2011 February
The safe and responsible use of the Internet and interactive technologies is a central concern for both parents and schools alike. The rise in popularity of social networking sites has created new and more pressing challenges in protecting our children when they make use of the Internet for both study and leisure.
With this end in mind, Tuesday 8 February has been declared Safer Internet Day by the UK-based charity Childnet International. Working both domestically and internationally, Childnet has produced a number of guides to creating exciting but safe Internet environments including one to help secondary school teachers and school staff to understand and address a range of e-safety issues within schools and a guide for parents, carers and teachers about social networking sites.
These concerns and challenges are well met by the implementation of school learning network environments or VLEs (virtual learning environments) on an Intranet. Sometimes referred to as a “walled garden” VLE platforms allow for the creative use of the Internet and interactive technologies in the learning and teaching environment without the risks associated with public exposure on the global Internet. A learning network or VLE like Moodle or others creates a safe local school community site with the full range of social networking and other technologies but fully controlled and filtered according to recommended policies. Please contact CES for more information on Intranet-based VLEs.
The Childnet International guidelines mentioned here can be found at:
Childnet – young people and social networking sites
Childnet guide for secondary schools
For an initial free consultation on how to create and implement an exciting and rich, but safe, VLE to complement your existing L&T provision please contact CES.
The safe and responsible use of the Internet and interactive technologies is a central concern for both parents and schools alike. The rise in popularity of social networking sites has created new and more pressing challenges in protecting our children when they make use of the Internet for both study and leisure.
With this end in mind, Tuesday 8 February has been declared Safer Internet Day by the UK-based charity Childnet International. Working both domestically and internationally, Childnet has produced a number of guides to creating exciting but safe Internet environments including one to help secondary school teachers and school staff to understand and address a range of e-safety issues within schools and a guide for parents, carers and teachers about social networking sites.
These concerns and challenges are well met by the implementation of school learning network environments or VLEs (virtual learning environments) on an Intranet. Sometimes referred to as a “walled garden” VLE platforms allow for the creative use of the Internet and interactive technologies in the learning and teaching environment without the risks associated with public exposure on the global Internet. A learning network or VLE like Moodle or others creates a safe local school community site with the full range of social networking and other technologies but fully controlled and filtered according to recommended policies. Please contact CES for more information on Intranet-based VLEs.
The Childnet International guidelines mentioned here can be found at:
Childnet – young people and social networking sites
Childnet guide for secondary schools
For an initial free consultation on how to create and implement an exciting and rich, but safe, VLE to complement your existing L&T provision please contact CES.
The Higher Education Academy, in collaboration with 12 UK partner universities, has launched HumBox, an Open Educational Resource for the Humanities. The repository of humanities-focussed didactic materials and activities for the teaching of humanities subjects in UK HE, is the fruit of a project funded jointly by the Joint Information Systems Council (JISC) and the HEA.
The HumBox OER aims to provide a trusted and sustainable community repository for the sharing and reviewing of a wide range of specialist materials, with a global reach, from different humanities disciplines that may be deployed directly into teaching practices. This OER simultaneously offers access to a significant collection of peer-evaluated humanities resources and the opportunity to showcase good practices in learning materials design by uploading contributions under a personal or institutional profile.
The software that runs the whole repository is a bespoke freeware platform developed at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science. All resources are offered under a chosen version of Creative Commons Attribution Licences.
The project was executed by four HEA Subject Centres (LLAS, English, History, and Philosophical and Religious Studies) and twelve partner universities across the country. For further information on HumBox see www.humbox.ac.uk and the HEA at www.heacademy.ac.uk
Following initiatives on the assessment for learning National Strategy, Ofsted’s report on findings at a sample of 27 primary and 16 secondary schools reinforces the benefits of fully formative assessment practices but reveals general adoption and implementation issues from its sample. While the report affirms that the “impact of assessment for learning was good or outstanding in 16 of the 43 schools visited”, it also remarks that it was “inadequate in seven, including four of the 16 secondary schools” and that it “was better developed and more effective in the primary than the secondary schools”.
Assessment for learning is defined by the Assessment Reform Group as “the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there”. This places an emphasis on the design and use of straightforward internal (in)formative and diagnostic assessment strategies – rather than of summative, and evaluative ones. The results of these assessments feed back into syllabus design and teaching practices on the part of the teacher, and adjustments to the organization and perceptions of learning paths by the pupil. This will often require a significant cultural shift in customary practices in many learning and teaching environments.
However, the Ofsted report reveals the significant benefits of assessment for learning where it can be adequately implemented. Key findings of the study include that the “impact of assessment for learning on standards, achievement, teaching and the curriculum … was outstanding” and that “sustained, consistent and well understood assessment principles and practices had a demonstrable impact on pupils’ achievement”.
Ofsted’s full report on its sample evaluation of assessment for learning strategies, Assessment for learning: the impact of National Strategy support, can be found on the Ofsted web site.
Following initiatives on the assessment for learning National Strategy, Ofsted’s report on findings at a sample of 27 primary and 16 secondary schools reinforces the benefits of fully formative assessment practices but reveals general adoption and implementation issues from its sample. While the report affirms that the “impact of assessment for learning was good or outstanding in 16 of the 43 schools visited”, it also remarks that it was “inadequate in seven, including four of the 16 secondary schools” and that it “was better developed and more effective in the primary than the secondary schools”.
Assessment for learning is defined by the Assessment Reform Group as “the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there”. This places an emphasis on the design and use of straightforward internal (in)formative and diagnostic assessment strategies – rather than of summative, and evaluative ones. The results of these assessments feed back into syllabus design and teaching practices on the part of the teacher, and adjustments to the organization and perceptions of learning paths by the pupil. This will often require a significant cultural shift in customary practices in many learning and teaching environments.
However, the Ofsted report reveals the significant benefits of assessment for learning where it can be adequately implemented. Key findings of the study include that the “impact of assessment for learning on standards, achievement, teaching and the curriculum … was outstanding” and that “sustained, consistent and well understood assessment principles and practices had a demonstrable impact on pupils’ achievement”.
Ofsted’s full report on its sample evaluation of assessment for learning strategies, Assessment for learning: the impact of National Strategy support, can be found on the Ofsted web site.