Case Studies

Strengthening pedagogy with ICT - early adopters' project - case study 1 - Barnsley Learning Services

Background

Brendan Geoghegan, ICT Curriculum Strategy Manager writes:

The emergence of a national e-strategy and thinking around local e-strategy direction, raises questions about how Strengthening Pedagogy with ICT fits strategically with LA developments as they endeavour to raise standards.  The three main things to come out of this project are:

• the value of the resource as a confidence builder for newly qualified teachers
• the importance of the resource as a tool to stimulate and promote improvements in the use of ICT in lessons
• the importance of ensuring headteachers are aware of the resource to facilitate a place in development priorities.

The LA believes that a key element of any e-strategy is the way that the teaching profession ensures that pupils make the best learning progress. This only happens with a highly competent, well-developed workforce that recognises the contribution that ICT can make to teaching practices and learning experiences, and to increased levels of attainment. Our draft e-strategy highlights the need for a workforce that is confident in making the best use of ICT, and identifies five key elements:

• School leadership teams need to enable pupils to develop ICT skills and capability in order to access further education or employment in the future.
• To do this effectively LAs need to support continuous professional development (CPD) for the whole workforce, so they can make appropriate decisions about resource allocation.
• At classroom level teachers and teaching assistants need to embrace opportunities to use existing and emerging ICT tools to stimulate pupils' enthusiasm, promote learning, and increase levels of engagement and achievement.
• School leaders and middle managers need to align e-strategies and/or ICT policies with reference to national support programmes from the National College of School Leadership (NCSL) including the 'Strategic leadership of ICT' programmes and those developed and supported by the Secondary National Strategy for school improvement.
• High quality support is necessary to enable such development, and can be facilitated through e-communities.