that postings and information that came their way was much easier to manage.

Secondly, my posting will be shorter and to the point. This will minimise any misunderstandings and also means that I will be able to keep a better track of what I have written- brainstorming on a discussion board seemed to be a bridge to far for me at the moment and not necessarily a fruitful experience.

Thirdly, I will avoid the temptation of feeling that I have to read everything in detail and respond to everything- there just wasn't time in the day and also most of my comments where rushed and didn't actually mean anything- a well thought out response to a smaller number of postings is probably better than a wordy response that hasn't been considered properly.

I have found contact with my "e" tutor to be useful and reassuring. Having a place where I can email drafts of work and receive comments has been extremely useful and has been a reason I have completed the learning objectives when it would have been much easier for me to give up.

impact of online assessment and online curriculum

Case Study Impact that the introduction of online assessment and online curriculum has had on the attainment and assessment of Year 9 students at the Academy of St. Francis of Assisi.

The Background

The Academy of St. Francis of Assisi is a city academy that was opened in September 2005. It is located in the Kensington area of Liverpool and has a population of 650 at present and will be at full capacity of 900 students by September 2009. The sponsors of the Academy are the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool.

The school has an environmental specialism. This means that sustainability and the environment are key focuses across the curriculum.

The area has been awarded “Category 1” funding by the European Union, indicating that it is in the bottom 1% of cities for social deprivation and poverty. The unemployment rate in the surrounding area is 22%. The schools population reflects this, with over 52%[1] of students entitled to free a school meal (which is 3 times the national average) and 42% [2]students diagnosed with some kind of special educational needs.

The ICT in the new school is good with 3 networked ICT suites and further sets of laptops meaning that ICT is more available than in the previous donor school.

The teaching of ICT was when the school opened was based closely on the QCA sample units. These units were very literacy intensive and meant that students in most classes found the curriculum difficult to access. When the curriculum was suitable, progress was limited and slow due to student’s literacy issues. This meant that serious questions were asked as to whether the current scheme was fit for purpose. Due to the lack of consistency in the work being provided by students, assessment also proved to be an issue, with National Curriculum levels proving very difficult to award accurately as students where not demonstrating evidence of all criteria consistently- meaning that targets for pupil attainment where not being met.

This was identified as a particular problem at KS3 as the department’s results at KS4 had been consistently good, with students displaying a positive attitude towards the subject.

The Project

It was decided that a new approach was needed. This solution needed to address two main areas:
A supported curriculum that allowed students to demonstrate higher level skills and minimise the effect of low literacy levels.
An improved method of assessment. One that not only provided accurate evidence for summative assessment, but also one that would provide feedback to students and allow them to personalise their learning- very important under the governments “Every Child Matters” agenda.

We examined several paper based and ICT based solutions, however, most of these were rejected on the basis of expense or that they required a high level of literacy in order to access them which made them inflexible and difficult for staff members to differentiate for lower attaining students.

We finally hit on a two pronged approach that was, in the first instance, ICT based. This was especially appropriate because of the level of technology available to teachers and students during lessons, but also because the paperless nature of the proposed solution fulfilled the environmental ethos of the school.

The first prong was an online scheme of work which was adapted from one created for Notre Dame High School, Norwich. The environmental “Global ICT” ethos was especially suitable. The resources were web based and structured around the QCA KS3 strategy. The modular, chunked approach allowed colleagues to differentiate tasks more easily and I will examine this more in the next section.

The second prong was web based assessment. This was done using a Joint Assessment System created by ISIS software. This was a systematic approach to assessment, based on level descriptors taken directly from the national curriculum. This not only allowed teachers easy access to student work, but also allowed students to record there opinions of the work they had completed and receive instant feedback- again this will be examined in the next section.

The Theory behind the project.

Global ICT was chosen because the instructional design was quite flexible. The initial structure followed a traditional teaching method with a highly structured hierarchy of units, subdivided into lessons and lessons subdivided into individual tasks- of differing states and status.

The natures of these tasks are varied as they examine different skills. They build upon each other and as such are based in a constructivist approach as learning is broken down into bite sized chunks for the learner to digest.

The advantage of this web based system when compared to a traditional system is that all units are accessible to all students at all times. This means that if students wish to learn in a different sequence of events and construct their knowledge in a more meaningful way to them, then they are free to do so! This is in line with Prensky who theorised that modern “digital native” students have different thought processes to digital immigrants and rather than a linear learning journey, their experience is likely to be more parallel.[3]

The use of a core scheme of work also allowed the department to establish shared values and goals. The consistent approach allowed us to establish a “community of practice”[4], where there are shared approaches and goals. This has also allowed the department to view the scheme of work as a more organic item which is seen as the starting point rather than the finish. Colleagues have the time and confidence now to differentiate resources for groups in order to make things more suitable rather than having to create resources from scratch.

Importantly, the constructivist approach does not mean that students are not given the opportunity to go and apply the learning that has taken place. Instead, applying learning and allowing students to reflect on it gives the opportunity for metacognition and actually allows for higher level deeper learning to take place.

Some people would see this approach as “blended” rather than “e” learning. However, I see this as being largely irrelevant as in this particular context students need the support they get from teacher contact; the learning is not designed to be delivered remotely.

The assessment system allows teachers and learners to be involved in an “assessment for learning” approach. The cornerstone of this is that students are able to state which assessment criteria they feel they have met. They are able to upload evidence (via attachments) onto the system and then the teacher is able to draw upon this, their observations of the students’ attainment in class and the students own judgements when assessing the work.

The unique selling point of this system is that when a students completes their assessment, automated feedback is given by the system stating what the students needs to do in order to get to the next level. This allows a more independent approach for the student and means that meaningful, understandable feedback is given instantly- thus meaning that students are more likely to take action on that feedback as the learning is “fresh”. This also addresses a major problem of online systems, in that meaningful feedback at a time when it is needed is difficult to achieve as the tutor is not always available. Whilst the feedback given by the system is generic it is better than nothing.

Analysis

The first limitation to state when trying to analyse the effects that these changes have had is that we are dealing with immediate effects as the program has only been in place for nine months. This means that data sets are largely incomplete so results for current year 9 are current results and will change. However within this constraint it is still possible to draw comparisons.

In order to compare the initial impact of the systems I have taken two controlled samples of year 9 boys. Both sets are set 2 out of 5, both sets have been taught largely in all male classes and both sets have had the same teacher. I did this to try and standardise the sets as much as possible and while the results are by no means statistically significant, they are still extremely interesting:


Considering that the 2007 data still has 3 months to run, it can be seen that there has been a significant impact on the percentage of students gaining level 5 or above, and by the time the 2007 cohort has completed year 9 they will have seen an increase in the number of level 6’s.

The “Global ICT” online scheme of work was free. However, there has been significant time taken to rewrite some of the units that required some work and also management of the system on the school’s intranet. However, these are not direct costs and it is therefore difficult to put a financial value on them.

The school already had an intranet, although it was not populated- the adoption of this system has proved the catalyst for the development of a whole school intranet and has provided valuable understanding for the further development of an “e” learning environment.

The Joint Assessment System, initially cost £150 per year for a subject license. This has since increased to £250 per year. In my opinion, this has been extremely cost effective as the time savings that the new technology provides teachers far outweigh this. Again there is an indirect time cost and the system does take time to manage effectively- although this has largely been done by a teaching assistant employed within the department.

The overall coherence as an educational experience is an extremely positive one. This is because both have been based around the National Curriculum for ICT. They are both looking at achieving the same thing- raising student attainment. We have been able to nest opportunities to use the Joint Assessment System within “Global ICT”. Students complete their own assessments of their work at regular points through the scheme, from their perspective the two systems overlap seamlessly, creating a positive platform for learning to take place.

What is difficult is to decide what part of these two systems has been more effective. Is it that the structure that these systems provide allows the student a more secure environment in which to succeed? Is it that the more focused assessment system enables staff members to identify where students have met certain criteria and thus this has helped to raise levels (although actual student attainment remains unmoved)? Is it that the student self assessment clarifies assessment criteria and thus allows the student a better opportunity to show what they can do.

Is it that the “e” learning approach is more appropriate to students and this has allowed them to learn more? Does the breakdown into tasks and the supporting materials foster a different attitude towards learning- especially with lower sets?

Is it that the combination of the two systems results in a sounder approach to teaching and learning and displays a firmer, more consistent, transferable pedagogy that can be shared by all members of the department?
Conclusions

In order to help answer the previous questions and draw my conclusions I will first try to evaluate the solution that we have installed.

There are many positives that have been experienced by the department.
Ease of use in the subject. ICT is subject where there are obvious advantages for using an ICT based solution for dealing with teaching learning and assessment. Both systems are especially easy to use and integrate well with the use of other technology in the classroom, such as projectors and interactive whiteboards- enabling colleagues and students to maximise the educational value of these technologies.
The system is more easily understood by students. Both in terms of assessment but more fundamentally in the lesson themselves. The question “I don’t know what to do?” which is quite a regular one is much easier to answer and students who have listened first time are able to be increasingly independent in their learning. The assessment which traditionally has been the hardest thing for students to understand is much clearer. It is interesting to see what the students’ opinions are as to what are the considered easier topics and the more difficult ones. Digital natives do not always have the same opinions as the digital immigrants.
Students have made more progress. This is largely due to the provision of task templates. This means that students with literacy issues are supported and are able to demonstrate skills rather than demonstrate literacy issues. This has also helped to boost student self esteem and attitude towards the subject.
The system enables the department to meet the challenges of the “Every Child Matters” agenda in ICT. This is because it caters for a wide range of learning styles, especially the inclusion of some online gaming resources from www.Teach-ICT.com. This allows students to construct knowledge in their own way and this has been observed in lessons where student conversations demonstrate recall of complex ideas and concepts.
Assessment is undoubtedly more accurate. This is because all assessment decisions are made on the criteria. This ensures that students are assessed on their own merits and not on those of the students around them. We are able to quantify grades to the students and justify why they are what they are. What is 8 out of 10? What is a C+?
The general quality of teaching and learning has improved and the delivery is much more consistent. This has been seen in the observations across the department with all colleagues being graded at 2 or higher.

However, there some disadvantages to such an approach:
A single department approach to assessment does make whole school consistency more difficult. The problem with this particular system is that it is difficult, even with good ICT facilities, to accommodate the amount of computer access that would be required for the students to record their judgements (I will temper this by adding that departments could introduce more criteria based assessment.)
The creation of criteria, input of information into the system, and management of the system once up and running did take time. The fact that the Joint Assessment System does not talk readily to the school management information system also meant that certain tasks were duplicated, or not all the functionality of the system could be used efficiently.
The two systems are victims of their own design. They are largely focused on levels 4 to 7; this means that our lowest ability students have found it difficult to access the system.
The interface is very literacy intensive and so students in our year 7 lowest sets have again found certain units difficult to access. However, in year 8 the lowest sets have made excellent progress with targeted support.
JAS has not been accessible from home and this means that assessment judgements have to be made in school rather than at home. There are advanced plans for a virtual learning environment to be installed and this could be addressed- although still to be confirmed.
The adoption of the virtual learning environment and developments within the management information system could make the entire assessment system obsolete within two years.
Although the assessment system has been used effectively in the department, it has not always been used consistently, meaning that initially there are “holes” in some parts of the data. There have also been inconsistencies as to how students have “uploaded” work and whether or not they have then taken notice of staff comments on the system.

In conclusion, the impact from the subject point of view has been extremely positive. The positives listed above are all major wins for us as a department and the initial attainment data from year 9 also supports the observed view that students are doing better with the new approach.

The fact that “Global ICT” and the Joint Assessment System have been adopted by all members of staff means that there is now a consistency that would have been difficult to quantify previously. It also shows that the department’s results are fast improving. The fact the assessment system has not been used consistently is an issue, however, this is not unexpected when introducing a new system and as long as this addressed, does not out weigh the advantages.

The effects are more mixed when viewed from an organisational perspective. This has been a valuable “test bed” experience for the school and the fact that the approach has led to increased whole school use of the intranet and has informed choices when adopting a virtual learning environment can only be seen as positive things. However, introducing systems piecemeal could cause some conflict further down the line, if decisions are made either to introduce this on a whole school basis, or introduce a whole school assessment policy that the assessment system will not fulfil.

Even though the system has made it easier for students with poor literacy to access the curriculum, it has made it very clear that in order to make sure that every student is able to do that support has got to be very carefully planned and applied.

However, overall I feel that the introduction of “Global ICT” and the “Joint Assessment System” has been very successful. We have achieved largely what we set out to at introduction and they have resulted in improved performance from learners and the department alike.

With future ICT access, improvements maybe possible to make this approach (or one similar) whole school, however, to be truly successful it must be seen as starting point for a whole school approach to teaching, learning and assessment. The movement towards an asynchronous environment, where students are able to develop the literacies that they will need for the internet age, is a very challenging one. However, in order to have a platform to introduce students to the world of blogs, wikis, podcasts and the writing skills and thinking skills that these will require, this approach will enable this in some way. This will also be the biggest challenge to educators as the skills that we are teaching to the digital natives will need to learnt and understood by the digital immigrants.



[1] School SEF September 2006
[2] School SEF September 2006
[3] Prensky, 2001: Digital Natives Digital Immigrants
[4]Etienne Wenger: Communities of Practice (1998)