The Digital Curriculum Team has produced a short introduction to the Kent Learning Zone.
Hosted on the Kent TV Education Channel, the video offers an overview of developments in strategic technologies in Kent.
Kent Learning Zone = 'Online Personalised Space' for educators and learners.
The majority of Kent School's already choose to receive their Broadband service from Kent Community Network. The Kent Learning Zone builds on this to personalise services to meet the requirements of individual children, young people, educators and schools.
Kent Learning Zone recognises diversity and offers choice. Schools will increasingly be able to choose the combination of services that best suit their needs.
There are considerable benefits of ensuring that children and young people have a personal 'My Site' that stays with them when they move schools. This can only be realised by schools sharing a common infrastructure.
Video Contents
Introduction - Graham Badman - Managing Director, Children Families and Education
Strategic Overview - Alan Day - CFE Strategic ICT Adviser
Role of EIS - Steve James - KLZ Development Team
School Perspective - Mr N Turrell - HT Maidstone Grammar School.
Getting Started - Donna Rogers - E-learning Officer
Ensure your ICT planning includes e-learning, consider your technical infrastructure, workforce and learner requirements, and consider using Kent Learning Zone's three engagement phases to match your action plans to achievable milestones.
Switch on to e-learning!
There is a real technological revolution ahead for secure, anytime, anywhere, learning.
Are you ready to maximise learning potential within your school beyond the confinements of the physical timetable and traditional homework boundaries?
For this to be implemented successfully, you and your staff will need patience, training and a willingness all round to engage with the new methods and technology.
To introduce Kent Learning Zone successfully into your school, you need to start with a good understanding of your school's educational needs.
You will need to develop a statement of requirements, which sets out what you want to do with your learning platform and any specific local or technology requirements.
Once you have established your requirements, you can consider the type of underlying technologies that will support those needs.
1. Establish your requirements - identify your current and future education goals, prepare timescale plans.
2. Planning – create a project team.
3. Get ready to buy – find out more about KLZ and its value added unique features. Kent Learning Zone is Kent’s LA solution to “Connecting Kent’s Learning Communities”.
Mapping school choice of services and applications within an infrastructure; enabling communication and collaboration irrespective individual curriculum requirements.
Bringing people and best of breed services together.
By spring 2008 the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) requires Local Authorities to enable schools access to a personalised online learning space with the potential to support an e-portfolio. Kent local authority has been given the responsibility (and the funding) for ensuring that this initial infrastructure element of a learning platform is available to your school.
Kent Learning Zone is the Kent Local Authority’s infrastructure solution based on the latest Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Learning Gateway architecture, which draws user data directly from SIMS. Schools retain purchase choice of a 'Virtual Learning Environment' (VLE) solution that best fits their educational vision, when they are ready to meet the 2010 target for a full learning platform using ‘single sign-on’ interoperability!
A personal online learning space infrastructure (KLZ) forms part of a wider set of technologies called a learning platform. It supports learning by providing access to:
· tools - for communication and collaboration including email, messaging, forums, wiki and blogs and for creating, developing and managing digital content
· an individual area for each learner (and member of staff) where they can store their work and personalise its layout to meet their needs
· safe and secure, anytime, any place access.
To keep up to date on Kent’s developments three main sites provide regular updates;
www.eiskent.co.uk?learningzone
http://www.clusterweb.org.uk/advisory/ict_learningplat.cfm
Please contact EIS eis.support@kent.gov.uk if you would like further details following cluster updates during the 2007 Term1 Headteacher Breakfast Briefings, the full presentation is available on the above sites.
Adapted from Becta’s online news item October 2007 article.