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Latest
News from Becta
Becta
regularly publishes news and research from the world of ICT in Education.
This site will give a flavour of the latest publications and summarise
recent Becta research.
Press
Releases:
February
2004 - Becta highlighted the need for greater awareness of internet
safety for children. They are working in partnership with several
European internet safety initiatives, including SAFT
and Educaunet.
Read
the full press release here...
Research:
May
2003 Barriers & Enablers to Teachers' Use of ICT
Barriers:
The
key barrier to the use of ICT is confidence (cyberphobia). This
is heavily influenced by:
- Personal access to ICT
(not necessarily due to lack of equipment but possibly due to poor organisation)
- Lack of time to familiarise themselves with material and equipment
- Technical faults (or the expectation of them).
- Inappropriate training.
- Resistance to change/lack of awareness of the benefits of ICT.
- Concern about showing lack of knowledge in front of children.
Enablers:
The report divides the enablers into school-based and external
enabling strategies.
School-Based Enablers:
- Effective school leadership.
- Planning (vision statement, needs assessment, school
development plan).
- Sharing of resources (linked to what teachers actually
want and need).
-
Professional development.
- Reliable technical support.
External
Enablers:
- Working with the local community.
- Working with other schools.
- Local training courses.
- Participation in national events and projects.
- Linking with other teachers & schools via electronic networks
& forums (sic).
Read
the full reports here....
2003
Performance indICaTor
The indICaTor is an annual survey of primary and secondary schools
which determines how they rate desktop PCs, portable PCs, suppliers,
technical support and internet services.
- Desktop
PCs: Stone, Fujitsu Siemens & Dell are significantly above
the average for all manufacturers.
- Portable
PCs: Sony achieves the highest ratings with 58% of schools giving
them an overall rating of excellent or very good. Schools using
Toshiba portables give an excellent/very good rating that is significantly
higher than the average for all manufacturers.
- PC
Suppliers: PC World achieved the highest rating among the suppliers
(however, no supplier was rated as excellent or very good by a
significantly higher proportion than average).
- Technical
Support: technical support provided by arrangement with local
secondary schools or private/independent companies rated higher
than LEAs.
- Internet
Services: ratings for ISPs are generally low, LEAs receive the
highest ratings, with 33% of schools who identified them as their
internet service provider, rating them as excellent or very good.
Read
the full report here....
Laptops
for Teachers
The
Laptops for Teachers scheme was launched by the DfES in early 2002,
and was aimed at increasing teachers' and headteachers' access to
computers. This recently-published report is an evaluation of the
first year only.
- Key
findings were that the scheme had enabled teachers to access a
wider range of resources for teaching, such as CD-ROMs and the
internet.
- There
was also a clear benefit in terms of management and administration;
teachers were able to produce better quality plans and assessments
in less time.
- Where
laptops have been introduced throughout the school, there was
also an improvement in terms of streamlining practices and greater
consistency, plus better communication.
- Overall,
the scheme has helped to raise standards by helping to engage
teachers in the learning process
Read
the full report here....
Reducing
Teacher Workloads using ICT
Recent research suggests ICT can used used to cut teacher workloads,
in the following ways:
- use
of templates, pro formas and shared resources
- quicker
communication via email and networking
However,
to do this, teachers must be willing to share information, invest
in training, and use ICT to replace rather than duplicate paper-based
systems.
Read
the full report here....
ICT
& Motivation
This study shows that ICT can have a very positive impact on children's
motivation:
- by
increasing commitment to the learning task
- by
increasing independence and self-directed study
- by
enhancing self esteem and improving bahviour
Teachers
can support this positive effect by ensuring they are confident
in the use of ICT, and by exploring new possibilities for teaching
using ICT across the curriculum.
Read
the full report here....
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