« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
The National Grid for Learning Progress Report Three
Chapter 8: Progress with Content
8.1 Schools
The NGfL Scotland programme continues to stimulate and support the production and availability of high quality digital content for education. This year the role has involved provision of advice and assistance, and collaboration with a wide range of providers from public and private sector organisations to promote the development of digital content for the NGfL Scotland websites.
The Learning Objects Repository for Scottish Schools (LORSS) project saw the set-up and small-scale trialling of a repository system with Masterclass participants. The project developed a generic standards-compliant toolkit for simple multiple choice questions.
Learning and Teaching Scotland, along with the Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards (a JISC-funded project) co-authored the first draft of the UK Common Metadata Framework (UKCMF) as a practical means to ensuring interoperability between the various education sectors in the UK with interests in learning resource metadata. The framework has received widespread support and it is hoped will be adopted by the major operators in due course.
The NGFL Scotland websites have all been re-designed since the last progress report, a practice that will now become a regular occurrence to ensure the sites remain up-to-date in terms of style as well as substance. The re-design work is intended to give easier access to popular resources and save time for the users as they search for relevant materials.
The NGfL Scotland team is also preparing for web services which are more interactive and more closely match the needs of its disparate user group.
All LTS websites are now developed to adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Double-A standard (www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/)of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) www.w3.org/ Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). This means that the websites are accessible to a wide range of users, including people using assistive technologies such as screen readers, Braille devices, scanning devices, and people using alternative web browsers such as WebTV, Telephone Kiosks, Personal Digital Assistants, text-only browsers. The WAI Double-A standard against which the websites are developed, exceeds the guidelines recommended by the Guidelines for UK Government websites - Illustrated handbook for Web management teams published by the Office of the e-Envoy. The latter recommends that government websites meet 'A' standard as a minimum. An accessible website also helps meet NGfL Scotland's obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act Part III.
Following the consultation exercises carried out last year, LTS in partnership with a SEED procurement team established the Digital Content Procurement process with a view to creating a framework of several companies which could be called upon to produce a range of digital services. The framework agreement will procure a range of popular and innovative products which will meet the needs and aspirations of learners and educators.
In August 2002, companies were invited through public advert to submit expressions of interest. 164 Pre-Qualification Questionnaires were received. The Content Procurement Board approved 63 companies which were invited to tender with a final total of 42 tenders received. Five companies were approved for the Consultancy stream. Eleven were approved for consideration for the Content Management stream, and a company has now been selected.
Thirty-three companies were approved for the Digital Content Stream. Working groups within LT Scotland are drawing up project and product specifications so that five or six mini-procurement exercises can take place over the period to 31 April 2005.
The Scottish Virtual Teachers Centre (www.svtc.org.uk)has provided a valuable service to teachers over the past four years and NGfL Scotland has been active in preparing for its final phase. This involved the identification of resources and weblinks which have value and continue to attract usage, and planning the assimilation of this digital content into the overall NGfL web service, with appropriate measures to re-direct users from old web addresses to the new locations.
This forms part of the work to bring together, organise and present a variety of online resources under the banner of the NGfL Scotland/LT Scotland integrated web service. Work to integrate the LT Scotland, NGfL Scotland and the Scottish Virtual Teachers' Centre websites under a single URL (www.LTScotland.org.uk/) is continuing. All the previous URLs will still work but will default to the LTScotland.org.uk/ URL.
Full details of content development since the last progress report are contained within the overall list set out in Annex E.
In 2003 the Scottish Executive Education Department published updated advice for local authorities about aspects of Internet safety. Members of the NGfL Scotland team worked closely with SEED to research and write this advice, to ensure that it presented appropriate and relevant information. Local authorities were invited to contribute data about the availability of their local advice to staff, and this data was added to the website. The site, called DoubleClick Thinking (www.ltscotland.org.uk/doubleclickthinking/), is frequently updated.
The Becta Liaison Project within NGfL Scotland aims to maximise the mutual UK-wide benefits of existing and new developments in ICT in education. It aims to develop LT Scotland's work with Becta (The British Educational, Communication and Technology Agency) and to facilitate the accessibility of Becta-produced materials/web sites within the Scottish education community. Work is progressing well to adapt the content of the Becta ICT Advice site to meet Scottish needs. Three guides to using web-based resources in the primary schools were also adapted to fit the 5-14 curriculum and were distributed to schools via The Curriculum File, a regular publication distributed to all Scottish schools. A further guide is in preparation. The adapted guides are now available on-line in the 5-14 channel of the NGfLScotland website. Other material, highlighting Becta's research website and the ICT and Becta Digital Video awards schemes, was distributed to the wider Scottish education audience through the same means. Work is in progress in a number of other areas to bring the benefits of Becta's work to the Scottish education community. Becta's role within Scotland was publicised in an issue of Connected magazine which was distributed with a CDROM highlighting Becta's ICT Advice site.
8.2 SCHOLAR
The SCHOLAR Project continues to develop, with the Future Learning and Teaching funded evaluation having been carried out and due to report early in 2004 ( www.flatprojects.org.uk/scholar.asp). Further research into the use of SCHOLAR is also planned.
8.3 PASS-IT
The aim of the PASS-IT project ( www.pass-it.org.uk) is to create, pilot and evaluate a number of different approaches to ICT-based assessment in schools and colleges throughout Scotland. A twenty-seven month project, PASS-IT is divided into two separate but related phases, building on previous research and development undertaken by some of the partners involved in the project.
In phase one, a range of ICT-based assessments were developed for National Assessment Banks (NABs) in Mathematics and Chemistry (Higher and Advanced Higher) and in HNC Computing. Schools and colleges were invited to pilot the assessments. This phase ended in October 2003.
An evaluation of phase one has contributed to the planning of phase two. In particular, the second phase will allow greater flexibility in the timing of the pilots to be more in step with the teaching of the curriculum, and will provide greater motivation for students involved in the pilots to undertake practice assessments. It will also consider how far intelligent assessment can contribute to the overall objectives of the project.
Phase two commenced in November 2003 and will be completed in October 2004. As well as producing additional ICT-based assessments, including in areas such as Music and French, it will deliver:
- staff development and dissemination activities for teachers and lecturers;
- a research report;
- published quality assurance guidance for centres on ICT-based assessment; and
- recommendations for a strategy to allow the continued development and implementation of the ICT-based assessment in schools and colleges, as appropriate.
8.4 Further Education
By the end of 2002, almost all colleges had deployed a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), in which online content can be created, organised and delivered. In order to 'pump prime' the use of VLEs, the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) invested 2 million over the period 2001/2003 in commissioning online content as part of a collaborative procurement with the Learning and Skills Council in England. The products of the first round of procurement were made available to colleges in 2002. These cover a wide range of subjects and levels, and have now been incorporated into college VLEs. Further materials will become available before the end of 2003.
The SFEFC also identified online assessment as a key strategic priority. The incorporation of assessment functions within VLEs will allow greater flexibility in providing feedback to students and offers the potential of efficiency gains in some aspects of assessment. In order to ensure that online assessment is consistent with good practice in the maintenance of academic standards, the Council has collaborated with the Scottish Qualifications Authority in developing guidelines for colleges on the design and operation of assessment processes. These guidelines were officially launched in June 2003. The Council has also provided funding to the Colleges Open Learning Group (COLEG) for the creation of a large bank of assessment instruments suitable for mounting on VLEs; these assessments will be freely available throughout the FE sector by the end of 2003 and will provide exemplars in a wide range of subjects.
8.5 The People's Network
New Opportunities Fund - Public Libraries
The Scottish Library and Information Council has been working with public libraries to ensure that library catalogues are available via the World Wide Web. This will widen access to library resources and give library users the opportunity to search the catalogue from home, work or at any Internet access point. All library catalogues will be web enabled by early 2004.
Funding from the New Opportunities Fund enabled the Scottish Library and Information Council to negotiate Scotland-wide subscriptions for a number of online information services for a two year period. These services are available from every public library through the People's Network. The services are listed below.
ProQuest: Know UK
KnowUK contains over 100 up-to-date reference titles including biographies, encyclopaedias, travel guides, events, government information, history and local information.
Newsbank
Libraries have online access to five newspapers, namely the Herald, the Scotsman, the Guardian, the Independent and the Daily Record. The Sunday editions are also available.
Kompass UK
This business search engine contains 150,000 industrial and commercial companies in the UK, providing an in-depth database of company and product information. This resource provides businesses with up-to-date company information and individuals with a research tool when job hunting.
Scottish Statistical Accounts online subscription service
The two Statistical Accounts of Scotland, covering the 1790s and the 1830s, are among the best contemporary reports of life during the agricultural and industrial revolutions in Europe.
New Opportunities Fund: Digitisation Fund
Six million pounds from the New Opportunities Fund has been awarded for digitisation projects in Scotland (www.enrichscotland.net/countries/scotland). The site brings a rich tapestry of learning materials and resources from galleries, libraries, museums and universities directly into homes and communities across the country. Resources for Learning in Scotland and Am Baile are the two major NOF digitisation projects in Scotland, and these are described in further detail below.
The National Library of Scotland, working with 95 partners including East Lothian Council, South Ayrshire Council, Dundee City Council, Scottish Borders Council, and the Scottish Poetry Library, was awarded 4 million for the project Resources for Learning in Scotland (www.rls.org.uk). The project covers a wide range of subjects including agriculture, archives, fine art, maritime history, oral history, science and technology, archaeology, costume and textiles, industry, medicine, social and family history, architecture, literature, music, photography and transport.
Highland Council, in partnership with West Highland Animation and Taigh Chearsbhagh Trust, was awarded 900,000 from NOF for the Am Baile project (www.ambaile.org.uk). Am Baile gives easy access to materials that are central to Gaelic and Highland culture and heritage. A site has been developed to enable users to acquire the knowledge to participate in the activities of the Gaelic community worldwide.
The Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) has established a group to facilitate the co-operation and sharing of information between recipients of awards from the NOF Digitisation Fund. The group has also established technical standards and developed collaboration.
The Scottish Cultural Portal
In "Creating our Future: Minding our Past" the Scottish Executive indicated that it would establish a cultural portal to provide access to electronic and printed information about Scottish culture and act as a focus for cultural development.
The Scottish Library and Information Council have been developing the cultural portal on behalf on the Scottish Executive. The portal will:
- provide a one-stop shop for information on Scottish cultural matters;
- be capable of access by a global audience;
- support the development of the cultural strategy by mapping activity in organisations;
- build on existing information networks;
- provide quick guides to specific areas of activity;
- develop mechanisms to provide advice and assistance to organisations on developing electronic content;
- develop detailed cultural subject mappings e.g. Arts, Literature etc; and
- provide a robust searching mechanism.
There is currently no mechanism in place to bring the quality information on Scottish culture together. This was changed with the launch of www.Scotlandsculture.org in its pilot form, in November 2003 by the MSP for Tourism and Culture Frank Macaveety at the publication of the National Cultural Strategy Annual report.
8.6 Communities
The Communities channel (www.ltscotland.org.uk/communities/) provides information, advice and support for those promoting the use of ICT in communities.
Developments for 2003/2004 will include adding downloads and interactive online resources for practitioners. These have been commissioned from consultants, individual practitioners and a variety of organisations. Content developed at a local authority level will also be available. Further development of the Communities channel will be carried out in partnership with the Scottish Digital Champions from the Scottish Executive Digital Inclusion Unit.
The dissemination of relevant information has been improved by the introduction of a monthly e-mail bulletin sent to 900 practitioners. Copies of the bulletin are available online
(www.ltscotland.org.uk/communities/current email bulletin.asp).
Schoolsoutglasgow (www.schoolsoutglasgow.net) is a SEED funded project, developed by Glasgow City Council Education Services Department and NGfL Scotland. The project aims to investigate how ICT can be used to support pupils whose learning has been interrupted.
Illness, family issues, behaviour and school phobia are only some of the ways in which a learner's education can be disrupted. Schoolsoutglasgow aims to build on the work of previous projects and on research which shows that involvement in an online learning community can result in significant gains in the educational performance of disadvantaged or at risk children.
Working within the context of the Scottish education system, Schoolsoutglasgow has promoted interest in learning by providing tutor support, pupil empowerment and web access. Content used in the project has included existing and newly developed resources, web and CD materials, online courses and avatar communities to provide a new model for learning for interrupted learners in Scotland. The children involved in the project work from home with tutor support. The project has aimed to provide personal, social, academic and vocational development through engagement with learning on the web. The original timescale of the project, from October 2002 until June 2003, was extended until December 2003 to allow the full potential of the support of curriculum delivery and support to be developed.
Resources developed to date are listed below.
- A 3D chat room to help enhance communication, collaboration and socialisation. Here the children use an avatar - a graphical icon that represents a real person in a cyberspace system. Users can customise their avatar's appearance and can change its facial expression as discussions unfold. There is also the ability for users to share picture files. A text-to-speech facility allows users to hear the conversation (www.schoolsoutglasgow.net/3dchat.asp).
- A customised learning environment (www.schoolsoutglasgow.net/leaponline.asp).
- The Eerf project where pupils role-play to produce a range of written work over a four-week period. The project uses a mixture of offline and online learning. Email is used to submit pupil tasks and send back completed work. Pupil tasks include a descriptive and imaginative writing task and a discursive essay. The project is divided into two stages, a face-to-face workshop with pupils, and an email role-play phase. Over the course of the project, pupils take on the role of resistance fighters on the fictional planet Eerf (www.schoolsoutglasgow.net/eerfproject.asp).
- Tutor and pupil support material. The Health and Beauty department at Cardonald College in Glasgow was asked to write tutor and pupil support for existing online modules developed by the National Learning Network (NLN) www.nln.ac.uk/. In particular, the college was asked to provide online and offline expert support for the module Personal Health and Beauty. This consisted of online expert help, face-to-face seminars and workshops and preparatory material for tutors and students. Further modules in the areas of sport and leisure and media have been commissioned. The project is supported by national organisations and local agencies, including the Scottish Museums Council, EDICT, NTL, RM, Glasgow Science Centre, Mitel and PLATO. The content and licences used throughout the project, along with an operational blueprint and independent evaluation for the pilot by the University of Edinburgh, will be made publicly available.
8.7 Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network (SCRAN)
New Developments
Over the last year, with funding from the NOF, SCRAN has been working in partnership with the National Library of Scotland and others to develop the Resources for Learning (RLS) in Scotland site. There are educational websites, resource packs and 102,000 new records on the RLS site, all of which are seamlessly searchable though SCRAN and provide a valuable repository of materials to support lifelong learning. These resources provide an excellent source of material for community practitioners. SCRAN has undertaken training in the use of the sites with these groups.
SCRAN is pleased to have been selected as one of the preferred suppliers for content and consultancy for the NGfL.
The SEED-funded resources that were developed by seconded teachers in 2002 are now available to use. The resources cover a variety of subjects including English Language, Biology and Geography.
A new tool has been added to the SCRAN site. SCRAN Albums allows users to put together, customise and share their own collections. This is proving to be a very popular tool and substantial use has been made of this new feature.
SCRAN Starters, a new section for 7-11 year olds has been added to the site. Over the next year, several topics will be added to the site, allowing younger users to use SCRAN independently.
SCRAN support for Masterclass
SCRAN has supported Masterclass (see also Chapter 7) since its launch at SETT 2002. A presentation at SETT and workshops at the residential training course have been delivered and SCRAN resources have been loaded on to the participants' laptops. Both the training and resources have been very well received.
Further information on SCRAN and RLS can be found at www.scran.ac.uk and www.rls.org.uk.
« Previous | Contents | Next »