Schoolscape | Pen Pals | Laptops | Report on the 1st Year
As early as 1995-96 MirandaNet Fellows were amongst the first groups of educationists to demonstrate the value of laptop copmputers for teachers through a project in partnership with Toshiba.
On 26th November 2002 a group of MirandaNet fellows and other parties came together to explore the theme of Digital Opportunities, an event funded by the Schoolscape Future project. Following a number of presentations the group individually drew mind-maps to express how they thought that the use of laptops was impacting on the work of teachers.
Many ideas were described through these webs of interconnecting themes, and the individual maps in each case would need to be examined to appreciate the thinking underlying them. However, common themes did exist. These related fairly distinctly between hardware, technical and organisational issues, on the one hand, and to issues connected with the curriculum and teaching and learning, on the other.
The way questions were phrased drew a distinction too as to what the school as an organisation needed to do to make the use of laptops possible, and to what an individual teacher would need to do to ensure their use gave rise to improvements in teaching and learning. This inter-relationship between system issues and organic issues can be expressed in the consequence between a school purchasing a set of laptops and to what it must do to make their use effective in learning terms. This might be expressed simply in the diagram 'From Laptops to Learning'.
One example of the transformational potential of using laptops comes from the Web Wise Wapping project in Tower Hamlets where teachers leading school projects reported that access to a laptop computer in the evening had made it possible for them to develop their personal ICT and organsiational skills, undertake research from the Internet and prepare resources for lessons. This was having a positive impact on the their personal effectiveness.
The experience of Kamini Lutchman of St Mary and St Michael Primary School is a good example of how they have been used.
"The laptop computer has been really useful. I have been able to use it at home and have taught myself a lot more about Word and the Internet since having it.
"At school there is no time to explore one's own use of ICT. It is a problem for teachers. But at home you can wind down and get comfortable. This is a good time to learn about ICT.
"I have been impressed with the ability to search the Internet and find materials that I can use at school. The good thing is that, being portable, you can bring it in to work and use it as you have set it up at home.
"I believe that a laptop computer is an essential tool for teachers. I wouldn't like to go back to not having one."
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