The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER 4 TRAVELLER PUPILS' ICT KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Introduction

This chapter presents data to show how an exploration of the themes of motivation, and connectivity in relation to ICT supported learning revealed evidence to suggest that all the pupils had some level of knowledge about and skills in using desktop and laptop computers, software, printers, the Internet and email, and mobile phones. Pupils' 'own words' illustrate their current levels of engagement with and knowledge of the curriculum to suggest that they make good use of their current lack of access to ICT supported learning opportunities.

Literacy and motivation to learn

The pedagogical challenges facing teachers' attempts to meet the educational needs of mobile Gypsy and Traveller pupils derive largely from gaps in their formal learning skills ranging from some interrupted learning to no formal learning at all. However, all but two of the 21 pupils involved in the research were able to read, for example the older pupils clearly read and engaged with the meanings of the prompts, while the majority of the younger pupils were able to read instructions appearing on the laptop's screen as we located the prepared images.

Pupils from both communities recognised the significance of having basic educational skills to allow them to engage with the curriculum, particularly in relation to literacy's role in accessing information through a computer and the Internet.

During a small group interview with Gypsy/Traveller boys, some primary and some secondary aged, a boy expressed his wish to learn to read, and qualified his wish by saying "… but, (a big sigh) it is such hard work". Later, he privately spoke about the laptop used to help facilitate discussion to ask if the researcher knew that maps could be found through the Internet. He explained that using the desktop machine that they had at home, his brother could find "maps of everywhere … even of London!" His motivation for learning to read was not in doubt. However, the local authority's strict interpretation of 'presumption of mainstreaming' policies had resulted in his receiving very poor additional support.

This boy's comments revealed an understanding about computers and the Internet as source of information about the wider world, of his interest in finding out information of relevance to him, and, of his willingness to share his knowledge with a relative stranger (the laptop had not been connected to the Internet).

A number of teachers described Showground Traveller pupils as being impressively resilient in their approaches to learning in the sense that when faced with difficulties in accessing learning, generally pupils from these backgrounds "don't give up".

Showground Traveller Boy: Motivation? I know what that means… To make yourself to do things. You need like to build up yourself for things and get your, get yourself motivated for summat.

Researcher: And do you find that difficult for your school work?

Showground Traveller Boy: Nope not at all. Yeah, I've got plenty of motivation.

The above examples were two of many that reflected the young people's generally very positive attitudes towards learning, including cases where pupils had additional and particular educational needs.

Pupils' knowledge of computers, hardware and educational software

The research found that the majority of Showground and Gypsy/Traveller pupils were familiar with computers and had had opportunities for accessing the Internet at school.

Pupils' capacities for manipulating the laptop, for example when opening up the prompt materials or moving the words around the onscreen file suggested that 5 pupils (4 Showground Traveller and 1 Gypsy/Traveller) had good knowledge of computers and ICT skills in relation to being able to open and close a file, copy/cut text and paste, type with one finger and drag and drop images. These skills were learned in school and at home; "I just kind of messed about with it and you learn. But my uncle and my cousin showed me as well. And then it was me that showed my dad."

All the children and young people expressed a general enjoyment in using a computer and some specifically pointed out that they preferred preparing formal assignments on a computer because they felt their work was neater and that writing was less tiring on the hands than working with a pen. Most pupils were aware of the spell checker and commented on its usefulness in supporting their preparation of written work at school, and for other purposes (see below).

Pupils from both groups commented on the general difficulties of keeping control of paper-based learning materials and frequently provided examples of other practical benefits of using a computer. Primary children drew attention to the image of a trailer to point out that a laptop would 'fit' easily into their family's obviously limited storage space. Secondary children felt that it helped them keep their work organised, and pupils also enjoyed having a USB memory stick as it meant that they had less to carry in their school bags.

Showground Traveller girl ; Like instead of having like so many drawers and bits of paper that you can just lose, it's always on there ain't it. So you're not going to lose it unless you delete it. … Because you haven't got as many bits of paper. You probably won't even have any more like unless you printed it out.

Researcher:So that would be helpful to you even if you don't travel?

Showground Traveller girl : I think it would work. Because it's always that thing, you're trying to find your English jotter and trying to find your maths jotter.

Researcher: Mhm, and you have to carry it as well don't you. Do you have to carry a heavy bag to school? Yeah.

Showground Traveller girl: Cause we don't have lockers.

Gypsy/Traveller children also commented on the portability of laptops and their use among Gypsy/Traveller families.

Gypsy/Traveller girl: More Travellers have got laptops because it's easier to, like travelling, like a big computer in the corner, like you could use the corner for something else, they take up more room. That's why we just have a laptop.

Only a few pupils were aware of specific educational software packages for supporting learning and their independent use of laptop software was mainly limited to games. One Gypsy/Traveller boy was clearly knowledgeable about using software to safeguard his files, for example he knew about the purpose of firewalls and named antivirus software.

Emailing and attachments

The topic of emailing emerged around questioning about travelling. Of the 21 pupils involved in this research, 9 travelled during the school year, 7 sometimes travelled, usually during school holidays. While 6 Gypsy/Traveller pupils were currently housed, with 1 waiting for a house, for the reasons outlined in Chapter One Gypsy/Traveller families may well feel the need to 'move on'.

All the pupils had heard of email and some referred to their use of MSN, however, none had ever been in email contact with a 'base' school when travelling. Some pupils reported that their school did not allow pupils to use email at school as some had adopted this policy response to bullying and nasty message sending between pupils.

Few pupils understood the concept of 'attachments' and all were keen to know what it meant. The interview provided an ICT learning opportunity as time was taken to explain what an 'attachment' was and its potential relevance for ICT supported learning at a distance from a 'base' school.

Connectivity and the Internet

The majority of pupils had had limited access to the Internet at school, a number of Gypsy/Traveller pupils had access to the Internet in an alternative educational setting, and, while a couple of Showground Traveller families and one Gypsy/Traveller family had connectivity at home, the majority of pupils did not.

Clear evidence emerged of pupils' knowledge of the Internet, and the economic, social and educational usefulness of search engines. In a small group interview conversation all the children rushed to respond to the researcher's question about Google.

Researcher: So what sort of things do you use the Internet for? Do you know about Google? Yeah.

Gypsy/Traveller boy: Yes, it's where you can buy things and sell things and look up things and all that.

Gypsy/Traveller Girl: Like Ebay…

Gypsy/Traveller boy: Even if you just want to look at something for a project at the school…

Gypsy/Traveller Girl: …for homework.

Other Gypsy/Traveller children described fathers and uncles using the Internet to find old school friends, "Cause my uncle [name] does that, me aunt [name's] husband, he use to type in a date, then he would type in a school, then he used to look for me dad's old school mates."

The image prompts were again useful in that they helped primary children articulate their imagined use of ICT supported provision.

Gypsy/Traveller Girl: Say I went to a different school I would to like be able to go into the computers [others talking] say my friend [name] was here right and it was her time to go the ICT room, I would like to be able to … like me and her communicate… like talk to each other from a different place…

Some of the teachers had facilitated the local authority's earlier less than successful attempts to support Showground Traveller pupils with laptop computers while they were travelling. Teachers suggested that this situation had partly been due to connectivity difficulties, but that in some cases pupils were described as 'not motivated to learn'. Connectivity emerged as a significant key to ensuring pupils enthusiasm for and regular engagement in their schoolwork while 'on the road'.

The significance of communication among families and with schools also emerged around mobile telephone use; a majority of pupils drew attention to their mobile phones, for example each had had their own personal mobile phones bought for them by their families primarily for keeping contact with families and friends, through texting and telephone calls.

Making tickets and flyers

Pupils' examples of how they used their ICT skills reflected that they frequently shared them with family members and put them to good practical use in relation to the family's occupational needs. One young person for example, described how she had used the family's desktop to help her father make tickets for their show.

Researcher: And you helped him do that?

Showground Traveller Girl: Yes I showed him how to do it.

Researcher: So although you're not travelling the computer's been helpful to your father in his work?

Showground Traveller Girl: Yes.

A Showground Traveller boy's discussion about his new laptop further illustrated pupils' entrepreneurial approaches to using a laptop in ways that benefited a family's business.

Showground Traveller boy: The first day I got mine I went over to my aunties and my uncle put on a Microsoft picture it and he put all that on and I made a leaflet of like all of our rides and that, all about us, all like it's like that way and it folds like that and it's got the photo and that on it and it tells you a wee bit of writing and that on the three pages and photos and that.

The boy's account clearly demonstrated his ICT skills and the educational value of having access to a laptop with connectivity, which in this case had allowed him to download the images integral to his advertising flyer.

A few families from both communities were reported to have invested in a computer and a printer for home use; some Gypsy/Traveller families living in houses had bought a desktop computer with access to the Internet, and other families living in trailers or chalets were reported to have laptop computers.

The majority of Gypsy/Traveller pupils' main, but relatively limited access to computer technologies, was at school or in alternative educational settings. While two or three of the younger Gypsy/Traveller pupils were not too clear about computer technologies, the majority had a clear understanding of ICT's capabilities in relation to accessing and transporting data. While a number of Showground Traveller pupils reported owning their own personal laptop computer, no Gypsy/Traveller pupils reported owning a laptop.

Importantly, pupils from both backgrounds frequently reported being supported in their use of computers at home by their fathers or uncles. Some Gypsy/Traveller pupils reported that their dads used a laptop to keep track of business information. Some Gypsy/Traveller pupils reported being allowed as a special treat to play a game on the parent's laptop.

Laptops - no substitute for attending school?

Showground/Traveller pupils in regular attendance at school in the winter term described 'catching up' in relation to the curriculum at the end of a season of travelling as relatively easy.

Showground Traveller Boy: It's not as difficult as what other people think. A lot of people would find it like difficult to catch up, although it's not as difficult. Usually when I go back to the school they're not always on the different things. Like I can catch up then on a lot, cause I learned from my mum and dad and my granddad will teach me stuff when I'm away… They are not teaching me bad habits as like just teaching me the things that I need to know, things I need to grow up with.

However, as noted earlier, a number of Showground Traveller pupils reported that they had been put back a year 'to catch up' and some families had decided to leave their children in the care of relatives during the school week.

A grandfather's comment that, "The children should be in school" reflected Showground families' general usage of a 'base' school in the winter months, for primary and secondary pupils. Over the summer months, many families relied on paper-based support provided by their base school. Some families were also reported as trying to enrol their children in schools as they travelled, however, some Showground Traveller parents consider that, "they're enjoying their experience, but there's no progress in their learning".

After a lot of discussion among one group of Gypsy/Traveller pupils about what they did and did not enjoy about school, the following quote summarised how many Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller pupils felt about the notion of having access to ICT supported education when travelling.

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: I hate coming to school, I say it all the time but I do. But say I … went away somewhere and I was bored or something and I am saying like 'I wish I went to school now' and all that, I wish I did have that laptop, that way you could download homework and that would give me something to do and that way I am still like going to school through the internet.

All the Gypsy/Traveller pupils made their feelings clear about attending schools where they had generally felt frightened or had been subject to name-calling or physical hurt; they did not want to go to such schools. Some stated a preference for being taught in out of school settings.

CHAPTER 5 ICT SUPPORTED LEARNING AT A DISTANCE

Introduction

This chapter presents Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller pupils' understandings of the concepts collaborative, interactive and synchronicity as they relate to ICT supported learning and teaching. Based on their descriptions of where, when and how they learn when travelling, which emerged from discussions about the above concepts, the chapter provides evidence to suggest that Gypsy and Traveller pupils would benefit from a 'blended learning' approach to ICT supported learning and teaching when at a distance from their 'base' schools.

Thematic connections in learning and teaching

As earlier chapters have shown, connectivity clearly emerges as a key component of effective ICT supported learning, not least because it allows for a pupil to stay in touch, wherever he/she is located, with a 'base' school teacher.

Researcher: … if you are moving around a lot, what happens to your learning?

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: You have like lost it, you don't lose it but you forget.

Pupils' understandings of the meanings and links between the concepts of collaboration, interactive and synchronicity in relation to ICT supported learning frequently emerged spontaneously from a pupil's exploration of one concept, which they then linked to others by tracing their implications for everyday learning 'on the road'.

Collaborative working

A few pupils reported periods of boredom when travelling, particularly in small towns and rural areas in the north of Scotland. At these times, " there would only be a couple of us … or there'd be nothing to do, so we would just sit and do the school work."

Another Showground Traveller boy linked the notion of motivation for learning to collaborative learning. He has found that his motivation was strengthened by his participation in small working groups, variously comprised of siblings, cousins and friends, when at their winter base and in their trailers while travelling.

Showground Traveller Boy: In the winter station … we would go home and he would be like that oh I'm stuck on this and I could pick it up and like what's happening here? that goes there and that goes there but sometimes … he had may be done it or was doing it that day … and help me with it and that. Well most of the work would be the same all throughout Glasgow for the schools based on what they do. He might have work that I know what to do and I might have work that he knows what to do. So instead of like here [at school] you would ask the teacher like if I was stuck I would put my hand up and the teacher would come and ask me but likes of there [at home or when travelling] at least you have got somebody to ask if somebody else is there with you.

Few Traveller children and young people emerged as learning in isolation. Their usual ways of working thus raise a crucial issue for providers of ICT supported learning as 'Laptops for Travellers' found that when pupils worked side-by-side with their laptops the signal reception was likely to fail.

Some Gypsy/Traveller pupils' discussions about their positive experience of an ICT supported learning project revealed the potential for collaborative working between pupils who may be located in different areas.

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: I am just going back to the chat room point. When I was in [name of project] I went to a chat room and I thought 'I know someone who has got a computer' and it was my cousin. So I went to the chat room and typed in [name] and then it comes up like with his computer and I thought yeah … I am talking to him! … And he was telling me what he was doing like playing with his dogs and all that

Showground Traveller pupils' discussions revealed the role of collaborative working between parents and interested teachers to ensure that children were supplied with paper-based learning materials for the travelling season.

Secondary Boy: What they… obviously they [parents] would go to my teacher and say 'ok I'm going to be travelling on this day and I won't be back till this day' and my mum would say 'can I get work like to do right over the summer'. What the head teacher would do is go into all the classrooms that I was doing and get like piles of work like maybe a text book for one subject and jotters and different things and that and do it… and just keep doing it over the summer and then when I was going like the summer time I would probably take it back and they would mark it all and … I had maybe caught [up] or maybe not with other pupils.

However, schools' support for their pupils' teaching and feedback needs on completed assignments to date has been very limited.

Improvements in this area have begun as in the last travelling season (2005) Glasgow City Council's 'Laptops for Travellers' project has delivered connectivity between the designated teacher, and access to a limited curriculum (English and Maths) to a few Showground Traveller children. Importantly, collaborative development working between the designated teacher, technically knowledgeable professional support staff and schools has delivered online software that corresponds with the curriculum materials being used by Showground Traveller's peers at school.

Interactive learning

The report earlier referred to 'blended learning' as a communicative process that combines opportunities for different kinds of interactions between teachers and peers; face-to-face, email and telephone communications. Pupils from both backgrounds liked the idea of 'interactive' learning, which they understood as having two meanings; being able to respond to what the software asked of them, and as being able to communicate with their teachers by email about their work. As one boy said, "I couldn't do it by myself all the time".

Others also preferred interactions with their teacher to be face-to-face, "Aye, I can find out things (on the Internet) and that, but I like better face to face."

Importantly, ICT supported learning has been shown to benefit from the key element that ensures traditionally delivered effective learning and teaching experiences, a regular, positive learning and teaching relationship between learners and their teachers; a view supported by these pupils' comments.

The idea of accessing their own work folder through a username and password was not new for Showground Traveller pupils who were keen to demonstrate how they currently used this mode of access to their personal pupil folders.

Synchronicity and learning

Pupils' initial explorations of the term synchronicity in relation to ICT supported learning interpreted its meaning in negative ways. Pupils thought that ICT supported learning would provide teachers at school with an opportunity for imposing the timed demands of a traditional learning and teaching day. Pupils considered such and exercise of power to be wholly inappropriate for their life styles while on the road.

Showground Traveller boy: For people [teachers] to keep giving me work and work and work and just like all the time I'm working, work and work. Cause I've got all my daily things to do. Like working on the, on the rides and helping out and doing my bit.

Researcher: …Doing your bit towards the family?

Showground Traveller boy: Yeah.

Others discussed the issue of synchronicity in relation to connectivity, to raise their concerns that a teacher would achieve some kind of control as in a school setting, about when they did their schoolwork. This possibility was perceived as a backward step as it would limit what was currently a valued issue of personal choice. Frequently, Showground children made positive comments about their life styles; " I enjoy the way my life is.'

Another pupil, positive about the idea of using technology to support his learning, was also clear that he would want to retain some control about the amount of work he might be sent as, "Cause I've got my daily things to do… like working on the rides and helping out and doing my bit. I'd like… my own choice, not what they (school) think for me."

Gypsy/Traveller pupils raised different issues in relation to 'synchronicity'; a need for learning materials to be individually tailored, clearly presented, and that training be provided for pupils in how to use the technology.

Researcher: One of the things about this [using ICT] is that your lessons could be posted…

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: … to you by email.

Researcher: … I could send it to you on a Friday and say 'right I will be connecting up again next Friday, just make sure all this work is done'. So you can do it whenever you like, but you would have to do it [emphasised], because it would have to be there on the next Friday. But the choice would be yours about when [emphasised] you did it. What do you think of that? Would you be … motivated to get it done?

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: Yeah [paused to think] the only thing is I would have to have instructions on it. … Yeah, clearly you know written out and the way I can understand, not too fancy words and that.

Explorations of the term 'synchronicity' with secondary pupils, for example, led to discussions about the meaning of the term 'asynchronous' and its implications in relation to online learning.

Showground Traveller pupils linked their understandings of flexibility, as doing things part-time, of having extra support at school to the concept of asynchronous learning. Pupils were enthusiastic about the idea of working in 'asynchronous' time, which was thought would help them achieve a better 'fit' between learning and their everyday lives during the travelling season.

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: And if we were supplied with work, you know what you were saying like maybe in the future, we could like learn some things in the school that we use to be in… I feel like if we moved from the school we were in you could send us the same work and we could do it of night time.

Pupils also welcomed the idea of being able to work at their own pace and of being able to go back to a topic that they found too difficult.

ICT supported learning and equality of opportunity

Currently, research has shown that mobile Gypsy/Traveller pupils are highly unlikely to have an Individual Education Plan. Gypsy/Traveller pupils rarely receive any paper-based support and certainly no ICT supported learning from schools. Some families successfully enrol their children at schools as they travel, however some of the Gypsy/Traveller pupils in this research had not been to school for four months.

Researcher:And when you were travelling were you ever, what kind of materials did you receive? Just to, to learn with?

Boy 1: No we went to school.

Researcher: You always went to school.

Boy 1: Yeah.

Boy 2: Mostly yeah, mostly.

Boy 3: But we were off school for four months or something cause that's when we were at [name of place]. And they wouldnae, at [name of place] they wouldn't, the teacher…

Boy 2: They wouldn't enrol us.

Boy 3: …said there's no point us applying if there's nae a minibus ken' tae get tae school.

Researcher: Mhm…

Boy 2: They wouldn't supply us, they wouldn't enrol us cause we're Travellers.

Researcher: You mean they didn't give you any papers or books?

All the children simultaneously replied "No". The accuracy of these children's reports, for example that a school did refuse to enrol them, and on the grounds of a lack of transport, may be issues of interpretation, however, they are issues that must concern local authorities who are serious about providing all children with access to the curriculum.

This eloquent exchange draws attention to the strong need for local authority education departments to provide ICT supported learning as a means of ensuring equality of educational opportunity. Not least for Gypsy/Traveller pupils who cannot or will not attend school, but also for others who for the broad range of reasons recognised in the Additional Support for Learning's Code of Practice have additional learning needs.

CHAPTER 6 TRAVELLER PUPILS' PERCEPTIONS OF ISSUES ARISING FROM ICT SUPPORTED LEARNING

Introduction

This chapter outlines and discusses pupils' perceptions of the challenges that might arise in delivering a user friendly ICT supported learning service for Gypsy and Traveller pupils when travelling, or being educated in out of school settings. The chapter also makes links between pupils' concerns and professionals' and policy makers' concerns to deliver an educationally effective, value for money ICT supported learning service, across a diversity of contexts.

Mainstream access - setting the standards of equity

Computers with access to the Internet emerged as taken-for-granted aspects of mainstream schooling by all the Traveller children. However, the idea that Traveller pupils might be provided with access to ICT supported learning when travelling emerged as a novel idea to most Gypsy/Traveller pupils.

Researcher: … so if you had a way of connecting into the school, like with a laptop and your learning was sent to you by email … what would you think of that, do you think you would be able to do, do you think you would be interested in that?

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: Yeah, but when we are away, like where there is no school about… [paused for thought] Yes, I would be interested in it, but what I am thinking of is how?

While a few of the older Showground Traveller pupils considered it the government's responsibility to provide for travelling children to ensure that they had the same level of access to ICT as children at school, the younger children expressed concerns about the implications of any costs for their parents.

Costs - development and sustainability of ICT supported learning

The issue of who would pay for the costs of developing and sustaining an ICT supported learning service emerged during the first few individual interviews. Pupils asked the following questions; what would it cost to set up? How much would the hardware and software cost? And, the data cards or line rental to achieve connectivity to the Internet, wouldn't that be expensive?

Most of the Gypsy/Traveller children commented on the beauty of the laptop that was used, which usually was closely followed by a further comment about the expense of buying it. A primary girl commented that, "This laptop must have been dear eh?" A boy's discussion included a number of questions about costs of software that might be needed. He also wanted to know about the life of the battery and how often the laptop had to be re-charged.

Both Gypsy/Traveller and Showground Traveller pupils explored the laptop's need for electricity, "… cause like some places you are out in the middle of fields and that and we have all got big generators super silent. But it's like getting the Internet connected off everywhere I go so it would be quite hard." It was suggested that the generators used on fairground sites could cope with delivering electricity as long as parents had enough money to buy the petrol to put in the generator. However, the cost of electricity cards for use in trailers parked on local authority sites was considered to be prohibitively expensive for some Gypsy/Traveller families.

Showground Traveller pupils appeared more pragmatic about the implications of costs for their families than the Gypsy/Traveller pupils. A few of the former imagined that ICT hardware could be delivered through a collaborative approach between their families and the government.

Showground Traveller Boy: Well if it's gonna help them [children] then likes not just the school but likes if the government were gonna fit in all the software and that to be put in the laptop, mind you all the schools has got that anyway, so likes the wireless technology and that from wherever it comes from and I could do all the stuff I need [on a laptop] till I get my computer up to the internet. Likes of that… not the council, the government should pay but most of the Show people … I think there was twenty five of us all got laptops like all my pals and that.

Secondary-aged Showground Traveller pupils appeared to have some disposable income, earned when working on the 'rides'. For example, one boy had been saving for a year for a laptop.

Showground Traveller boy: And I just wanted a laptop for the last year and a half and like I took my own money … for insurance and that on it … and my dad bought me it.

The cost for insuring the laptop for a year was quoted as £250.

Discussions about costs also led pupils to reflect on related issues arising from engaging with computer-based provision. For example, pupils:

· reviewed their conceptual understandings of the links between a laptop or desktop and the significance of needing either a wireless card or "a dial up thing done through the telephone" in order to get connected to the Internet

· raised the issue of training needs for themselves and their parents, for example, in how to connect up to the Internet, use email and access files and other software

· commented on a laptop's potential for creating stress within families who lived in trailers and who had small siblings who might damage the laptop. [1]

Gypsy/Traveller children suggested other more suitable places for accessing their school work, for example that a laptop be made available at the onsite portacabin, or that arrangements be made with a local library or community centre. Pupils also thought that more laptops should be made available for borrowing from schools.

Safety awareness in using the Internet and emails

The issue of parental contributions to provision fed into other questions about safety and security in relation to accessing a networked ICT service.

The issue of pupil safety in relation to using the Internet and email was the first raised by two primary Gypsy/Traveller girls. Speaking together they described their school's attempt to raise awareness among parents about problems associated with using chat rooms, "We had letters out like in (both speak at once - unclear) on the Internet"

Gypsy/Traveller Girl: And there's letters out, [from the school] not to write like your names on the computer and on email, like not to send an email out.

Despite this knowledge, the pupil's vulnerability was demonstrated by her next request, "Can you show me how to go onto the chat rooms?"

A range of issues relating to safety and security in relation to the Internet were also discussed in another small group interview.

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: You know if you did get supplied with a computer from the council and all that would you be allowed to email your friends as well?

Researcher: They would have to provide you with a secure system and so you would be safe in it…

Gypsy/Traveller Girl: From anything happening to you? Like viruses or anything…

Researcher: … they would have to make sure people can't contact you inappropriately.

Gypsy/Traveller Boy: That's one thing … see if somebody like, I am using this word again, but paedophile did contact you through your computer, I wouldn't go and meet them like they say, I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't be allowed anyway, would you [refers to the girl in the group]?

It is important to note that Glasgow's recent experience, with Showground Traveller pupils' use of laptops with connectivity, has shown no apparent misuse of the security measures put in place to ensure both pupils safety on the Internet and the security of the Glasgow Schools Network.

Criteria for inclusion

In the likelihood of limited local authority resources being made available for an ICT supported service it is inevitable that clear criteria must be established to ensure that the service is delivered effectively, to children with a motivation to learn, that the curriculum on offer is tailored to a child's individual learning needs and that the family are properly supported in helping their child or children access the service.

Lessons can be learned from Glasgow's 'SchoolsOutGlasgow.net' project and its 'Laptops for Travellers' project. These projects highlight the importance of an 'assessment is for learning' approach to service delivery, which requires that a child's ICT supported curriculum is based upon their particular learning needs. Local authorities will need to recognise the time and material cost implications for:

· 'base' school and designated staff in developing an IEP for each child, which will ensure continuity of learning and teaching

· development of curriculum materials by 'base' school, designated support and ICT staff to create online access to the paper-based curriculum materials used by their 'base' schools.

It should be technically possible for resources to be delivered in such a way that more than one child in a family could benefit from the same hardware and connectivity arrangements, whether this involves the delivery of a laptop with connectivity, or through a password protected web browser.

New forms of learning and sociability

As outlined in earlier chapters, pupils did not perceive ICT supported learning to be a replacement for school-based learning. Indeed, Gypsy/Traveller pupils recognised that their decisions regarding non-attendance at secondary schools limited their occupational aspirations.

Showground Traveller Boy: Because what I want to do like, welding and engineering, you need some standard grades and that, so likes when I leave school next year what I want to go into I have got to have like so many standard grades.

Most pupils from both communities valued school as a place to make friends and gain the skills and qualifications they needed for adult life.

The sociability with peers at schools was frequently contrasted with the boredom sometimes experienced when staying on a site or when attending alternative settings. The idea of having access to ICT supported learning was exciting precisely because the technology could help them keep contact with the 'settled' pupils and teachers they liked; and even to avoid some of the children from their own communities that they did not like.

These insights all have significance for policy makers and practitioners as they illustrate that the delivery of a 'one size fits all' service, for example provision of a laptop with connectivity capabilities and associated peripheral technologies would not address the different contexts in which Traveller children may find themselves. Or indeed, that all Traveller children 'will always need' such a service.

[1]E-LAMP project staff reported that only one laptop was damaged during the travelling year; a teacher had placed a laptop on the ground with other materials ready for loading into her car, but she had forgotten it to pick it up and had reversed her car over it.

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