Since August when the re-procurement process officially started for Bolton’s learning platform I’ve been trying to make sure that we kept on communicating with everyone who might have a stake in the project - particularly Head Teachers.

There’ve been formal and informal communications such as the letter from the Director in December and the blog posts here online. There’s been partnership too with schools being represented throughout the selection and they have made the decisions up to press.

There’s been more work recently to do with taking the project out face to face and I’m really lucky to have been accepted on the agenda of the 10 school primary clusters and the high school north, south and west clusters. A few weeks back I was also able to talk with all of the high school heads of ICT. These are more valuable than anything else for me as the feedback is always so good - well I say ‘good’ and actually mean ’sharp and to the point’!. Which is great because soft and fluffy feedback is no good to the project as it gets more and more sharpened.

So I know that we’ve still got a lot of work to do with communicating the project even more widely to ICT coordinators and beyond but more and more information is on the way. Right now what we have is a solid position & belief in the knowledge that schools and the authority share an ambition establish a common platform for learning that will transform the way we do things. No small expectation then.

The final trap is that schools feel like this is a fait accomplit - its not - schools have choice as usual - but we are confident that the lengthy and rigorous process that we’ve gone through together has resulted in the best solution for Bolton as a whole. It’s the ‘as a whole’ bit which is important and it’s through the ‘whole’ that the extra value comes.

I hope the communications that reach you are helpful and don’t let the intentions of this partnership project down. If you have any ideas for how we can up the stakes with regard to comms post it here.

Thanks

JB

Thomas Friedman’s book, ‘The World is Flat‘, has been a best seller around the world dealing as it does with how the web has flattened the world and how our children need to be prepared for this as they enter the world of work.

In January this year Friedman appeared at MIT in Boston at presented a very entertaining hour or so on the book and its origins. I recommend you set aside an hour one evening instead of complaining that there’s “nothing on the telly!” and watch it.

It’s on iTunes but the fast way to get it is to click this very clever link and if you have iTunes installed already it’ll fire up and away you go. Enjoy. (You can download iTunes here)

JB

[UPDATE: 17/1/08] All heads now know about the outcome of the learning platform process via a letter from the Director of Children’s Services. An information point is being pulled together on this topic to become the single point of reference for schools. You can visit it here. [UPDATE ENDS]Just a quick informal line to say that Heads will get formal notification of how Bolton’s procurement of a learning platform solution has concluded very shortly. If you don’t get an email from MyBriefing today then it will be in the mailbox by Monday morning. It’s been a long but very worthwhile process indeed!

If you’ve missed the updates up to this point you can look back at this post

JB

It’s a snappy blog post title I know.

There’s a huge challenge facing all local authorities who are aiming to get all of their systems to cooperate with each other. What does that mean? Well simply that with the creation of Children’s Services there’s a recognised need to make sure that no one child gets overlooked because the information systems in which they appear don’t come together to offer a complete picture of their requirements. One of the 18 recommendations from Victoria Climbie’s enquiry was:

Recommendation 12 Front-line staff in each of the agencies which regularly come into contact with families with children must ensure that in each new contact, basic information about the child is recorded. This must include the child’s name, address, age, the name of the child’s primary carer, the child’s GP, and the name of the child’s school if the child is of school age. Gaps in this information should be passed on to the relevant authority in accordance with local arrangements.

If you want to visualise this, here’s JISC’s animation that will help you conceptualise the challenges and benefits of getting ICT systems talking to each other.

Incidentally, JISC also explain the some of the challenges of delivering a learning platform solution, neatly showing how schools have to consider the links between student motivation, success and finance system data.

Play the animation.

If you want more visit the JISC website to read more on their e-framework.

[JB]

In case you missed it on the 25th September you can listen to Kevin Brennan’s speech in MP3 format. The second event is detailed on this special DCSF conference site. Like many others in Bolton, I’m really pleased that this is getting such a high national profile. Keeping children safe is a priority that everyone takes very seriously - there’ll be more on this in the near future from the authority. If you’ve any thoughts on what you’d like to see happening or put in place locally to safeguard children and young people when they’re online, do post it up.

[Update 7/10] I thought it was worth revisiting this post to mention a very interesting 2007 report from DEMOS that focuses upon young people’s use, beliefs and attitudes towards technology. In the summary findings the report states:

Meanwhile, contrary to society’s assumptions about safety, this generation is also capable of self-regulation when kept well informed about levels of risk.

This kind of finding is worth noting. The whole report is downloadable from this link.
[JB]

I was skimming around the other evening for the latest and greatest on e-portfolios. ICT is such a royal pain sometimes for becoming the focus of the debate.

We all know the ‘mines got more buttons than yours’ argument that often prevails when those in the debate don’t acutally know what they’re going to use the thing for.

I know, I’m the first to hold my hand up (usually), that folks in education are sometimes perceived as a bit waffly and ’soft focused’ but to me that’s fine because it’s round those edges that new learning happens. Keeping those softer edges is also quite an achievement in the UK target driven climate. Anyway - I’m waffling now.

As we get nearer to having a joined up learning platform solution in Bolton (our tender has just closed) it’s vital to remember just what we’re trying to do here ie. engage learners, teachers & families by enabling greater personalisation of their journey in the name of helping everyone enjoy & achieve more.

An e-portfolio is part of a learning platform and certainly a significant one. So instead of going down the functional/techie spec line I thought I’d focus upon another more powerful tool. Metaphor.

I like the ’story’ metaphor.

Stories are a natural way to help portfolio-makers think about their thinking. The neurologist Oliver Sacks (1987) believes a sense of narrative is ‘absolutely primal.’

(Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, 1992).

I suggest you read this collection of portfolio metaphors if you’re getting bogged down with people who are leading the debate on button pushing.

[Update 7/10] Back in 2004/5 it seems I was playing the same record (remember those?)- here’s the presentation from within the TLC website.[Update Ends]

[JB]

I found myself having a conversation (actually it was an email but it’s so familiar now that it feels like a conversation) with a teacher today who I’ve known for at least 10 years in Bolton. It was about wireless vs. desktops in the classroom and the issues that they were experiencing with poor network coverage in the school - which by the way is pretty open plan and single storey.

She was considering the pros and cons of returning to desktop clusters and getting away from aging laptops with useless batteries. Fair enough.

“How would it go down with Ofsted?” she probed. Hmmm. Depends on the team you get, any other priorities and of course the quality of existing teaching. It’s said that schools’ experiences of Ofsted and ICT can fluctuate like Madonna’s accent.

Well the thing that surprised me most was how strongly I suddenly felt about being wireless. When I pictured children and teachers going back to using desktops again it was almost as if I could see them being tethered down like goats in a open field. What poetic nonsense and ridiculous imagery to get in your head about the notion of being wireless! Still - there I was and it’s bothered me ever since I sent the reply, even though I counter-balanced my view further on.

Panorama’s documentary on wireless technology didn’t enter my head really and I think that the issues of wireless are, by and large, fading. Did you know that those boffins at MIT have even worked out how to deliver wireless electricity? Eureeeeeka!

Naturally there’s a growing market for wi-fi ’stuff’ nowadays and if you’re a young person in school reading this I’d suggest you look into it as a career option. Try this.

“..the PillCam [is] a tiny two-sided camera the size of a very large pill which patients swallow. It has been used in more than half a million gastro-intestinal endoscopy tests since 2001. One version is used to diagnose disorders of the oesophagus and another for those of the small intestine. It snaps a pre-set number of pictures per second and sends them wirelessly to a data recorder worn on the patient’s waist. The images are downloaded to a computer for diagnosis. The $450 capsule passes through the bowel naturally and is flushed down the toilet.

Source: The Economist April 2007

So I’d say to schools, if wireless is getting so advanced and so cheap to produce now that it can now be just flushed away, we have to take the long term view that it’s only going to become more prevalent in education and life in general. [More on this: Economist] If you’re wireless you’re less tied down (!) with fewer boundaries to limit your options for collaboration and resource finding. Wireless brings it’s own challenges for sure but on balance I feel that the pros outweigh the cons.

Oh dear. Better wipe the butter off the underside of my laptop now. That’ll teach me not to blog between the toaster and the kitchen hob. Now if I’d been sat safely at the desk upstairs…

[JB]

As you’ll hopefully know via MyBriefing and the Children’s Services Newsletter, Bolton is in the final stage of a process, designed by Becta, to help us procure a learning platform solution (what’s one of those?)for schools. We’ve emphasised ’solution’ in the tender paperwork that’s gone out to the 10 providers because really we don’t want to be left wanting once this all comes to an end.
[UPDATE: 14th November]A week ago today a panel day was held with representation from across the primary and secondary schools. It was a challenging, rigorous and transparent day for all concerned. Please keep an eye out for a formal bulletin coming out this week to get the detail of the process and where we’re at now.[UPDATE: ENDS]
[UPDATE: 19th October]The panel is coming together well now with representatives from primary, secondary & specials joining LA colleagues on the 8th November. School representation is critical to this process as at the end of the day this is an LA wide solution that effectively joins every school together online. Selection of schools has been given the OK through the normal Partnership groups and all being well we may even have some young people involved too. Shortlisting has been done and providers have been contacted just now (4.45pm Friday 19th October). I can’t go into the detail here of course but more info will be forthcoming via less public channels as part of the process.[UPDATE: ENDS]

[UPDATE: 4th October] Tenders are now in and will be opened under the watchful eye of an Executive Member of the Council on Friday. Why? It’s all part of the process to ensure openness and fairness really - although it affects timescales a little, in the long run it means that it’s virtually impossible for anyone to have concerns over who saw what & when. We have also sent out invites to colleagues in schools and the LA to take part in the panel day where shortlisted providers will present and respond to more questions. Representation comes from Corporate ICT, Schools ICT, Primary/Secondary mainstream & special schools. I’m waiting to hear back from people now and will let you have a confirmed list when I have it. [UPDATE: ENDS]

If you don’t know about the process it’s designed to give approved suppliers a fair crack at being awarded tenders by large organisations such as ourselves. There are many rules and regs to follow with transparency and fairness being big watch words.

[See 4/10 Update] Right now the suppliers are busy writing their responses to the Becta framework we used - that means they’re pulling together evidence etc to show how they meet the criteria in the framework. For us though, all 10 providers are clearly not bad if they’re on the framework in the first place.

Where it gets interesting is when you start to think about what Bolton needs ‘on top of’ the basic requirements. What’s that you might wonder? For example, in Bolton, Capita is a key provider to schools so, its critical that we get a solution from a partner with the necessary skills etc to work with us in achieving integration. An example: If a child takes on a new family name over the weekend and the school changes it in SIMS, the learning platform will propagate this change around the system so that their username changes automatically to reflect this. There’s many more examples such as timetable access, visibility of certain results etc.

We’re also seeking to get from providers what they will be delivering on the ‘extras’ list and when. By extras I mean the kind of functionality that goes beyond the standard requirements. It’s important to have an innovative partner who is willing to keep up with or inspire schools.

So while this is going on what can you be doing?
I’d suggest to you that the best place to start is the BECTA ICT Mark self evaluation grid. Why? Well if you’re a school leader it will give you a view beyond the kit, beyond all the functions and techie stuff that can wrongly sometimes take over the spotlight. You’ll get a view of how ready your school actually is to productively take on a learning platform.

• look at the unit on teaching and learning before leadership - Yes, I know that flies in the face of what you’d expect but teaching and learning is the place to start with this one.
• watch these videos to hear from other schools

More formal info will come out via corporate bulletins and the Children’s Services Newsletter but wherever possible I’ll post up here too and respond to comments that don’t compromise the watch words of transparency and fairness for all suppliers….hope you understand in this case.

[JB]

Hopefully you’ve been too busy enjoying the sizzling summer here in the UK to notice that Bill Gates is leading the march for Microsoft into what is very fertile ground. Education.

Microsoft hasn’t really made a major play for the education market over the years but just recently (couple of yrs) they have been doing some interesting things. Not least of these has been using their school of the future in Philadelphia as a model for new high schools that are involved in England’s BSF programme (Building Schools for the Future).

Earlier this week the BBC’s tech programme, ‘Click‘, focused on an interview with Bill Gates that looked at his vision for schools.

It’s too easy to be cynical about a corporate body taking such a strong position on something so close to the heart of a community but if this does indeed work out Microsoft say that they intend to take this concept global. Can you imagine that?

Bill also talks about the $100 laptop and if you want more on that try this previous blog post and an article on the BBC from 22/7/07

Related News:

• Microsoft aims to double PC base - 7/07 BBC
• Global alliance ‘to education all’ - 05/07 BBC

A DirectGov recent survey, reported on recently by the BBC, carried the headline Parents seek school webcam links. At first this sounds very immotive but the key bit of the BBC article is simply about how parents want to be empowered to support their child in their learning - particularly homework.

Parents in the survey say they would value being able to actually see what their child was taught in a day - literally a video of the lesson. Some said that this would help them support their children… I think elements of this could work.

If you read the DirectGov survey there is a very clear link to the topic of learning platforms, through the label of virtual schools.

Access to learning is only destined to go up and everyone is entitled to it whether you’re a young person, their parent or an LA officer supporting a family directly or indirectly.

This for me (others may use different words but mean the same) is all about removing barriers to learning in their widest sense. I’ll try to pick this up in more detail through a future post but by all means you can pick this up too by posting your comment here.

Currently, here in Bolton, we’re putting together an evaluation of what’s been learned and how we’ve progressed over the last 3 years in the area of developing a local authority learning platform with schools.

Hindsight is a very exact science and as we put this paper together, warts and all, the successes and failures along the way seem all so obvious now - so long as we learn from both.

Doing an evaluation is essential at this time and we’re gaining input from a variety of primary & secondary schools as well as local authority services. The intended outcome of this evaluation will be to get us to a more informed, shared and agreed position on how to progress with developing the shared platform for learning.

In case you’re not familiar:

Learning Platform is an umbrella term that describes a broad range of ICT systems used to deliver and support learning and teaching. It usually combines several functions, such as organising, mapping and delivering curriculum activities, and the facility for learners and teachers to have a dialogue about the activity, all via ICT.

JB