Securing E-Strategy

The mini-vision portal that we have developed with FROG to help secure our E-Learning strategy with all staff has been really beneficial to date. The notion of a one stop shop for staff to go in to and pull together all the information they need to develop an E-Learning startegy for their own department has been a success. The mini-portal has definitely helped shape a much stronger and shared vision for E-Learning across the school. All departments have now created and submitted their own E-Learning action plan that sits alongside the schools strategic development plan. Hopefully the portal has enabled a lot of joined up thinking to take place, without constraining creativity and innovation. All departments are focusing immediate efforts on populating FROG with content for our current Y11, focusing on developing quality e-revision content to support with the examinations. This staged approach is giving staff the chance to get to grips with the technology without becoming overwhelmed with the shear volume of the task ahead. It is giving them the chance to work in a focused, yet creative way. Departments are already exploring new avenues - with screencasts and podcasts being developed that specifically focus students needing to revise concepts along with creating lots of interactive and engaging content for the students. I'm no longer getting comments about E-Learning and whether it is relevant for their curriculum - just how can I do it/can it do this?

A few departments are looking at reviewing the whole way in which HW is set as they see FROG as having the potential to move away from weekly HW's to more independently based and research focused mini-projects that run over half a term. These would foster independent learner and collaboration, colleagues are getting excited. With all this excitement though are barriers and by far the biggest one is time. I would say that 90% of our staff are now at the point where they are excited by what FROG can bring and have a secure understanding as to what E-Learning is all about but they are now at the point in their journey where they need time to sit down and focus on learning the 'ins and outs' and creating resources. There is nothing more frustrating than knowing that something would be really good, but not having the time to action it. Which is why SLT are going to look at how we can give all staff in all departments focused developmental time to get the ball rolling. The last thing we want are enthused staff becoming disaffected as they have not got the time to do what they want and what, to be honest, really needs to get done.

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