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The National Grid for Learning Progress Report Three
Chapter 10: Conclusions
This report has documented the significant impact which the NGfL project continues to have on Scottish Education. Developments have been taken forward on three main fronts: infrastructure, content and professional development. In all three areas there has been significant investment and progress since the last report, for example:
Infrastructure
- The network connections linking all Scottish FE colleges have been re-procured and the majority of colleges have been upgraded to 34Mbps or 100Mbps.
- All secondary schools and more than three quarters of primary and special schools now have Internet access.
- The percentage of pupils with email addresses has increased from 16% to 52% in primary and 68% to 80% in secondary schools.
- Secondary schools achieved their published target of 5 pupils to 1 computer while this was exceeded in special schools where there were 3 pupils per computer.
- The Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN) interconnect was completed in October 2003 and procurement of the SSDN intranet began.
Content
- LT Scotland has further refined the process of identifying where the curricular need for digital content lies.
- There has been significant investment in the production and licensing of online resources including the licensing of SCRAN for all Scottish schools.
- Through public procurement, a framework of companies has been established able to provide digital content in support of learning.
Professional Development
- The ICT training programme for Teachers and Librarians, funded by the NOF, ended in December 2003. All teachers, school and public librarians were offered training.
- The Masterclass Programme launched September 2002 aimed to assist local authorities build the local potential to develop the use of school ICT in Learning and Teaching. Phase 1 finished March 2003 and Phase 2 is underway.
- The Scottish Education Funding Council has continued to support staff development in ICT through earmarked staff development funding and through the funding of a range of training opportunities.
- Development of public library staff is on track to ensure that all staff will achieve the level of European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) or equivalent by March 2004.
- Connecting Communities ICT training programme is on track to have delivered staff development to 2500 community learning practitioners by March 2004.
- The Early Years ICT strategy was launched in November 2003. It aims to deliver intensive ICT training for approximately 500 trainers and continuous professional development opportunities for approximately 17,000 early years workers.
Effects of Developments
The delivery of staff development and the growth of network infrastructure and access to ICT have allowed attention to be turned to the true goal of NGfL, the embedding of ICT into everyday use in Teaching and Learning.
There are some indications that a start has been made in this process. The People's Network reports evidence of high use in libraries, especially in rural areas. College intranets are assuming great importance for the delivery of online learning materials. HMIE report that, in primary schools the teaching of ICT is good or very good and in secondary schools many schools give pupils between S3 and S6, effective opportunities to develop ICT skills in certain subjects.
Looking ahead
Nationally a great deal of work remains to be done in providing the core infrastructure. The period ahead promises the development of the SSDN Unit to be located within LT Scotland and the emergence of a range of innovative online educational services due to be delivered through the SSDN.
Evidence from HMIE reveals that there is still much to be done in schools to: disseminate the most effective practice in the use of ICT; assist the good planning of ICT; and ensure that there are sufficient opportunities to use computers in class work. The further national development of Masterclass and the new "Leadership for Learning" programme, aimed at Headteachers, will assist in those and other processes, creating powerful drivers for the future embedding of ICT.
But probably the most powerful influences on classroom practice are curriculum and assessment. It is not surprising then that, in their discussion of ICT in secondary schools contained in this report, HMIE state;
There was a clear correlation between those departments in which assessment requirements for national qualifications required pupils to have frequent exposure to ICT hardware and those with the most frequent use of ICT.
The forthcoming reviews of the curriculum and the assessment system afford a unique opportunity to take stock of the progress made so far with ICT and to establish an unambiguous vision for its future role.
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