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Merlin John

When schools start out from learning and teaching, their technology usually finds its proper place. That’s what happened at Islay High School, just off the west coast of Scotland, which is reckoned to be the first school in Europe to provide 1:1 computer access for all its teachers and students.

All the teachers use tablet PCs and all the students use Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs). They are used at school and at home and they connect wirelessly to the school network and the internet.

Although this might be a technology first, it was learning and teaching rather than technology that was in the driving seat. Islay High is one of Scotland’s Schools of Ambition, and had already put considerable effort into changing its curriculum to provide the personalisation and flexibility required by a small school educating children from the islands of Islay and Jura.

“When we started the School of Ambition work, our remit was for an individualised curriculum and making the most of any resources we had in the school and appropriately applying them for our students,” said Ian Stuart, principal teacher of technology and ICT co-ordinator. “In a school this size [247 pupils and 27 staff, a full six-year high school] there is a danger of the curriculum becoming limited. We want our individual pupils to achieve as much as possible and we realised that ICT was one of the best ways to do it.”

Within the Schools of Ambition there was a strand for ICT for schools to join, but Islay’s focus was learning and teaching. The recognition of the importance of ICT led the school into talks with Dell and Microsoft about the strategic use of ICT to support their ideas for teaching and learning. The key points were “anywhere anytime learning, flexible space, personalised learning and flexibility of the curriculum”.

The geographical position of the school emphasised the importance of access to resources, said Ian Stuart. “We can’t just nip down to the local art gallery or museum – we don’t have them – and the nearest science centre is 120 miles away.”

The kind of technology the school adopted was decided by the teachers, based on their teaching styles. Ian Stuart explained: “We asked them, ‘Are you a better teacher at the board or working among the kids?’ ‘Would you prefer a large screen or a small screen?’ ‘Would you prefer sound or no sound?’

“There was a whole range of questions about how they would prefer to teach. And the overwhelming feedback was that they would prefer to be among the kids, to keep an eye on them and to work with them. They wanted sound and the screen to be as large as possible. That was an overwhelming response.”

After that, said Ian Stuart, it was a “no brainer”. Their research led them to confirm their hopes at Djanogly City Academy in Nottingham where teachers use tablet PCs with wireless projectors and make the most of flexible space. At Djanogly there are no interactive whiteboards.

Implementation started with the teachers, who were issued with their tablet PCs in August 2006, along with the wireless network. In June 2007 the projectors were put in place and the students received their UMPCs in August. There are whiteboards where required, for maths and for music for example.

The only real issue with the implementation, said Ian Stuart, were blind spots in the wireless network which were remedied by extra wireless points. The hitches were sorted within 10 days.

So how is the new regime measuring up? The project is the subject of a three-year evaluation being conducted by educationist Roddy Stuart. He visited Islay in October 2007 to carry out an interim report which involved talking to six members of staff and five groups of students. The report is extremely positive and describes the scheme as “dynamic”. Responses from teachers were favourable about training, which has a major emphasis, and they spoke about the potential of OneNote software and the SMART SynchronEyes classroom management software.

Younger teachers tended to see the change more favourably than the older ones, and they mentioned the fundamental changes at work. One said, “the analogy is moving from the use of shovels to working with mechanical diggers in a short time”.

Students were appreciative too. They said they used their UMPCs for “research (looking up stuff), assessments, making notes, viewing more substantial notes from the teacher and writing essays”. What they particularly liked was “the ability to customise (eg layout of the elements), having their own and so being able to use it at any time, games (both on the UMPC and on the internet), research on the internet, including capturing pictures, control using the touch screen element and/or by voice, using the UMPC rather than a pen/pencil for writing, neatness and good organisation of their work”.

The report was very much in line with Ian Stuart’s own observations. What particularly pleased him was the increase in the formative nature of assessments which were reflected in the increase in dialogue between students and teachers. For example a student’s essay may have had seven, eight or even nine interventions from a teacher in the course of its production. And teachers liked the way that their suggestions did not mar the students’ work, as happens with handwritten notes on text.

The next 18 months is seen as the ‘embedding’ time for getting to grips with new ways of working and trying to come to terms with new possibilities. A media server (ClickView) has been put to work for distributing media files. Rather than clogging up the network with streaming video, it can send audio and video files directly to students’ and teachers’ machines.

Students can be given different scenes from a set play, for example, and then share their insights in class. “There’s more interpretation and the questioning goes much deeper, ” said Ian Suart.

The next stage, he says, is supporting teachers to move from the “text and image” practice they are so used to, so that they can use other media where appropriate: “Let’s start using video and animations within our work.”

Islay had to get to grips with sustainability to find the funding for next year’s intake of new students. Research into potential savings revealed that more than £20,000 was being spent annually on printing and photocopying. Their photocopier was converted to a state-of-the-art scanner so that all the paperwork now goes on to the network for distribution. The teacher pigeonholes are now empty apart from junk mail.

Despite the school’s position at the leading edge of education and ICT, Ian Stuart’s feet are firmly on the classroom floor. “The UMPCs are a conduit, a connection to the curriculum,” he says. “They are not an end in themselves.” This might seem understated until he reveals the title of the essay he is working on for his master’s degree: “The only constant is change”.

Merlin John is an editor who created and ran The TES’ Online magazine. He is now freelance and works for publications including The Guardian, and runs his own web service at www.merlinjohnonline.net .

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