ICT Vision

[IanT]

My school is opening up a new school in 2010 and the head needs some form of ICT Vision, I want to be part of that and I want to give her an ICT Vision for the school, does anyone know where I start, any web sites?

[lthompson]

I have just found myself in the same position you are in - the whole vision thing.

I have been spending time on the BECTA site for all their info. They have a self review to head towards gaining an ICT Mark.

Then I'll be visiting a couple schools who have achieved their ICT Mark and what they are doing technologically and also curriculum-wise.

The other person I find really interesting is Stephen Heppell. If you google him you'll get lots of info. I heard him speak last year and thought he was great. His vision of learning through technology - letting kids learn in all different ways is really inspiring but many people find his vision scary - mobile phones, youtube access etc...

I know we need to improve on communication and what types are available to us in terms of collaborating - with staff and pupils.

Learning platforms are another biggie for us as we're going through that decision making process at the moment.

Good luck!

[GrumbleDook]

Myself and a colleague are just about to start looking at work in a primary school, converting an ICT suite into a classroom again and see what we can do about ICT across the school.

This is opening up many doors as to what it happening with vision and design of the curriculum and learning environment.

We are setting up the blog at the moment and I'll post the link shortly, on twitter we will be @futureschools and happy to take part in discussions.

I would suggest that you have a look at ICT Register as a start and also Learn 4 Life for a recent blog post about a school that has made use of Second Life during modelling of their school and how the curriculum fits in.

[NewOrder]

If your school is part of BSF there will be a vision statement and if it is a new academy then as part of the process there will have to be a vision statement.

A lot of people confuse equipment number of computers etc with the vision statement. Its more than that. Its a look in to the future. Where will ICT be in 2, 3 or 5 years. Will we have ICT. How will we interact with it.Will it be in a cloud computing ? Will we need computer rooms ?

The problem with technology and the information age is the speed of change. For many of us schools have remained the same for a 100 years classroom, desks in rows, teacher at the front. Does it need to be that? Bsf should be about transforming learning but it still focuses on buildings and IT equipment.

Have a look at Wesch on you tube and the associated vids [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o"]YouTube - A Vision of Students Today[/ame]

Also have a look at the Becta site Becta Emerging Technologies

Good luck PM if you want some more info

[IanT]

The school is turning into an academy BUT they are not doing the ICT part of the BFS I've been told by the head.

I think I would like to visit a brand new school and see what there ICT is like, anyone know any great new schools to visit?

[PiqueABoo]

looking at work in a primary school, converting an ICT suite into a classroom again and see what we can do about ICT across the school.

This is one of my pet problems: AIUI the standard Primary vision seems to be lots of little, often very expensive, often unmanageable (centrally), wireless gadgets in classrooms all doing lot's of lovely multimedia type stuff, and this concept seems to be backed by kids having little fingers and get along just fine with a DS (the reality is that they seem to get along fine with anything and big screens are clearly better for lots of stuff). Oh and kids love babbling on facebook etc., so that's another of the only possible ways they can use ICT to learn.

There was recent thread nearby where someone was celebrating getting 30 wireless-n laptops logged on via their Extricom system and 25 managing to stream iPlayer video before it began to suffer.

There will always be exceptions like new schools, but try running the costs of all that stuff (that still doesn't work the way you want i.e. 30 all happily streaming video) past a typical Primary where IME for financial reasons they often have several teachers still struggling along with ancient inadequate laptops for their IWBs. And these are the same schools that, for all the staff's valiant efforts, are letting some of those 'included' kids essentially stagnate because of resource issues.

I don't *want* to be negative about this, it's genuine concern about the realities, potential outcomes and whether visions will end up robbing Peter to pay Paul. If anyone thinks they can argue that concern into submission then please do.

[IanT]

Can someone recommend me some New School/Academy's that I can visit.

I want to look at the ICT side of things, technical, kids using ICT etc etc

Im not looking to see any managed service rubbish, plain and simple in-house.

Ian.