Home Access Market Testing Event 17th October 2008 - Presentation
Created on: 17-Oct-2008 16:58 by AlexBirtles - Last Modified: 17-Oct-2008 17:01 by AlexBirtles
The material presented at the Home Access market testing event, held on 17th October 2008.
SammParker says:
in response to: Maximise
Maximise,
We cannot provide a guarantee that the Home Access initiative will be a panacea to all of the issues faced in effectively using ICT in learning. However, we can provide reassurance that we are taking steps to try and address these issues. For example, we have developed a team within Becta to support the schools in the two Local Authorities to maximise the benefit of Home Access, including providing information to parents and learners. This will include advice to schools on teaching practice and to parents on how to maximise their investment. The success of these initiatives will be evaluated by an independent organisation, and will provide us with a base of evidence upon which to plan any national rollout.
A useful presentation. BUT,
As with other initiatives, there appears to be no reference as to how the HA provision will actually assist Teaching and Learning.
As with VLEs and now e-Portfolios, I am not aware of any special initiatives to provide the training of staff or the support provision for the HA recipients. How will Teaching and Learning actually change? What time will be given to staff to create the new resources for on-line learning? Or will the new resources just be used to replicate paper-based teaching and learning? My fear is that if this equipment is not to be used constructively, for educational purposes, it will become a mere state-aided plaything.
These are not the trivial questions of a doubter but by one who wants to see these innovations succeed. I am aware of many schools where VLEs have been installed without any reference to those at the chalk-face in terms of selecting appropriate software. I know of schools where the VLE has been installed but the pupils do not have access. In very few cases have parents been involved in discussions about the use of the family computer for access to the school's VLE.
Similarly, with e-Portfolios, I am not aware of any strategies to explain to parents how the e-Portfolio will change Teaching and Learning.
So, if the considerable expense of providing equipment and technical support for Home Access is to have any real benefit, when and how will the ordinary classroom teacher who knows nothing of Becta get to know about it and how will they change their Teaching strategies? Will there be a two-tier system of work set, one for the 'haves' and one for the 'have nots'? Will electronic assessment ever become viable when some children outside the HA facility do not have access to the family computer? And, as I have asked many times before, what happens when several siblings all need to complete homework tasks simultaneously on the one family computer?