Effects of ICT on Personalised Learning

TIPD Report – Westminster Academy School

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Abstract

This is a joint report by Anita Bjelica and Maka Baramidze

Names of teachers visiting	Anita Bjelica and Maka Baramidze
e-mail address	abjelica@westminsteracademy.biz mbaramidze@WestminsterAcademy.biz
Reference and title of visit	Effects of ICT on Personalised Learning
Provider	Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
Country and region visited	Czech Republic, Prague
Dates of visit	14.02.2007 to 21.02.2007
Types of schools visited	Primary school, 7 to 14 years
Ages of students observed	7 to 14 years
Languages used	English and Czech
Key Educational purpose of the visit	To observe how the use of ICT supports Personalised Learning.

Introduction: (Intended Aims of the visit)

To research and share wide range and effective use of ICT to support personalised learning in the classroom. (conference)
To observe use of ICT in the lessons in Czech school to support students’ personalised learning.
To share good practice with Czech colleagues.
To plan collaborative ICT projects to support student personalised learning in both schools.
To plan collaborative ICT projects to help teachers’ professional development.
To discuss and plan potential student exchange projects in future.

Author: Maka Baramidze

Publication Date: 2008

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STUDY

Report on the Experience – Conference:

Our group comprised two secondary teachers from Westminster Academy, London. The group leader, Assistant Principal of WA in charge of Global citizenship, is currently applying for academy to get the International School Award. The group members had already established the link with ZS Lupacova School in Prague and had planned the aims and intended outcomes of the visit. Both members were already competent users of ICT in their classrooms, e g. Interactive White Board, Active Studio; Personal laptops; Projectors; Digital cameras and Visualizers.

First two days we attended the conference run by MirandaNet, “ICT Towards Personalised Learning and Etopia Project” where several UK schools presented their findings how different ICT resources had changed their students’ learning styles and raised their achievements including the reluctant learners. The main researches were presented on the following software programmes and ICT equipments:

Inspiration- mind mapping software
Digital Blue– Animation Software
Moodle– personalised learning software
Portable computer, camera, recorder

On the other hand it was a valuable opportunity to share our school’s good practice with other UK schools how using ICT promotes students’ personalised learning. (PP Presentation: ‘WA Prague.’)

Digital Blue and Inspiration Softwares were identified particularly suitable for the students in WA. The majority of them are of different background, with EAL and SEN needs, so it was felt that mind mapping software would help them to develop thinking/analytical skills necessary for understanding more complex/abstract concepts. Digital Blue Software would be ideal in our Integrated Curriculum across KS3. It will develop students’ RSA (Royal Society of Arts) competences in five main areas.

School Visit:

During our week-long visit to the school, we were able to establish a link person at the school who will lead on all other future collaborative projects. We went into classes and talked to students about their work and the work that they had prepared for us on the topic of Etopia. It was fascinating to see how much work they had put in and the fact that they were all trying to communicate in English (some very well!). This inspired us to reciprocate the favour.

Our observations with regards to the comparison between the two schools were that both schools did use ICT in lessons although we realised that we used much more of it and so did our students. There were only 9 interactive boards in the school and although we did see students use them successfully, it did point to us that we were in a very enviable position where every teacher had a laptop and every classroom had 6 computers at the back to the class + 5 ICT suits.

One example of where we could learn from our Czech friends is in the overall care and presentation around the school. The atmosphere was very calm and there were a lot of examples of children’s work on the walls, many of it done using ICT.

When we talked to the young people, they were very keen on maintaining and improving the email contact and working towards projects together. The teachers were also very positive and responsive and we felt that there was a lot of scope for collaborative projects using ICT (Etopia project related work).

The headmaster was very much interested in the idea of videoconferencing and this gave us a lot of buzz since we felt that there is a lot of potential in making strong links between two schools of a very different cultural identity and variety.

EVALUATION: Intended Outcomes of the visit:

Equip participants with skills, knowledge and understanding to lead improvements in using ICT in the classroom to raise attainment in both UK and Czech schools.
Implementation of different strategies of good practice observed in Czech school.
Planning of collaborative ICT projects to enhance student personalised learning.
Increased use of emails and internet between students and teachers in both schools.
Building on existing links between the two schools.

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