Making happen How lessons learned from deploying a smaller scale authority-wide web publishing system in East Lothian schools may help. David Gilmour, East Lothian Council

What is edubuzz.org? A learning community A window on East Lothian education A web publishing system

What’s the connection with Glow? Creating a learning community Improving sharing Modernising learning Removing barriers

But what did we do about… Staff who “don’t do ICT”? Staff who don’t see the possibilities? Schools afraid to be different? Suppression of innovative staff?

Where are we now?

eduBuzz is popular Every school is involved Up to 10,000 visits per month 1000 web sites

We’ve real evidence of benefits. HMIE “Good Practice” at Law Primary Effective Use of ICT –Staff wanted to be more innovative in their use of ICT. They created a school blog to provide information on all aspects of school life and to encourage a regular dialogue between home and school. Staff worked closely with the local authority ICT team to set up the site and then took on responsibilities for maintaining it. –Pupils were given a key role in providing the content. Pupils at the upper stages displayed and gave an account of their achievements and the range of activities that they had taken part in. Across the school, pupils used the site to provide feedback on school events. At P6 and P7, a pilot programme for homework was introduced with homework tasks and links to helpful educational sites posted on the blog. –The blog also helped parents to keep in contact with their children who took part in the P7 residential trip and let them know about the daily activities. Development and use of the blog has helped to promote pupils’ language, ICT and independent learning skills. It has also proved to be a highly effective way of highlighting and celebrating pupils’ achievements. Law Primary Inspection Report, HMIE, Sep. 2008

How might this help with Glow? Diagram reproduced from the encyclopaedia of informal education [ Similar problem situation Possible transfer of lessons learned

How did edubuzz start? Research to improve learning in East Lothian A need to stop re- inventing wheels The idea of an online learning community

Early research showed we had to… Avoid “deficit model” Start from where people are Avoid the usual “initiative approach”

What lessons have we learned?

Lesson 1: Train colleagues together Avoid training disparate groups off-site Train whole schools or departments in school Provide plenty of informal follow-up support

Lesson 2: Don’t just automate existing tasks Look for where technology enables new potential benefits Be aware of the risk of being constrained by existing thinking Why are newsletters monthly?

Lesson 3: It’s not an initiative Top-down initiatives generate push-back Avoid invoking the initiative “frame of reference” Focus instead on benefits by supporting “bottom- up” ideas

Lesson 4: Reduce barriers to adoption Train to create simple products Tailor support to individual teacher’s needs Consider training the students

Lesson 5: Take time to explain benefits clearly People will adopt technology when they perceive it to be easy and helpful Look for problems technology can help individuals to solve

Lesson 6: Focus on benefits Recognise the risk that benefits can be missed Don’t “Do Glow” for the sake of it Stories of real benefits achieved will spread and engage others

Lesson 7: Encourage evolution Look for organic growth Nurture new ideas Learn by doing Don’t over-plan

Lesson 8: Create a support network Encourage links between schools Exploit the network to provide inter-school support Trust people with the rights they need to be able to help

Lesson 9: Exploit transparency Make it easy to see what other schools are doing: and steal ideas! Peer pressure helps change “the way we do things” Creates healthy competition

Lesson 10: Establish continuous improvement culture You can’t get it right first time! Encourage open feedback and ideas Small improvements can provide large benefits

Stay connected David Gilmour Education & Children’s Services East Lothian Council Phone: Blog: edubuzz.org/blogs/eastlothianglow