You can never know enough about Micrsoft Word, and here`s Jason Anderson with a few insider tips to help you get more out of it.

Like most people today, word processing is a significant aspect of my job – writing reports, plans, minutes and so on – and, like everyone else, I’m always trying to find ways to speed up the process. So here are a few of the ‘top tips’ that I use regularly.

Jumping through text
Once I start typing a document, I find that using the mouse slows me down, so I prefer to use keystrokes to format and navigate around text. To move the cursor from one word to the next, simply hold down the Ctrl key and either the left or right direction arrow. Using Ctrl and either the Delete or Backspace key will remove a word at a time. Furthermore, holding the Shift and Ctrl while using the arrow keys selects a word at a time; extremely useful for when you want to format text.

Font size shortcut
There are many ways of formatting text in Word (bold, italics and underline are the most common), but it’s the font size that I find myself altering the most. So I was particularly glad when a Year 9 student showed me how to change the point size by selecting the text and using Ctrl and [ to decrease the size, or Ctrl and ] to increase. However, after doing this I often forget to remove the formatting for the rest of the sentence! To fix this, simply selecting the incorrectly formatted text and pressing Ctrl and Space will return the text to its default setting.

Rogue capitals
Because my typing has a tendency to be rather haphazard, I also Make MISTAKES wITH Capital LettERS. This used to require me to either retype the sentence, or go through the Format menu; but now I just select the offending text and press Shift and F3 (which toggles between lower case, UPPERCASE and Title Case).

I used to get very frustrated when using images in Word, mainly because I was unable to crop, resize or position them exactly where I wanted. A colleague informed me that holding Shift while drawing a shape constrained the ‘aspect ratio’ ( another way of saying ‘drawing a perfect square or circle’ ), which made things a bit easier.

Furthermore, when it comes to positioning objects, holding Ctrl and using the direction keys allows you to move one pixel at a time. If you use Alt while cropping an image, you can control the crop lines far more precisely. It’s easy when you know how!

More Handy Tips…
USING AUTO CORRECT

We all know that the Auto Correct feature in Word is great for correcting all those spelling mistakes that we make, but what about using it to complete phrases and sentences that we type often? When typing reports, I often have to make a judgement about what I have observed, for example, “The quality of teaching and learning is excellent.” Because this phrase gets typed regularly (along with the other OfSTED judgements), I began using Auto Correct to do the hard work for me.

To set this up, go Tools > AutoCorrect Options… This opens up the following box (b) Enter a short name for the sentence or phrase that you want Auto Correct to complete for you in the Replace box. Make sure that it is memorable; otherwise the process will not work! In my example I have named the “The quality of teaching and learning is excellent” as qtl1 (the 1 refers to the OfSTED grade). Then add the complete text in the With box, and click Add. The first sentence is now complete – so every time I type ‘qtl1’ into the document, the whole sentence now appears. I find this technique particularly useful when writing pupil progress reports where there is a great deal of repetition.

SETTING UP PAGES
I am forever changing the page set-up of documents, in particular the margins and found that trying to get precise measurements for the margins was a bit hit or miss! However, holding down the Alt key while dragging the indent markers makes this much clearer by showing the margins in centimetres. Furthermore, double-clicking on the grey area of the margin ruler (a) opens up the page set-up box for changing the document orientation. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, hold down the Ctrl button while scrolling to zoom in and out of the document.

Assessment need no longer be a headache thanks to the joint assessment system JAS. Shaun Eason gives an insight. 

Assessment of students’ work isn’t the most exhilarating of jobs a teacher has to do, so anything that makes it more streamlined or easier has to be a good thing, which is exactly what the Joint Assessment System (JAS) is. I’d heard about JAS and knew that OfSTED had apparently praised the software in their inspections, so I managed to get hold of a sample, was impressed and bought it using my school’s e-Learning credits.

How it works
JAS is assessment software, primarily for ICT. It allows teachers to allocate KS3 levels to pupils based on a tick box system. Once purchased, you email or post the JAS team a fi le of your KS3 classes, and they will upload that information into your school’s JAS
system, which makes it school based rather than internet-based. Once you’re in the program, you click on boxes next to statements and performance criteria, which you use to give levels to pupils. It also enables pupils to self-assess their progress.  This in itself is desirable, as self-assessment is one of the more popular buzzwords at present.

How I use JAS
In our school, I’ve developed a pretty foolproof system for using the JAS software, that basically takes in three main steps:

1. Pupils self-assess what they think they can do using the self-assessment program. They then print out a report that tells them what NC (National Curriculum) level they are and what they need to target in order for them to progress to the next level.

2. I then assess the pupils and alter their record depending on whether I think they have been too generous or too strict. I print out a report and that’s my record.

3. A class table of levels is then printed and used as assessment evidence. If there is a difference between what level the pupil has assessed themselves as and what I have assessed them as, we have a chat and discuss the levels and I may need to explain why their assessment needs altering.

Extra features
That’s the basics, but there are lots of other add-ons and tools that JAS can offer, including reports to parents and options for teachers to write extra comments about pupils. Comments and levels can then be automatically inserted into the report to parents without any fiddling. Furthermore, tables of levels can be saved in CSV format and loaded into an Excel spreadsheet. So for those of you who enjoy charts and diagrams to back up the figures in explaining value added, this may appeal.

The pros and cons
The main benefit is the time that JAS saves in assessing pupils and writing reports. It’s also very affordable (about £200 for the
software and set-up) and can be purchased with e-Learning credits. Obviously JAS is a database of fixed statements and these statements decide the levels.

You can write your own statements, but it takes longer, and is something I just wouldn’t ever get round to doing! Some pupils assess themselves higher than they actually are, but that would occur whether a system were online or paper-based. Another factor to point out is the security. It is possible to allocate students with passwords, but that’s just another password to forget. This theoretically means that students could log in to other students’ assessments, but in reality, this didn’t happen. Setting up isn’t easy. Your network manager/technician will need to be given time to set it up, but the JAS offer support and once it’s set up, it’s easy to use. There are options for adding statement and units, and other subject areas can put their units of assessment too, which opens it up to the whole staff. You can find out more information about the latest version 3 of the software at www.jointassessment.co.uk.

Conclusion
Our experience of JAS has been a positive one. There’s next to no hassle thanks to the fact that it can be set up for you. It removes the need for development of resources in the self-assessment department. Looking to the future, JAS is constantly developing and improving, and we’re enjoying every minute of it! If only it could do the marking for me too!

Jim Fanning and his staff share their ICT teaching and learning with the wider community. Here he explains how...

Meet the teacher
Jim Fanning is assistant head teacher and head of Languages and of the Enterprise Faculty at Tideway Community School and Sixth Form Centre in Newhaven, East Sussex.

Here at Tideway School, we have a long history of working in the community, everything from designing murals for the local railway station to sponsored walks for charity. The school became a specialist technology college in 2003, and one of the key elements of our bid was to take technology out into the local community. Over these two pages, I’ll introduce you to just some of the ways we’ve managed to do this…

Writing the plan
In the school technology plan, Design Technology and ICT subject areas set themselves targets, in partnership with a range of local organisations, some of which have contributed financially to our bid. Objectives involved work in four key areas: to create partnerships with local junior schools to improve pupil transition; to work with local industry to offer relevant qualifications and access to up-to-date technical facilities; to provide advice and training to community groups; and to offer courses to young people who had left school but wanted ICT qualifications.

Over the four-year ‘life’ of the plan it has become obvious that some of the original targets were unrealistic, but targets have been re-evaluated regularly to ensure they are achievable and relevant to local needs.

Technical support
People matter, and rather than just offering community groups a range of pre-paid services, Tideway started to appoint a number of new staff. The first of these was Jon, a full-time community e-Learning technician. He visits junior schools on a weekly basis, and offers an emergency on-call service, something our partners had identified as a real need. The initial aim behind the appointment was purely to offer network technical support, but over time Jon’s role has developed.

He’s worked with students and staff on a creative learning project that took them to the Mary Rose, as well as drama work at a medieval priory. His technical, video recording and editing skills made the projects a great success.

Extra support
We also appointed James as a part-time community support coordinator. As a member of the local fi re service, he already had excellent community links and he used these to great effect in recruiting other adults to work on school projects. His programme of Saturday morning transition classes, saw Year 6 pupils getting a taste of various secondary subjects including Design Technology, where they had access to industry-standard hardware and software (laser cutters, CAD software, vacuum formers, etc) to make keyrings. As one parent said, “There is nowhere else locally that my son would have been able to work on such a project. He’s really looking forward to secondary school now!” Maths skills were delivered through outdoor expedition work and Science was cleverly disguised as a rocket building class.

Other classes have included web design, cookery, podcasting and filmmaking. Pupils have had fun and learned new skills, but they’ve also taken that important first step to secondary school. James has also tutored junior school staff in web design, arranged for KS2 pupils to use Tideway facilities on an after-school basis, and loaned laptops, cameras and other PC equipment. He also helped to deliver the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) qualification to young people living at the Foyer, a Salvation Army-sponsored centre in Newhaven.

Adult education
Some targets have proved more challenging than others. Encouraging adults in the community to take up the offer of ICT training has been diffi cult. Classes in school, during the day, on evenings or weekends failed to attract participants in any great numbers. In a case of ‘if they won’t come to us, we’ll go to them’, we offered computer helpdesk programmes at the local pub, which attracted far more adults than classes in school would ever do!

Field trips
Newhaven Fort is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the Southeast, and a popular venue for school visits. Our Year 11 students have worked with fort staff to design learning materials for school visits including a CD-ROM guide and a website that schools and youth groups can use to download resources that will enhance the fort experience. Working on this project, pupils have developed good business skills, technical skills in the use of hardware and software, and some great links with local companies.

Older citizens
Many schools offer ‘silver surfer’ clubs as part of their community plans. Tideway linked this to an oral history project to record the memories of senior citizens and create a database of personal stories for future generations. This led to some great links with our local day care centre who were keen to update the technology they used for administration. Tideway donated and installed the necessary equipment, and although not part of the original technology plan, it shows how the plan has evolved to meet changing needs.

Keeping up to date
Promoting the work of the school and informing the community about ICT developments is important. Tideway publishes a term-by-term newsletter that carries news and views from all of our local partners and is widely distributed throughout the town and local area.

Reporting progress
How do you measure your success? Do you leave it to teachers to make judgements or do you reach out into the community for this assessment? Tideway has boldly commissioned Pam, a local youth worker, to produce an independent report on the ways in which we are meeting our technology plan targets. She has just produced a no-holds barred account and it’s proving an invaluable resource that we can use in our ongoing development.

Looking ahead
Our latest project illustrates everything that we have learned about community work in the past three years. From now until January 2007, our e-Moderators – a group of ex-students who were recruited to develop out-of-school-use of our Learning Platform – are working with staff, students, Newhaven Fort, local businesses, other schools and members of the community on a Holocaust Remembrance Project. With visits to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and to Auschwitz, this project will bring an international dimension to our community work using online conferencing to involve other partner groups.

Conclusion
This is just a taster of the work we’ve been involved in with our local community. Without specialist status much of this would not have happened. A guiding principle behind any community work involving ICT should be ‘Fail fast forward’. If projects don’t work, move on quickly to your next success. In the fast-moving world of ICT, the community expects no less.

Literacty is high on the education agenda, and Fiona hover has found and ICT tool that can help.

Meet the teacher
Fiona Hover is a teacher at The Dyslexia Institute in Egham, Surrey and a lecturer at Greenwich Community College. She has years of experience dealing with students with special needs.

Research has shown that for ‘special needs’ students, literacy often requires more time than is currently available within the school curriculum. To this end, Dyslexia Action has produced a home version of the popular computer-based program used in many schools and colleges for teaching reading and spelling to students who have difficulties decoding and encoding. Units Of Sound: Literacy That Fits contains a suite of four programs –
Reading, Spelling, Memory and Dictation – with the same highly structured content as the school’s and college’s version. It can be used independently at home with a parental figure as ‘helper’ or as part of a school programme supervised by a teacher or Learning Support Assistant (LSA).

Hard work
Many teachers find it hard to cope with children who are behind with reading and spelling in the classroom, especially when English is not a first language. Independent work can be challenging for both teacher and pupil, and these frustrations inhibit learning even more. Using a PC, Units Of Sound teaches children (and adults) to master the reading, spelling and pronunciation of English words with minimum input from expensive teaching staff. By introducing phonically related words in groups, Units Of Sound teaches phonics while developing quick visual recognition of words. It builds steadily and sequentially the knowledge needed to access the intricacies of English reading and spelling.

Each word is heard and practised before a recording of the user compared with the computer voice is played back. A student can play and replay the sound clips as many times as needed to acquire the skill. Units Of Sound allows students to practise single words, sentences and passages. It teaches how to phrase sentences for understanding and automatic delivery. Words of more than one syllable can be split into syllables with a right mouse click. Individual phonemes can also be displayed. The recently added programs of Memory and Dictation allow students to master the visual sequencing and auditory discrimination vital for writing English accurately and fluently. Starting at simple short vowel words, both programs progress to reading and spelling of phrases and sentences challenging enough for undergraduates.

Multiple users
The multi-user version of Units Of Sound has a comprehensive Student Management system for monitoring a large number of students. In contrast Units Of Sound: Literacy That Fits has no separate student management. Users can choose whether to enter as an ‘independent student’ or a ‘supported student’, in which case they see the familiar student screen they are used to at school or college and simply enter the Stage and Page number they have been instructed to practise. As an ‘independent student’ they are guided through the placement process and select the programs from an overview screen that gives details of work completed and sets the next lesson. Audio help is always available.

Conclusion
There is insufficient space here to explain all the features of Units Of Sound: Literacy That Fits but the benefits are simple: no lesson planning or specialist knowledge are required, and independent learning at home and school results in faster progress for students. Visit www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk to find out more information.

Bring memories and results of field trips back to life in the classroom thanks to the use of ICT, as Phil Bagge explains.

Hengistbury Head is a headland that flanks Christchurch harbour, and our school has recently been carrying out various field trips there, to study different forms of erosion, but also to see how human use of the Head over history has changed its landscape. In the 13 trips that we made between March and July with 180 nine- and ten-year-olds, we’ve picked up lots of information and data, and I feel the best way to bring this to life, in the field and back in the classroom, is to use ICT. Here, I hope to bring you some inspiring ideas of how to use technology to make field trips more exciting, whether it’s before, during or after the actual trip.

Heading to the Head
My first trip to Hengistbury Head was on a field trip as a NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher). In those days, we marched the pupils round the Head at breakneck speed, filled in worksheets and had a quick paddle in the sea. When planning this year’s trip, it was interesting to reflect on how things have changed, not just because I’m a more mature, experienced teacher, but also because of our use of ICT.

Back in January, my wife and I visited the Head to carry out a risk assessment, using a digital camera to take pictures of the risks we needed to minimise. There’s a lot to think about when planning a trip to a location that involves cliff faces, a beach, sometimes rough seas, a busy harbour and steep, slippery slopes! We attached these photos to the risk assessment report, and this gave the county LEA a much clearer idea of our planned visit.

I also did some research on the internet, where I found some amazing diagrams of the Head 2,000 years ago, showing the extent of erosion and areas where settlements had been found. Using a printer and laminator,
pupils could study these diagrams and get a feel of what was discovered up on the Head and how much it has been eroded.

Standing on top of the Headand getting pupils to visualise the ancient coastline gave them a real sense of the changing landscape, something that all the classroom study in the world doesn’t replicate. That is not to say that the Internet provides everything. The Google Earth photos of the Head were of a poor quality and I had to return to aerial photos, which were taken in the 70s when looking at landmarks.

Learning techniques
I have always hated worksheets; I find them a very boring way of teaching and learning on field trips. I wanted a way whereby pupils could record and reflect on what they had learnt about erosion at the Head, so we purchased 15 cheap digital cameras.

Admittedly, the picture quality isn’t the best, but they work with any PC without any additional software or extra drivers. Pupils took photos of various things: the cliffs showing sea erosion, the top of the Head where there is good evidence of wind erosion, the lake built to stop the Head being cut in half by rain and sea on the site of the old iron stone mine, examples of human attempts to slow down erosion, and the Marram grass whose long roots help stop wind erosion. When we got back to school, pupils downloaded the photos and then used them the next day in their reflections on the trip.

I admit I was a little worried that someone would lose a camera but the nearest we came on the trip was almost losing one camera case! The fact that they were small enough to fit in their pockets probably helped. My colleague at school remarked that it was one of their best pieces of work they carried out that year, but on reflection, it wasn’t the photos that made it so good. I think the fact that they’d visited the site in the flesh was the main factor, although the cameras helped those pupils less skilled in writing and memory to organize their work and leave little out.

Analysing data
Being the school’s ICT manager, I must confess that my other reason for enthusiastically organising the trip was a desire to carry out a field survey of human use of Hengistbury Head that could be fed into a database and analysed for real trends. This is part of my endless quest to create a database that uses real, meaningful data that goes beyond class surveys or game card facts. Both of these have their place, of course, but don’t stretch pupils enough in the top half of junior school.

I designed a survey using Junior Viewpoint asking questions about what people were doing on the Head, how old they were and if they were on an established path, so we could record how much new human erosion was being created. We also recorded what the weather was like, to see if some activities were more prevalent in different weather conditions. We carried out the survey in different areas and were only allowed to include people we could see in a set time.

Of course there were gaps in our research; after all, we always went on the same day of the week, within the same four-hour time slot and always within school times. Each pupil filled in a copy of the survey, which was my worst mistake. We should have filled in one survey collectively so we would have ended up with 13 records; instead we ended up with 180, which took a long time to input on to the database!

Survey results
Allowing for pupil inaccuracy, our research still yielded some interesting information. We noted that the Head had many elderly visitors, especially on the level paths. Another sizable group was walking dogs and a significant number had young children in tow.
This led to discussions about the population of Christchurch, and we visited the National Statistics website to look at populations and ages. We saw a significant percentage of people walking off the concrete paths adding to human erosion, which sparked a discussion as to whether we should always stay on the path.

If I had had more time, I would have followed this up with two groups of pupils arguing from both perspectives. In hindsight, my questions were a bit too wordy to display well on Junior Viewpoint, and there were also possibly too many of them, but we can easily rectify these errors, and develop our research as time goes on.

Whole ICT experience
ICT was used from start to finish on this school trip. It enhanced my delivery by providing relevant documents, digital photos aided pupils in their quest to remember what they had seen and discussed, and it provided a good tool to analyse data we collected. The trip has never been so successful and a large part of this is down to the way ICT opens up new opportunities, allowing data and information to be really accessible to pupils and staff.

We all want to make our budgets stretch further, and here, Brian Johnson explains how leasing can save money.

Brian Johnson has over 20 years’ experience of teaching and working with ICT. He is head teacher and ICT co-coordinator at Lynemouth First School in Northumberland.
I’m now in my ninth year as a head teacher and, as an ICT enthusiast, with a reasonable amount of expertise, I’ve always been prepared to go it alone and make significant ICT purchases when needs dictated and when fi nance permitted. I’ve successfully equipped our ICT suite (twice), organised the installation of data projectors and whiteboards, and purchased a range of other hardware. It’s an important part of my job but ‘getting it right’ places large demands on my time. Bearing this in mind, when our equipment next needs updating, I’ll seriously consider the many leasing options now available to schools.

Over these two pages, I’ll take a look at the pros and cons of the various purchasing options that are available; then it’s up to you to decide what’s best for you and your budget.

OPTION 1: One-off purchases
At the risk of stating the obvious, this option allows schools to purchase equipment when they feel finance allows and when needs dictate. I’ve done this successfully over the past nine years, building up our ICT provision and updating kit on an ongoing basis, but there are risks. If a school is intending to ‘go it alone’ it needs to be sure that a number of pre-conditions are met, including…

• Having the expertise in-school which can cope with the ‘minefield’ of selecting and installing the most appropriate equipment/software.

• Making sure that these experts are given plenty of time to research suitable products so that they make the correct choices.

• Having technical expertise readily available to deal with equipment and systems that fail.

• Having the confidence that there are enough ‘experts’ in school to maintain its long term strategic development of ICT.

What happens if key staff leave, for instance? During my time as a head I’ve been able to allocate a significant amount of time to ICT resource acquisition. I’ve also had the added benefit of having technical support from our local Education Action Zone (EAZ) and the luxury of a teaching assistant capable of dealing with simple technical problems in between visits from the technician. However, a number of things have happened that have gradually impacted on my ability to devote as much of my time to maintain and develop our current provision. I’m sure colleagues reading this will be well aware of the constant stream of government initiatives that schools have had to cope with in recent years; dealing with these while trying to keep up with rapidly changing advances in technology has become increasingly difficult. In addition, the end of the EAZ means our weekly technician visits have changed to fortnightly, funded by our local Excellence Cluster. This has had a cumulative effect on our ability to ensure that everything is in working order. The gap between visits is too long, hence we are struggling to maintain the equipment we’ve got.

A drop in pupil numbers and the resultant budget cuts have exacerbated the problem. Our teaching assistant can no longer devote so much of her time to ICT, as she now has to support curriculum work in classes and teachers’ PPA (Planning, Preparation & Assessment) time.  Finally, any budget fluctuations could, in the future, have a significant effect on our ability to commit large ‘one-off’ sums of money to update our ICT equipment. Bearing all of the above in mind, we are now seriously considering the leasing options available to schools.

OPTION 2: Leasing
This option involves a school entering into a contractual agreement with a company, which includes an agreed schedule of payments over a certain period of time. The leasing company owns the equipment, but some companies offer the chance to buy the equipment at the end of the lease. So what are the overall benefits of leasing? Below are some of the main reasons why an increasing number of schools are choosing this option:

Financing equipment allows schools to conserve their working budgets, which can then be used on other priority areas identified in the School Improvement Plan.

Budgeting for ICT should be much less stressful. Rentals are fixed during the term of the lease and can be tailored to match income patterns.

The process is usually quick and convenient for schools, and solutions can be tailored to individual needs.

Leasing can help schools avoid getting caught in the technology trap, as there’s usually the possibility of updating equipment either during or at the end of the lease.

Rental agreements usually offer a flexible approach towards paying for equipment. Rental profiles can be structured on a monthly, quarterly, term-by-term or annual basis.

You get all of the equipment from the outset without paying a large initial capital outlay.

There are, of course, potential pitfalls associated with leasing. One of the main issues schools will need to consider is that if they take advantage of options to update their existing equipment, they may find they’re tied to one supplier for an extended period, during which time they might miss out on more attractive offers elsewhere. In addition, lease contracts can vary significantly from company to company. It is essential that schools carefully check details and obtain independent advice from sources such as the Local Education Authority.

OPTION 3: Managed services
If schools want a complete solution to their ICT needs, they may want to go down the managed services route. In simple terms, a supplier undertakes to manage and support a school’s ICT facilities. The arrangement usually has a service level agreement and can also include the provision of hardware and software, as well as other services such as Internet access, technical support and training. This type of arrangement is very useful to schools where the level of technical expertise and availability of support is limited. It could also be very useful to many primary head teachers charged with the task of making major ICT purchasing decisions: a one-stop shop for all their ICT needs that could be the answer to their prayers!

On a more cautionary note, schools need to be aware that this approach – as with leasing – can usually involve a long-term commitment to a particular supplier or technological approach. Take advice from a range of sources before making such a major commitment.

Getting advice
Nowadays, most education authorities should be able to give well-informed, impartial advice and should be well placed to know their local schools’ ICT requirements. They should be able to assess the various options available and identify sources of supply. Schools can also take advantage of advice from independent consultants and companies but care needs to be taken when buying professional advice to ensure that you are getting value for money. Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) has an excellent website (www.becta.org.uk) that provides background advice and links to a range of other potentially useful sites. Follow the link to the ‘Schools’ section then to the ‘Leadership and Management’ area where there is useful advice and information for all those who are involved in ICT purchasing decisions.

Conclusion
The background research undertaken for this article, and the process of writing it, has served to convince me that the next time my ICT provision needs updating, I will be looking at the various leasing options available. I no longer have the time – or the inclination – to work it all out for myself! Far better to let someone else do it for me. That’s my choice, but what will you do?

Changes to the curriculum for 14 to 19 year olds could have an impact on ICT provision in schools. Liz Newcombe takes a closer look.

Impending changes to the 14-19 curriculum aim to transform secondary and post-secondary education so that all young people achieve and continue in learning until at least the age of 18. Young people between the ages of 14 and 19 will be provided with an increased choice and a system better tailored to the needs of the individual pupil.

Why the change?
One of the main reasons for this change is to tackle the low post-16 participation in education. It is anticipated that participation at age 17 will increase from 75% to 90% over the next ten years. There is also a need to ensure that every young person has a sound grounding in the basics of English, Maths and the skills, including ICT, needed for employment. Young people need better vocational routes than currently provided to equip them for further learning and employment. With vocational avenues in different settings, this should re-engage young people who have become disaffected by more traditional modes of learning.

New specialised diplomas
Fourteen new specialised diplomas, covering every occupational sector, will be introduced by 2015, designed to prove standards in English and Maths, and relevant work experience. There will be more opportunities for young people to learn at work and outside school, and natural progression routes will be developed through the levels of the diploma and between GCSEs and A levels and the different levels of the diploma. One of the first five to be introduced in 2008 is IT.

IT diploma
This extract, taken from the 14-19 website, provides a ‘flavour’ of the IT diploma. “The diploma will offer a radically new development opportunity, stretching and engaging a wide spectrum of students with highly relevant, business-orientated learning.

This will be particularly relevant to those considering IT professional or business-orientated roles in their future careers… It will provide students with the knowledge and experience that will enhance their employment prospects in any sector. Young people will be able to choose a balance of learning appropriate to their aspirations.” At Level 3, it is anticipated that the diploma will give students a solid understanding of modern businesses, technology fundamentals and the application of IT in support of business operations.

English and Maths will be a key part of the programme with particular focus on written and spoken language. Through the Extended Project, students will learn and apply industry-relevant project management disciplines, including project planning, risk analysis and progress monitoring. The diploma will also include a wide range of options valued by employers in the sector, including A Levels and IT professional qualifications. Employers will be engaged throughout the diploma experience, helping to provide up-to-date work projects, mentoring and work-related experiences.

Food for thought
While the specific detail of the diploma is still yet to be finalised, it is clear that this strategy is at last seeking to address the limited vocational learning opportunities in our educational system compared to other countries. This has to be done if we want to engage more young people in decisions about their futures. Whether there has been an adequate lead-in time to get the curriculum in place is perhaps debatable, but we shall see how things progress over the coming months.

PC World Education supports various projects that bring technology to a wider audience. Lisa Savage looks at two of the latest schemes.

There are many schemes in place around the country designed to raise awareness of ICT in education and in the wider community, and PC World Education has long been a support of various charities and communities. Two of the schemes that PCWE’s parent company DSGi (Dixons Store Group International) is involved in are the Switched On Communities and Learn Anywhere campaigns. Through these projects, PCWE hopes to raise awareness of technology, increase training opportunities and transform teaching. Here’s a brief overview of the two schemes, and information on how you and your school or college can get involved…

Switched On Communities
Switched On Communities is DSGi’s three-year community investment programme that will support disadvantaged local communities through the provision of technology and training. The campaign has been kick-started with donations of nearly £3 million split between four charities: e- Learning Foundation, Eco-Schools, Foyer and Ability Net.

Baroness Estelle Morris, Chair of the e-learning Foundation, is certain that the scheme will help introduce the basic concepts of ICT, a necessity in our increasingly hi-tech society. “Today, technology is so integrated into our daily lives, we take it for granted,” she comments. “Yet 2.5 million schoolchildren do not have access to IT and the Internet at home, and are victims of the digital divide. Access to and familiarity with IT is critical to their futures as it has become the medium of global business.” The project with the e-Learning Foundation should provide prime funding for around 30 local schools and communities, speeding up the process of delivering technology into the hands of those who need it most.

The link between PCWE and Eco-Schools aims raise awareness of environmental issues in school, funding energy-efficient appliances, healthy eating programmes and other equipment.  PCWE have linked up with Foyer, a charity that supports more than 10,000 16- to 25-year-olds each year, combining accommodation, training, job searches, life skills and personal support. PCWE are also working with AbilityNet, working with organizations across the UK to bring expert advice and information to ensure that any disabled people can experience the liberating effect of accessible IT.

PC World encourage their staff and stores to get involved by applying for grants to support locals or by organising events to raise even more money to donate to the four linked charities. For more information about how you and your school or college can receive help and support from the Switched On Communities project, you should enquire at your local school, or contact us direct at Learning Curve magazine (education@pcwb.com).

Learn Anywhere
This is a scheme that has been developed by a company called Syscap in order to promote use of technology in schools, in line with the DfES’s “Harnessing Technology” eStrategy, published in 2005. Through the scheme, PC World Education are able to offer a special leasing scheme to educational establishments that enables the school to purchase laptops using parental contributions, to which 28p Gift Aid is added to every £1 donated. The scheme is fully project managed to the schools’ or college’s specification and timescales, and it allows the school to engage directly with PCWE in partnership, rather than in a traditional customer-supplier relationship.

In a wider perspective, this will help schools and colleges attain the DfES and BECTA targets of “achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness”, “building an open accessible system with more information and services online for parents and carers, children, young people, adult learners and employers”, and “creating a personalised Learning space with the potential to support e-Portfolios available to every school by 2007/08”.

Learners will benefit from access to a personal computer, more ways to learn, more subjects to choose from, more flexible study and a personal online learning space. The parents or carers will also be able to take advantage of the leasing scheme, making computers and the internet available to more students at home, not just at school or college.

The Learn Anywhere scheme is still in its infancy, but PCWE’s involvement in the project is certainly evidence of the forward-thinking that’s going on everywhere in education at the moment. For information on how your

Each term we ask our panel of teachers to offer their opinions on a hot topic, and this winter we ask for their predictions about the future of technology in education.

Q
Discussion
How do you see education and ICT developing over the next five years?

JULIE CRINSON: Sharing of resources via websites will continue, freeing up teachers’ time and giving us a range of quality teaching materials. With film and media playing a significant role, we’ll see more child-friendly cameras and other kit.

PAUL VALE: ICT will become the infrastructure to underpin the way we educate our children. Schools will embrace the ICT curriculum and realise that ICT can positively enhance other subjects. We’ll also see more investment in ICT suites, more wireless technology, school networks and broadband becoming the norm.

JASON ANDERSON: I think there’ll be a real integration of ICT to enhance subject teaching, and greater emphasis on the use of ICT to support leadership and management.

JACKIE ROGERS: New schools will build in all the ICT that will be required for the foreseeable future: entry/exit systems, wireless networks, automatic registration, ICT facilities in all classrooms and so on.

JIM FANNING: Learning Platforms are the next ‘killer application’ to be implemented from 2008 (although that date seems unrealistic). We’ll probably see more of a blend of hi-tech and traditional approaches to teaching/learning.

KEVIN THOMPSON: The ‘out-of-school learning’ concept will become more of a reality with schools encouraging students to submit work electronically and give feedback the same way. In Scotland the Scottish Schools Digital Network (GLOW) will be implemented, linking all our educational institutions, allowing more use of video conferencing, movies on demand and collaborative working.

FIONA HOVER: Many schools will experiment with intranets, but much of the new technology will be within the school infrastructure with things like student response systems, interactive whiteboards, tablet PCs, plasma screens and electronic entry systems.

PHIL BAGGE: I think speech-recognition controlled computers will finally come of age. This could bring speaking and listening firmly back on to the agenda in a way that it hasn’t been since the days when rhetoric was king.

ROBERT SMITH: The Internet will be used more to deliver all forms of education and assessment.

SHAUN EASON: Courses offered will change to reflect the increasing use of Virtual Learning Environments and online assessment.

LIZ NEWCOMBE: There will be a more universal response to whiteboards in the classroom and the use of e-Portfolios. The government has pledged that every child will get a unique identifier in the near future, enabling them to transfer their e-Portfolio from one educational institution to another.

Q
And what about beyond that: the next 10 or 20 years?

JULIE: I think pupils will learn more independently, from home or elsewhere, using laptops, internet, TV or mobile phones. The need for social interaction, play and the ‘classroom’ environment will never be lost, but I’d welcome any technology that can aid my practice, and innovate and inspire.

PAUL: I’m certain we’ll be using portable and wireless technologies far more effectively to enhance the way we learn.

JASON: ICT as a ‘subject’ will no longer exist, as the knowledge, skills and understanding of the ICT curriculum will be taught through other subjects. Hopefully we’ll see a true ‘any time, anywhere’ approach to learning. Who says that learning can only take place in certain buildings at certain times?

JACKIE: I’m hoping that we don’t ‘progress’ to the point of virtual teachers, as students are unable to teach themselves. Information overload is in the wings already, and we all know that students can only take in new ideas one bite at a time. I just hope that all students have access to enough ICT to enable them to progress at an equal pace.

JIM: Simply placing technology in schools without any change to existing structures and pedagogy will result in schools looking the same in 20 years’ time as they do now. The DfES Every Child Matters agenda (2006) states that teachers will become facilitators, supporters and promoters of children’s learning, and that networked learning communities will become essential. All that sounds fi ne, but it won’thappen within the confi nes of a traditional curriculum or school timetable.

KEVIN: Learning will become much more ‘on demand’ across all generations. Everyone could have a handheld communication device with constant net access, music fi les, phone and so on, so access to information will be instant. Teachers will still be needed, but their role will be much different.

FIONA: Many current school buildings will be replaced and rebuilt with known technology in mind: using horseshoe layouts and learning pods that can convert into larger spaces using movable screens instead of walls.

ROBERT: I imagine that universities could almost disappear, as many higher-level courses could be taught in virtual classrooms.

SHAUN: I can see a great deal more happening in terms of fl exible learning, and the internet becoming free while other products like telephone connections are bought. More voice-recognition packages will be used to accelerate working. I’d like to think education will embrace online learning, where courses can be taken from home and at school. Maybe groups of schools will help each other in terms of their specialisms and enable this to happen through video conferencing.

LIZ: The changes that have taken place in higher education in relation to ‘blended learning’ will undoubtedly impact in secondary education, with some elements being taught using ICT as a vehicle from any location, particularly in relation to vocational education.

Q
How are you preparing for the future at your school, college or place of work?

JULIE: We have a programme of replacement and upgrade for tired computers and laptops, and I keep an eye on the latest products at BETT and in professional journals.

PAUL: I have always liked to keep an eye out for new technologies and enjoyed the thrill of seeing how they can positively affect lifestyles. Using the Mac ability to create animations and movies has been a major step forward for me, particularly in teaching.

JASON: I don’t think you can ‘futureproof’. The best you can do is listen carefully to the ‘movers and shakers’ and hope that it is education that steers the agenda, not the manufacturers.

JIM: We have a four-year rolling replacement programme for our hardware, with an eye to what new developments are on the horizon. We’re investing heavily in a Learning Platform, assuming it will be at least fi ve years before it’s embedded across the curriculum.

KEVIN: We’ve always been at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies so hopefully we’ll continue to pioneer new styles of learning for all.

FIONA: We’re embarking on a large MIS system and looking into better use of broadband to link our 26 centres as well as creating more distance learning courses. More people are working from home, saving expensive offi ce space and heating/lighting, and online conferences, saving time and money on travel.

PHIL: You can’t ‘futureproof’ equipment but you can encourage staff to be flexible towards change. After all, our greatest resource is our staff, and by responding to staff needs and keeping planning current, we encourage the idea of a continually changing fl exible curriculum that grows with the technology.

ROBERT: I’m becoming more involved in developing learning materials that are used to deliver distance learning courses, where students access the materials via the internet.

SHAUN: I am keeping up to date with developments and talking to anyone who has a stake in the industry. Futureproofi ng to me means making sure everyone is up to date with new developments and has an idea of what is available to them through the use of ICT. Futureproofi ng also means convincing current sceptics that this is the way forward. That way, the future will be less of a shock for them.

LIZ: At the moment I am doing some intensive training in both e-Portfolios and ‘blended learning’. However, there is also a need to think creatively about their use. As with all ICT, it is not about using it per se but using it creatively when appropriate.