Personalising learning Bernie Zakary, Head of Curriculum and Assessment, Becta BETT 08 Wednesday, 9 January 2008

Becta's role As Government's lead partner in the strategic development and delivery of its e-strategy, Becta has four main roles: Strategic adviser to government Co-ordinator of the e-strategy Providing insight through analysis and research Strategic delivery partner.

Personalising learning Focus is moving away from access to learning platform technologies towards how they are being used. Usage will provide a baseline from which effective use can be defined. Effective use will be outcome driven. Effective use will be mapped as a maturity model with supporting tools to enable individual institutional development.

Is all use of ICT personalising learning? Electronic registers Success Maker DigiBlue video camera Google Assessment Manager Word processing FaceBook Etcetera……

From the learner perspective:

What is a personalised online learning space for 2007/8? Communication and collaboration tools to enable both peer to peer and peer to mentor dialogue. Individual online working spaces, for the school workforce and pupils. Management: Tools to enable teachers to create and manage digital content to match user needs and learning styles and to report on usage. Access: safe and secure, anytime, anywhere access.

Functionality: availability vs use Upload/store digital content: 82%/65% (prim) Create digital content: 68%/42% (prim) Anytime or place access: 92%/74% (sec) User portfolios: 64%/31% (sec) Users have individual work space: 80%/65% (p) Users have individual work space: 90%/64% (s).

Some Dos and Donts for Headteachers Use staff who will support the project. Develop an action plan, outcomes, evaluate and review. Use the learning platform yourself – it must be seen to be strategically important. Give learning platform actions responsibility to a single person. Expect e-learning just to happen. Expect too much – Too many tools – Two intranets – Two web sites.

Developing an e-learning culture Link your learning platform to the school development plan and the self-review framework. Provide information on the learning platforms that cannot be found elsewhere. – Calendars, bulletins, minutes, plans, etc. Use discussion forums for consultation. Set up collaborative projects. – Clear start and finish – one term. – If you plan a trial or transition – set a deadline for this. Use the learning platforms to communicate with the wider community.

Key factors to consider Aggregation AND flexibility Empowerment Use the self-review framework– key tool Change Management Link agendas – Whole School Improvement /self-review framework/ Self Evaluation Framework & Every Child Matters / Evidence to Ofsted

Bectas regional delivery team Head of regional delivery team is Karen Mitchell. There are over 20 staff across nine regions.