Education ICT Newsletter

The following are known issues with iBooks failing to allow users to log on to the server.

HMIE conducted an evaluation to measure the impact of ICT in Education over a number of Local Authorities in Scotland. The report can be found at: <http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/iseictilat.pdf> We intend to write a response to the report, outlining our position in East Lothian by the end of June and we hope to be able to publish a summary to schools. We intend to implement a more in-depth self evaluation next session, using the framework provided by HMIE and the principles outlined in the East Lothian Learning and Teaching policy.

Are you using your own Log In when accessing computers in school?Are pupils using their own Log In details?In primary schools, pupils from P4 to P7 have their own Username and Password.From Nursery to P3, pupils have a class Log In.

Why should you be using your own Username and Password?

Animation kits have been purchased and distributed to every school in East Lothian. The kits consist of iMage webcams, desktop tripods and ‘I can animate’ helpsheets. The cameras will work ‘plug and play’ on both Macs and PCs, no drivers required. ‘I can animate’ software is on all macs to get those budding animators started!

We have now received the dates for the remaining projector installations for Primary Schools. These have been issued, along with dates for Interactive Whiteboard installations where applicable. All primary schools who requested installations will be completed before the summer holidays. This is good news. We hope that installations have gone smoothly and will continue to go smoothly. We would like to thank schools for supporting the ICT Education team to co-ordinate and organise the work.

A refresh of the majority of computers in the CDT, Computing and Business Education Departments is about to be rolled out in the summer holidays. This will mean that over 700 computers will be replaced and rebuilt with an extensive suite of up-to-date software to support and enhance the delivery of the curriculum. For the past two months, the ICT Education team, IT and the Principal Teachers of the relevant departments have been working together to develop a software toolkit to provide the best possible tools for the current curriculum and to allow for future developments. In the next two weeks, computers with the new build will be going out to schools for testing and trial before the final roll out in the Summer. We hope that we can now support staff in these departments to co-ordinate training where appropriate to enable staff to use the technology confidently in Teaching and Learning.

Recently the Education IT Strategy group took the decision to look at improving the provision of Interactive Whiteboards in Early Years. The decision was made to provide one Interactive Whiteboard for each Primary 1 class and Primary 1 composite class in line with the Learning and Teaching policy regarding equality of entitlement, and, also to provide one Interactive Whiteboard to each nursery class or nursery school by request. All schools have received information about this initiative and responses should be with Suzanne Todd stodd@eastlothian.gov.uk as soon as possible.

As an authority we have been asked to participate in the Phase 3 Pilot of the GLOW portal.  This pilot will run from the 11th June until the end of term and will test the ‘GLOW Learn’ function of the portal.  This is the Virtual Learning Environment.

GLOW Pilot Phase 2

East Lothian has taken part in the Phase 2 Piloting of the GLOW Portal along with thirteen other authorities across Scotland.  Having successfully piloted Phase 1 of the GLOW portal in two of our schools (King’s Meadow and Knox Academy) we were looking forward to this next stage in the development of the GLOW portal.  Six components of the portal were to be tested - Web Hosting, Glow Meet, Glow Chat, Video Streaming, Mailing Lists and Secure File Transfer.  Remote Access was also available during this pilot which meant that Mentors could access GLOW from home, giving them more of an opportunity to test out the tools available.

Although some teething troubles were encountered during this pilot phase using some of the tools, valuable information was learned on how to move this forward within East Lothian, and also for the developers of GLOW.  Further information on the Phase 2 pilot can be found by accessing the following blogs

http://edubuzz/blogs/glowboy

http://edubuzz/blogs/tessawatson