10 January 2003
Education Online--BBC Digital Curriculum Approved
Digital Learning Revolution for British Schools
London- British Education and Skills Secretary Charles Clarke today announced a
package of ICT measures for schools and colleges to drive forward the
digital learning revolution. In a keynote speech at the BETT show at Olympia,London he said the measures will enhance traditional teaching practices and embed the
central role of ICT in raising standards. The package will help
develop teaching skills and practice across all education sectors,
extend access to online digital resources, and continue investment
for an effective ICT infrastructure.The measures, to be funded by the substantial investment in
educational ICT announced in the spending review allocations in
December will include:- An extra £280m for e-learning credits. With the funding already
announced this provides £100m each year for the next three years to
give schools access to online curriculum materials.- An extra £92m to develop College Online
- £8m for Online training for teachers next year.
- An extra £195m to provide more laptops for teachers over the next 3
years.- An extra £287m to provide all schools with broadband capability by
2006 this is on top of the £71m already announced for next year.Mr Clarke said:
"Some people have contested the value of ICT in teaching and
learning. I challenge that view. We have spent over £1bn creating an
ICT infrastructure in schools, colleges and libraries, stimulating
the content market and training teachers. We are now beginning to
reap the rewards for that massive investment as effective use of
digital resources in teaching and learning is making a difference to
raising standards."We know that a choice of innovative and professional digital
resources helps transform classroom practice. That's why I am very
pleased to announce that Curriculum Online is now fully open for
business. The portal means a revolution in the way teachers can
search, compare, select and share digital resources. We are making
£300m available between 2003-6 as e-learning credits to ensure access
to paid for as well as free materials. The initiative has been
developed as a true public private partnership."We are now extending the concept of Curriculum Online for schools to
the post 16 sector by developing College Online. The post 16 sector
via College Online will also soon have access to a much wider range
of high quality, learner-focused online content."I also welcome the announcement by the Culture Minister Tessa Jowell
today approving the development of the BBC Digital Curriculum. It is
an important step in the drive to offer the widest choice of quality
teaching and learning materials to schools. The BBC's media rich
resources will complement the Department for Education and Skills'
Curriculum Online service to create a balanced, dynamic market for
top quality priced and free digital learning materials for teachers."We are already helping over 100,000 teachers to gain access to a
laptop through our Laptops for Teachers' scheme and we now want to
extend this so that by 2006 we will have provided over two thirds of
teachers with personal access to a computer. We will also support the
continuing professional development of teachers through providing
further online professional development materials in an increasing
range of subjects. We are also helping a substantial number of tutors
gain access to a laptop or computer through our computers for FE
tutors scheme."It is also important that we continue to improve the infrastructure
that we have created over the last 4 years. The Prime Minister has
already announced that we will provide funding for Broadband
connections in all schools by 2006 but I am announcing today that the
Regional Broadband consortia will interconnect through the JANET
network ensuring that all schools, colleges and universities are
connected through a single backbone - providing for the first time a
truly national education network."We have placed ICT at the heart of educational transformation
because it enhances both the process and the product of education,
empowering learners and helping teachers and lecturers innovate in
the classroom. Today's measures will help teachers be creative and
embed best practice for all."The Curriculum Online Portal is www.curriculumonline.gov.uk
In his keynote speech the Secretary of State outlined how money
announced in the December spending review will be used and detailed
the specific spending funds for ICT. He said that funding for new
information communications technology, including matched funding from
local authorities, will rise to £920 million by 2005-06..The funding will connect all schools to the Internet at broadband
speeds, deliver digital resources into the classroom and lecture
theatres through projects such as Curriculum Online, ensure that even
more teachers have personal access to computers, and help the new
school workforce of teachers and teaching assistants use new
technology to deliver higher standards. A £14 million boost in 2005-
06 will support high tech learning for adults through the UK Online
Centres.Research shows that pupils who use ICT in the classroom get better
results than those that don't. This is shown to be true across all
abilities, communities and subjects tested and underpins the need to
embed ICT across the curriculum and in every key stage. Recent
independent research looked at the effect of ICT on pupil attainment.
The ImpaCT2 study found that there is a positive "ICT effect" on test
results. The key areas where there was found to be a statistically
significant positive relationship were English at KS2, science at
KS3, and science and design & technology at KS4 (where high ICT users
in the sample outperformed low ICT users by an average of 0.56 of a
GCSE grade and 0.41 of a GCSE grade, respectively). Case studies of
15 of the sample schools have also been published to demonstrate how
the schools used ICT in the curriculum. This and other research
demonstrates the way in which ICT is making a real contribution to
some schools' achievements and ways of working and illustrates the
true potential of ICT. The ImpaCT2 reports can be found at
www.becta.org.uk/research/impact2.The Prime Minister has committed to broadband connectivity for all
schools and Inter-connection of the Regional Broadband Consortia
using JANET, to create for the first time a national education
network by March 2003. This will enable teachers and pupils to access
digital resources and collaborate without the frustrations of
incompatibility and poor communications links. The JANET network will
also be extended to include adult and community institutions, and
thus to ensure a coherent ICT infrastructure across the post-16
sector and smooth transition to SuperJANET 5 in 2005- 06 with
increased network capacity.100,000 teachers have been helped in gaining personal access to
computers. The Laptops for Teachers' initiative will be extended to
increase personal access to a computer to more than two-thirds of
teachers in schools.There will be further development of the skills of lecturers and
staff working in Adult and Community learning through a Staff
Development Programme through the National Learning Network.Following a successful pilot in the summer term, there will be a
national roll-out of online continuing professional development (CPD)
in Key Stage 1 and 2 literacy and numeracy, and a range of subjects
at KS3, with staged roll-out commencing in May, and full national
rollout next September. This expansion of the online CPD project will
result in a comprehensive online portfolio of professional
development materials to embed ICT in teachers subject teaching in KS
1-3 .National roll-out of the new Strategic Leadership of ICT programme
will reach well over a third of all headteachers over the period
2003-06. Led by the National College for School Leadership, in
partnership with BECTa and NAACE, the programme will equip up to
10,000 headteachers over the three years with the skills to place ICT
at the centre of their strategies for school improvement.At BETT Mr Clarke visited the National College for School
Leadership stand where he launched the online communities project,
talk2learn. With a remit for the professional development of leaders
in schools talk2learn is an innovative environment for online
learning, problem solving and decision making.TESSA JOWELL GIVES APPROVAL TO BBC DIGITAL CURRICULUM
UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell today announced her decision to
approve BBC Digital Curriculum with the strongest ever series of
conditions guaranteed to create a service that provides a valuable
educational tool for schools.Digital Curriculum is a new digital learning resource aimed at
teachers, students and individual learners.A total of 18 conditions have been attached in giving the approval to
BBC Digital Curriculum, to make it distinctive from and complementary
to services provided by the commercial sector.The conditions set include requirements to:
- Innovate and promote educational and technological experimentation
- the service must innovate continually, and exploit the extensive
archives of the BBC and its media rich resources, and promote
technological and educational experimentation.- High standards - the BBC must ensure that the new service
maintains high general standards of content, quality and editorial
integrity, which stimulate, support and reflect the diversity of the
UK.- Work closely with the DfES Curriculum Online Content Advisory
Board - the BBC must follow the Board's recommendations, where
possible. Curriculum Online is a DfES initiative providing access to
high quality digital content to all teachers.- Publish annual plans for BBC Digital Curriculum - the BBC must
publish and adhere to annual commissioning plans, setting out the
subjects they intend to cover over the following five years.- Report annually on the service's performance - the BBC Governors
must monitor the implementation of the service and report each year
in their annual report on its delivery in line with the BBC's
commitments and the conditions set.- A review of the service after two years - this will monitor
whether the BBC is meeting the conditions set out in granting
approval. The review will include an independent assessment, which
will look at the impact of BBC Digital Curriculum on the educational
software market, and a public consultation. Both the DfES and OFCOM
will participate in the review. Its conclusions will contribute to
the wider Charter review process.In addition, the BBC has made a commitment - set out in their
original proposal for the service - to spend half of the #90 million
budget for content on commissioning services from the private sector.Announcing the decision, Tessa Jowell said:
"I've listened to the concerns of commercial providers of digital
learning resources about the impact of Digital Curriculum will have
on the market. The industry is a rapidly expanding one. There is room
for everyone. These conditions will prevent the BBC from dominating
this market, but it's right that it should play an important role in
a competitive and growing market for digital learning resources."Funding for Digital Curriculum has been made available from the
BBC's funding settlement 2002, which enables the BBC to develop new
digital services."Extensive discussions with the BBC, the digital learning resources
industry and education professionals have ensured that the new BBC
service is complementary to the services available from the
commercial sector in what is a rapidly growing market."The BBC has much to office as a provider of digital learning
resources. I envisage it, working alongside the commercial sector to
improve the breadth, variety and quality of digital education."As with all new services, I expect the BBC to ensure that the high
general standards of content, quality and editorial integrity of
Digital Curriculum will be maintained, and that the service will
stimulate, support an reflect the diversity of the UK."The Digital Curriculum will play an important role in Curriculum
Online, the DfES initiative providing access to high quality digital
content to all teachers. I believe that the BBC will make a valuable
contribution by offering additional free resources alongside priced
resources available to schools through Electronic Learning Credits."Education and Skills Secretary Charles Clarke welcomed the
announcement, saying:"The approval of the BBC Digital Curriculum is an important step in
the drive to offer the widest choice of quality teaching and learning
materials to schools. It will complement the Department for Education
and Skills' Curriculum Online service to create a balanced, dynamic
market for top quality priced and free digital learning materials for
teachers."Schools now have easy access through Curriculum Online to a choice
of innovative and professional digital resources to help transform
classroom practice and raise standards still further. We want to
ensure coverage across the whole of the National Curriculum and we
look forward to seeing materials that will build on the BBC's
media-rich archives." -keralamonitor.com
