End of Term Report
June 29, 2006
I thought it would be a good idea if I were to round up the session with a short report of where we have got to with ICT in Renfrewshire. I have no doubt I shall miss things out but most of the main things that we have done should be here. Please let me know if I have missed anything important!
I took over the ICT remit last September. Prior to that I had been working on areas such as citizenship, race equality, vocational education and curriculum flexibility since joining the advisery team in 2003. It was really good to be able to start off with a staff tutor who knew what she was doing. Ann Crawford has been a superb support to both myself and all our schools over her time in the post.
Ann has continued to support schools through the extensive training catalogue as well as on-site support, monitoring and developing school websites and groups such as MasterClass. Of course the development of the use of digital video and digital animation has been hugely valued by all those who have had the chance to be involved. The video festivals at Lapwing Lodge have all be great (even although it always rains!) and the day on digital animation with the Masterclass group was super fun.
As the session has moved on the development of SSDN has become an ever increasinging part of the landscape. We have now got to the point where we are ready to sign the customer agreement and have a fairly extensive implementation plan in place. As we move into the new session we have identified four pilot schools and we aim to be involved in a fairly extensive piloting programme throughout the next session. Watch this space for more details. Training in the use of SSDN to support and enhance learning is clearly going to be a big issue and one of my tasks over the summer is to develop the training strategy. Perhaps I should use the East Lothian model and put up a wiki for folk to put in their own ideas.
One of the big moves this session has been to start to look at curent and emerging technologies in relation to what is sometime called Web 2.0. Using the C in ICT is becoming a major focus in relation to the way we use ICT to enhance collaborative learning, focus on different learning styles and involve more people in the use of ICT in learning. This blog is part of that development. The aim being to communicate more informally with all those involved in the use of ICT in Renfrewshire. At the most recent ICT co-ordinators meetings David Muir from Strathclyde University gave a presentation on many of the tools associated with Web 2.0. This included on-line bookmar systems such as del.icio.us, photo sharing such as flickr, blogging, podcasting and wikis. There is plenty for us still to explore and it is hoped that John Johnson from Sandaig Primary will be able to attend the next ICT co-ordinators meeting to talk about pupil blogging. Even more exciting is the plan for an evening seminar in February 2007 where the whole area will be showcased. Watch this space for more details.
So at the end of the session we can look back at a lot of areas of development and on to a lot more in the coming one. I wish everyone a very happy holiday and look forward to working with you again in session 2006/07.
Entry Filed under: DavidDMuir, ICT, IT, Renfrewshire, SSDN, Scotland, blog, blogging, del.icio.us, education, flickr, gordonmckinlay, in-service, interactive, lapwing, learning, photo, podcast, podcasting, sharing, survey, training, wiki. .
