Shaping the Future of Learning in Kent through ICT

Key Messages

 “Data is everywhere, often without context … traditionally, the role of ICT was to communicate this data in a contextual, timely, relevant and accurate form, creating information! It is now much more than this! It offers a medium for creative expression, exploration and discovery, with access to every facet of human knowledge and experience”.

Click here to view Full ICT Strategy Document

Attainment
– ICT raises attainment by exciting, motivating and engaging learners.

• Kent has high expectations, and ICT has a vital role to play in realising the potential of its schools and learners.
• ICT provision in schools has increased steadily over successive years, and teacher confidence in its use is growing. Teachers must be encouraged to continue developing and embedding their ICT skills in their teaching practice.
• Schools have a vital role in supporting the development of staff by providing essential equipment and broadband connectivity.
• Kent ’s ‘Hands-On’ ICT programme provides teachers with support and encouragement through personal mentoring complemented by national exemplar ICT materials. ‘Hands-On’ identifies and shares the knowledge and experience of Kent’s leading ICT schools and teachers.
• As well as developing teaching practice in schools, schools must provide learning opportunities beyond the classroom, developing plans to exploit home computing and library / community Internet, encouraging independent discovery and exploration.

Collaboration
– collaboration is founded on effective communication!

• The development of administrative Clusters in Kent provides a basis for collaboration between schools, teachers and learners.
• Collaboration requires communication! ICT has ‘communication’ at its heart! Teachers communicating with other teachers, sharing resources and projects … doing more for less! Live communication between local peers and global partners, enriching the learning experience. Every learner must be given the opportunity to achieve their full potential.
• Schools should be encouraged to make coherent and co-ordinated decisions in their development of ICT, with the potential to co-ordinate and aggregate purchases to obtain best value for money.
• Sharing the development of re-usable learning resources and content. A world-wide encyclopaedia of indexed curriculum resources managed and used by teachers.

Transformation
– Schools organised around the needs of their learning communities.

• ICT has a crucial role to play in the future development of teaching and learning.
• The transformation of education requires fundamental changes to school organisation and design, especially the relationship between home and school, teacher and taught. These changes require leadership and innovation.
• ICT is one element of transformation, offering tools to improve and develop communication.
• Strong, confident, independent learners require a learner-focussed education system that encourages exploration and discovery.

Community
- a new relationship between home and school, teacher and taught.

• Schools are an integral and vibrant part of their communities. Increasingly important is the role they play in developing links with their communities, with an increasing recognition that school facilities should be available for community use.
• There are many social and educational benefits to schools in extending learning to families, adults and community groups. E very community should be able to see their local school as a resource to develop and improve their skills, knowledge, abilities and interests.
• The excellent broadband connectivity provided by the Kent Community Network and the investment by schools in software and hardware offer opportunities to engage with new learning communities, and to develop innovative information and communications services.

Partnership
- with multinational ICT companies for the benefit of Kent Schools.

• Kent is committed to exploring the application of new and emerging technologies to education, and has been successful in developing strategic partnerships with leading multinational ICT companies.
• We are currently involved in exemplar projects which explore the use of technologies such as wireless mobile computing, collaborative learning platforms, video-conferencing, connected interactive whiteboards, and the wider debates around the impact of ICT on school design in the future.