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ICT in institutional links with home and community

Findings from qualitative research

The second of the cluster themes in the ICT Test Bed Project is home and community links. The aim is to use ICT to improve communications with parents and provide pupils with access to computer-based learning materials from home, thereby raising educational standards as well as strengthening links between the cluster schools and the local community.

This theme caught the imagination of all the participating schools and colleges from the beginning, but it proved difficult to put into operation. In two clusters, where the initial plans were to provide every pupil with a home computer, early enquiries suggested that costs would be prohibitively high, and this resulted in a decision to get work in other areas established before taking decisions on home-community links. In these clusters, decisions were finally made and computers issued to homes in the summer of 2004 (in one third of schools only in one cluster).

In the third cluster, where the varied approaches across the college and the schools were perhaps more realistic, some heads saw this theme initially as a lower priority. However, others put initiatives into place extremely quickly.

In this report we focus on three aspects of the ICT Test Bed Home and Community Links work:

A varied approach adopted in Cluster A

In this cluster some schools started work on the home and community links theme very early in the lifetime of the ICT Test Bed Project. Their approach was varied, suiting the needs of the local communities and building on existing provision wherever possible. For example, several schools refurbished existing community rooms with ICT equipment for community use, either attached to the school or in the local village. In one case this took the form of a new parents' room built onto a nursery school as part of major building work. The college also refurbished and re-equipped some of its former outreach computer learning centres across the cluster and re-launched them as Community Learning Centres, which quickly became highly attractive to learners by offering short taster courses in digital photography.

The college strengthened its links with local businesses through students and staff using ICT on placements and employers coming in to college to video-record training materials. The VLE, established in several departments of the college before the installation of the cluster VLE, provided very welcome e-learning opportunities for rural learners who found travel to college difficult in the winter. The intention was that, following the installation of the VLE in schools during the summer of 2004, it would be developed to allow children and parents to access it from home. It is too early to report on the extent to which this has proved possible.

One school provided all pupils in Year 6 with a personal laptop which they used both at school and at home for the whole year, 2003-04. During an interview in March 2004 the head was very enthusiastic about the impact this had had, saying:

The level of expertise in these kids is just amazing - their class teacher and I are amazed. I am so excited and we've had lots of comments from parents. These are children who are not high achievers and it's made an incredible difference to their work.

Other schools also provided pupils with laptops for use in school and to take home for short-terms loans. One head commented that this had had a knock-on effect in 'bringing parents into schools who never have been before'. None of the schools had any problems in loaning laptops to children to take home, which they saw as the result of putting a clear process in place. One school had purchased digital cameras which it loaned to children in Years 1-3 to take home. It also welcomed parents to come in on Mondays after school to work on the computers with their children. All of these initiatives were highly motivating for pupils and were establishing demonstrably closer links with parents.

The college also supported the secondary and special schools in providing 100 computers for pupils' homes. The schools provided second-hand computers which a college technician repaired and upgraded before their installation in homes. In the six months after installation the college technician also made more than 150 visits to provide home support to repair, upgrade and personalize computers which, in some cases, were supporting pupils with special educational needs. The college has been particularly imaginative in using contacts with members of the community - both in their homes and the outreach centres - as the first step in supporting adults back into education, for example to enroll in literacy programmes.

General points emerging from the varied approach in this cluster

There are a number of ways in which ICT can strengthen links between schools, pupils' homes and the community. Work in this cluster provided evidence of good progress in:

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