A few weeks ago I took part in an online discussion led by Stephen Heppell on the Vital website. Stephen Heppell is a very highkly regarded figure in the world of education and if you ever have a chance to listen to him speak or present, then I’d certainly suggest you do so. He is a speaker who inspires and provokes thought.

In the online discussion, Stephen asked why was it that ICT had not reduced the costs of education? Apart from Health and Education, ICT had been deployed and used to reduce the overhead costs or running costs of their users. I cannot speak for Health but I can for Education and I felt at first that this was an unfair question. After all, we started introducing technology into the classroom we did so not to reduce costs but to expand and improve the resources and experiences offered to learners. So to criticise us for not using ICT to reduce costs when that had never been our aim, did seem unfair.

Was it unfair, though?

A few days after the online discussion, I received in my inbox an email linking to this article about ICT for students with disabilities in developing countries . In this article it suggests that students need ICT partly because it is cheaper than training and paying for a teacher. The inference being that ICT is a cheaper resource than a teacher and one which, possibly, better addresses the need of the students.

This would be quite a contentious argument here in the UK. How many people, schools or local authorities would welcome replacing teachers with computers, even if it reduces the bill?

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I confess, I have only recently watched this video. I cannot believe that I have not heard of or seen Learning Score before; I can only say that I must have had my head buried deeply in the sand.

Learning Score appears to be a fantastic tool for devising lesson plans. These things had been the bane of my life as a teacher and I’m sure the same is true for many other teachers.  Hours would be spent drawing up lesson plans either by hand or on a word-processor; it was probably the most tedious of all teacher tasks. Also, as John Davitt says in the video, you were never really quite sure how the lesson would appear in reality (and there were many times when the reality hardly matched the plan!)

What I  immediately like about the software is that it looks appealling; it’s not a word-processed grid or template that the teacher has to squeeze everything in. It’s interactive and it links dynamically to other resources. What made it appeal further for me is the potential to link  to resources on a VLE. So if you’ve been spending hours days uploading content onto you’re VLE now you have an easy way to make use of them instead of just letting them lie there. Or if you’ve not yet started loading content onto your VLE, now you have a good reason to start!

I’ve not used the package as yet but if you are able to save the Learning Score files onto the VLE then I can envisage further potential arising. What I’m envisaging is having a Learning Score containing links to other Learning Score files. Each of these Learning Score files would represent a lesson plan and the Learning Score we’re adding them into would be a Scheme of Work. Hey, if we then save the Scheme of Work as a Learning Score file and link in other scheme of work files, aren’t we creating a syllabus, then a curriculum etc..?

At points in the video, John alludes to collaborative lesson planning; with the learners having a say in how much time is spent on a particular part of each lesson. I very much like this idea, not least because it helps the learner have a bit more responsibility for their learning and having a say in the way the content is being presented to them. It also, of course, could help them manage their workload.

How about going a step further and having the learner draw up the learning score themself? Each learner could have their own individual Learning Score setting out what they are going to do, how long they are going to spent on each part of it and what resources they are going to access, possibly also indicating what ‘output’ (essay, video, discussion etc) they are going to produce. Let’s then say that they each present their Learning Score to the teacher for approval. The teacher examines each one and approves it or suggests modifications such as extra resources that could be used or alterations to timings.  The learner then takes their own Learning Score away and embarks upon their own learning path.

I’d guess that another beauty of the package is that it needn’t be confined to class lessons, the Learning Score could cover time spent on activities at home. As I started writing this paragraph, I was thinking of learning activities from home and thinking of supporting Home Access but I guess the term ‘activities’ could well include social or leisure activities … mind you I don’t know if the package has icons for some of these ‘activities’ Nevertheless, the possibility of using the package to include home learning is intriguing.

Overall, this looks a great piece of software that I’m sure many teachers would love. It has great potential for supporting innovation or transformation in learning. I do feel that not just teachers but also learners would love to use it. Maybe this resource should be made compulsory for any school involved in BSF or Primary Capital building programmes?

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My approach to transforming learning (Learning Transformation) is a combination of three elements;

1. CPD/training
2. Change Management
3. Project Management

First, though, we have to establish why learning transformation is important. The current capital build programmes are placing a lot of ICT and technical resources into schools;

• if those resources are unused, we will have failed,
• if those resources are only used in the ways such resources are currently used, we will have failed,
• if those resources are used by learners, staff and the community in innovative ways, we will have been partially successful,
• will we have been successful only if those resources are used by learners, staff and the community in innovative ways that lead to improved achievement, experiences and opportunities.

CPD/training

I believe that training is fundamental to learning transformation. If we want the resources to be utilised in new and engaging ways then users need to be both trained in using the resources and allowed to explore the potential of those resources. The training, however, needs to go beyond operating the hardware or software and focus on the usage with different learners. After all, why have expensive face-to-face ‘instruction manual’ sessions when we can read the instruction manual?

I feel that the CPD needs to be balanced between ensuring that all software and hardware are effectively covered or explored and that each trainee is able to draw up and follow their own ‘learning path’. We have to remember that not all users will be starting from the same point and that not all we be able to adapt or adopt the new ways of working with technology. Each one, however, is a valued member and should be allowed to proceed at their own pace and toward their own defined goals.

For me, the focus of learning transformation is about the learner using the technology. So the training is not so much focused upon getting the staff to use the technology as much as on getting the staff to allow and facilitate the learners to make use of technology. We are moving away from the learner being a consumer or passive recipient of technology and moving toward the learner becoming the active and creative user of that technology.

Change Management

There is obviously a lot of change going on around the whole capital build programmes in education; new construction, new resources, new facilities and new ways of working. All these changes need to be managed in order to avoid them getting out of hand or failing to materialise. What I am concerned with in change management, though is slightly different. I am not principally concerned with changing systems, changing services, changing specifications etc.; these aspects are more usually covered by protocols such as ITIL, FITS or project management procedures.

What I am much more concerned with is change management of people. Staff in a school are the most important and the most expensive resource available. They need to be valued and treasured. If we are going to involve them in a lot of change, they need to feel part of that change and to understand that change. Few people really like change and welcome it, most of us like to be able to control the change in our life or to feel that the change is going to be of benefit to us. If people do not understand the change and its benefits, then they can become resentful and entrenched in existing ways. If that is allowed to happen then we are only creating a barrier to learning transformation.

So my approach to change management involves skills taken from counselling and coaching, which allows people to express their concerns or fears while empowering them to move forward and benefit from the changes around them.

Project Management

It occurred to me that soon after becoming a consultant, that a lot of my work involved project management and working with project managers. This is why I studied for my project management qualification, so that I could better work in such environments.

Learning transformation, along with building design, ICT specification etc., does not exist in isolation from the rest of the capital build programme. It is a project that is part of a much bigger set of projects or programmes. As such, it needs to be carried out in alignment with these other projects or programmes, some of which may be on-going, some completed and some yet to start. In order for it to be successfully implemented, learning transformation, needs to follow the project management procedures in place across the rest of the programme. It is important, therefore, that those in charge of the learning transformation are also skilled in the ways of project management.

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