e-Learning

Our vision is to ensure that ICT is embedded as a learning and teaching tool in all subject areas; we have a strong desire that all students within the College be given opportunities to take responsibility for their own learning.  We believe that ICT has an amazing potential to motivate and inspire students and offers a unique way to personalise their learning. 

 

We have made rapid developments in the use of ICT across the College.  We experiment enthusiastically with new technologies in our learning and teaching.   We make very good use of interactive whiteboards and have built up considerable expertise in this field, especially in Modern Languages.  The use of Tablet PCs as interactive teaching tools is being piloted in a couple of Curriculum Teams and we are further developing the use of Voting Technology.  Wherever possible we are using ICT to transform and change relationships within the classroom and not to simply replace the use of old technology with new! 

 

Key areas of our development include student laptop groups in Years 8 -11, Dartfish Digital Video use in PE, Voting systems in Science, History, Maths and Languages.  Tablet PCs are being developed as interactive teaching tools and being used for digital marking within the laptop groups.  We have created a video conference link between our Hearing Impaired Unit and another school in Devon.  This has enabled students within the unit to practise their sign language skills with other hearing impaired students and to develop their social skills with others.

We use CAD/CAM software in Technology, Digital Video (Movie Maker 2) in Art for creating digital animations and CuBASE in Music.  We have built up considerable e-Resources in all subject areas including video and audio podcasts. 

 

In 2001, we setup our own e-Learning foundation to provide laptops to students.  We have discrete laptop groups in Years 8 - 11 and are developing ways in which ICT can be used to empower and personalise students learning.  This group has also served as a catalyst for teachers to try new ideas and has developed a high level of e-confidence amongst students and teachers.

 

We are planning to extend this (in September 2008) to a scheme where all students in Years 7 and 8 will have the opportunity to use laptops in their lessons.  These will be provided by parental contributions through our e-Learning foundation. 

 

 

One of the major projects we have been working on since 2005 is the successful implementation of a Learning Gateway.  Our vision was to create a central, personalised location where curriculum content could be created, stored, shared and found easily at anytime and from any location.

 

Our Learning Gateway is based on Microsoft SharePoint 2007 and provides us with a portal framework which we can develop and customise, linking together many of our systems into one central webpage. 

 

Staff and students have access via the Gateway to their documents on the school network essentially giving them their own online learning space.  This means students can continue with their work at home without having to copy documents onto memory sticks or CD’s. 

Each Curriculum Team has its own area and makes appropriate resources available for each key stage.  Teachers have a personalised area for each class which enables them to make available resources just for that class and to collaborate with them online using surveys and discussion forums.

 

 

Eggbuckland has been working closely with a local software company and the local ESF (European Social Fund) project to create an e-ILP for the city of Plymouth.  We have successfully rolled out an e-ILP to all students across the College.  This is used to extend students learning opportunities by allowing staff to monitor progress.  The eILP is used during our two Review Days and forms part of the dialogue with students and parents.  This software is used as an evidence base for the new ASDAN CoPE Award and as an ePortfolio for evidence gathering sharing students best work in other subjects. 

 

 

We make considerable investment in resources to support ICT use across the College.  We are working towards installing projectors in every classroom and have so far managed this in 60 classrooms out of 86.  We are making use of digital signage across the College using LCD and plasma screens to display students’ work, photographs of trips, upcoming events and celebrate achievement.

 

We have provided every teacher with their own laptop.  We have installed a site wide Wi-Fi system to ensure staff and students can access the network and resources from wherever they are.  All staff and students have been provided with an e-mail address.  All stakeholders can logon to the College network over the Internet, accessing the Learning Gateway, email, CMIS and their individual documents. 

 

The College operates a very reliable ICT infrastructure which has been developed by our in-house Team of technicians.  The system runs Windows Server 2003, Windows XP/Vista and Office 2007.