30/05/2008

The Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs Kent is a designated Microsoft Partner School, holding specialist status in Mathematics and Computing. The school recently adopted ALISON as part of the ICT curriculum. Over 1000 pupils aged between 11 and 16 years are students at Charles Dickens.

Lynne McCulloch, the Digital Literacy Officer at the school takes up the story: “Since 2005, when we first introduced ECDL to the school, we had had very little uptake on our ECDL offer to staff for several reasons, one of which was the cost involved in purchasing the CD and another being the simple fact that it was not convenient to carry around the CD in order to use the training materials both at home and at work. ALISON was brought to our attention last year. Some of the ICT department looked at the ALISON materials to evaluate their possible use within our school. We then approached all staff to determine the level of interest for an online ECDL course and, with the exception of one member of staff who does not have Internet access at home, it was generally agreed that this option would be preferable”, she said.

McCulloch continued: “ALISON Manager is also an effective way of monitoring students’ access to their learning resources and of bulk messaging all students. However, this messaging facility appeared only to work between the teacher and each student, instigated in the first instance by the teacher. However, I also wanted the students to be able to communicate with each other. So I contacted ALISON with regard to this matter, and Olaf in Technical Support, kindly added a forum facility to our group’s ECDL area to overcome this problem. By using this forum, a student is able to put forward a problem for either the teacher or a peer to assist with”.

Sean Griffin, Learner Outreach Manager at ALISON said that ALISON is “delighted with this response and we are very proud to be associated with this dynamic school. It is great to see staff embrace the training; and the plans they have for wider dissemination of ALISON to students and the community is terrific”.

Indeed, the schools commitment to exploiting technology does not end at the school gates! Charles Dickens is widely recognized for its regional leadership and involvement in ICT. The school hosts an online e-learning community of schools and colleges in east Kent. The community consists of e-learning champions from a variety of local educational institutions who share a vision for 21st century technology-driven education. The venture is supported by the local Education Authority and provides a platform for local schools and colleges to share e-learning ideas and resources, impacting on all areas of the curriculum. As an extension of this facility, they also offer local schools hands-on training in various aspects of e-learning.

The successful elements of this programme can be replicated in almost any UK school according to Griffin. “The ICT training was made widely available to staff and that process was supported by a champion within the school, in this case Lynne”. “The staff were allowed to experience the benefits of online training and ALISON first hand, and once staff buy-in was achieved, ALISON was introduced to students and the schools wider community stakeholders”. “We congratulate Lynne McCulloch and everyone at the Charles Dickens School on their successful programme, and we look forward to assisting them well into the future”, concluded Griffin.

ALISON