ICT and inter-institutional collaboration
Findings from qualitative research
Collaboration between Cluster Institutions
The ICT Test Bed project includes two themes which focus on work across the cluster rather than in individual institutions. The first of these is collaboration between the cluster schools, and between them and the college. This is of particular importance because of recent policy initiatives focused on improving the continuity and coherence of pupils' learning as they move from primary school to secondary school (the Key Stage 3 strategies, for example) and from secondary schools to sixth form college or further education college (the 14-19 agenda).
From the start the project was established as a collaborative initiative within each cluster. ICT coordinators from each school have had regular meetings and heads have met weekly in one cluster, monthly in another, and as required in the third. All major decisions have been taken collaboratively, although in all three clusters individual schools have had the freedom to make their own different choices when appropriate. The ICT Test Bed managers in each college have attended cluster meetings and participated in decision-making. The colleges have not received the same level of funding as the schools in relation to their total funding and their work is, therefore, focused on three selected subject areas rather than whole-college development. However, each college has also introduced specialist networked software such as MIS and VLE systems and the latter is an area which invites collaboration across the whole of the college and with the schools.
The collaborative nature of decision-making in ICT Test Bed and the frequent meetings that this has entailed have established strong bonds between the institutions and created the conditions for shared initiatives. The electronic networks established by ICT Test Bed have also made it much easier for teachers to communicate with one another, and innovatory networked software, such as virtual learning environments, have made it easier to share resources for teaching. Nevertheless, compared with the pressing needs to procure and install equipment, provide staff with training in its use, and implement innovatory practices, there has been less immediate pressure to develop collaborative projects across the institutions. Travel time between institutions, the logistics of timetabling and safety issues relating to the need to supervise pupils make such projects complex to manage.
In this report we focus on four aspects of ICT Test Bed collaboration:
- General progress in collaboration between the colleges and the schools
- The production, sharing of, and access to, resources for use with whole-class technologies
- A cluster content-development workshop
- A collaborative project between secondary schools and the college in one of the clusters.
General progress in collaboration between the colleges and the schools
The colleges are independent organisations which had no formal links with the clusters of schools prior to the commencement of ICT Test Bed. Indeed, in all cases they are unavoidably in competition with local secondary schools over recruitment of students to some courses. During the first two years of the project the nature and extent of their partnership with schools has developed in very different ways.
In one cluster the college is a very active partner. It has taken responsibility for organising and hosting training days for school staff and welcomed staff and children to come and use college facilities. It has also played a leading role in the development of links with children's homes and the community, for example by hosting outreach centres and establishing a virtual learning environment to support learning in rural communities, and by undertaking the repairing and upgrading of second-hand computers supplied by the secondary schools to go into homes. Work in another college has progressed much more slowly, mainly as a result of major re-structuring in the college during the first year and a change in the college's ICT Test Bed Manager during the second year. In the third college there was also a change in the ICT Test Bed Manager during the first year, but collaboration is now developing well, for example in relation to a content development facility located in the college for the use of both college and school staff (see below).
Sharing resources for use with whole-class technologies
In the observation study of whole-class technologies in 24 classrooms across the three ICT Test Bed clusters, the evaluators looked for evidence of collaboration. Teachers shared their resources with colleagues in their school and in some cases were beginning to share resources with teachers in other schools in the cluster. Whole-class technologies such as IWBs demand the development of more resources than teachers may have previously needed, but once developed they are available for use in the future and can be easily edited. One teacher who had changed year groups from Year 6 to Year 3 had the transition considerably eased by the availability of resources already assembled for teaching that year group. In one cluster, science coordinators developed a portfolio of resources in science that form the basis of a major element in a newly established VLE. One outcome of ICT Test Bed has been the development of strong links through the clusters enabling such sharing of expertise. The potential to access other school and web-based resources rapidly opens up expanded possibilities beyond those previously available to teachers, and enables them to respond to children's needs as they arise.
This is a particularly effective context for primary teachers, where all the teachers in the institution, and in other institutions in the cluster, share the same concerns. The primary teacher's task to teach across all subjects is huge and, although there are differences between year group teachers, it is still in many ways a common task so that mutual support is natural and traditional. In secondary schools and in FE the situation is much more complex. A subject area will contain only a few teachers and the need to develop expertise is therefore much more an individual issue. It is not surprising therefore that development of shared resources in secondary schools and the FE colleges was found to be more patchy.