In this opening column, Julie Leigh, Co-ordinating Adviser - ICT specialist, launches this 21st issue of Ox-on-line and asks the readers some tough questions. These certainly should start us thinking!
"The gap between the best and the worst is unacceptably wide and increasing."

That sounds like the title of an essay. One might expect to see it followed by, "Discuss in no more than 250 words and submit by Monday". In fact it was a comment made by the leading ICT HMI, Ken Dyson, to a group of ICT Advisers in March 2005. It is a statement that schools need to reflect upon and decide where they are on this "unacceptably wide" continuum.

In the last copy of Ox-on-line I wrote about the Common Evaluation Framework, CEF for short. The CEF reminds us to look at what is actually happening in school, day by day. Remember the only thing that really matters is the "received" curriculum. It is no good salivating over paperwork if the policies and planning are not received by the pupils, every one of them.

Over the coming few editions of Ox-on-line I shall post a number of prompts to help you position your school along the continuum.

Vision

The e-confident school relies on leadership and vision being shared throughout the school. Has your Headteacher booked themself on a SLICT course yet? If not visit: http://www.ncsl.org.uk/ > Leadership Development
Are you/they leading the vision as Headteacher?

Resources

Have all your staff been provided with a laptop yet? If not have you planned to increase your Laptops for Teachers ownership this year?
New Communications Technology - The OCN
Have you set your governors up with OCN email addresses and completed your Governor Conference request form? Have you run a training session for your governors to get them started? (The ICT Team will willingly come and run a session for you.)
Do you put your staff meeting agendas and minutes on your OCN Staff Noticeboard or are they still on paper?
Do you use the online calendar or do you still have a paper diary in the staffroom?
Does your partnership use their partnership conference calendar for sports fixtures etc.? Have you found that the default settings only allow the office to enter dates? This can be altered by the school contacting ICT Resources on (0845) 052 1000.
Have you ensured that staff new to your school have been given an OCN email username and password by your OCN Administrator? If teachers don't have access to it, it is fairly certain that their children will not either. Are pupils taught how to use their OCN email from Year 3 upwards? Have you seen them using it? Is this the same in every class?
Have you a planned induction programme that includes training in the use of the OCN email/conference system for teachers, teaching assistants and trainee teachers?
Digitalbrain Virtual Learning Environment
Did you know that the recently published DfES 5 year e-strategy, Harnessing Technology, states that all pupils must be given a personal online learning space? This is a space where the pupils can store electronically everything related to their learning and achievements, course resources, assignments and research. Being online, it will be accessible from home, from school, and, transfer with the pupil to each new organisation as they progress through the system. As this facility will be available for every pupil with the introduction of the Digitalbrain Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), has the school planned how they are going to introduce it to staff? To pupils? Has the school pre-booked Digitalbrain training sessions to ensure ICT Team availability or do they hope that staff will "pick it up" on the job?
If you currently have no school website have you planned to take advantage of building a website on Digitalbrain? Have you booked someone on the course provided by the ICT Team through OQSA in Term 6?

Lessons and Pupils' Work with ICT

Does the school currently have pupil portfolios for ICT? Do they show that the work has become harder over the years? Are pupils' experiences consistent across different teaching groups?
Is pupils' ICT work monitored and sampled by SMT?
When lessons are monitored do classrooms and teachers show aspects of teaching that have been enriched by ICT, for instance, better display facilities with better access to good quality images?
Does teachers' access to better ICT facilities in your school produce better materials to engage your pupils more effectively and move their learning forward?
Do teachers show aspects of their teaching that have been enhanced by ICT in the sense that things are being done that could not have been done without it, especially by pupils themselves, e.g. instant analysis and display of experimental data using data loggers; do they capture and modify digital sound and images? Do they compose and edit animated stories?

Innovative Schools

Twenty innovative schools have been portrayed by six European inspectorates, showing how ICT affects pupils, teachers, the school organisation and the cooperation with others. Visit http://schoolportraits.eun.org to read about how ICT has changed the teaching and learning in these twenty schools throughout Europe. The three schools you can read about from England are Lent Rise Primary School in Slough, Cramlington High School, Northumberland or Eggbuckland Community College in Plymouth.

I shall end with one easy question: Have you bought the latest book available from the ICT Team, ICT and Art? It is available from Christine Ruane (01865) 428034 at a cost of £15.

Julie Leigh Co-ordinating Adviser - ICT Specialist

The CEF can be downloaded from: http://www.becta.org.uk/leas/display.cfm?section=20&id=4105