Category Archives: Pilot overview

Mackie Academy: iPad pilot overview

Mackiepost1HL
iPads shared across the Faculty of Expressive Arts

Aberdeenshire Council has a long history of commitment to and use of digital technologies to help deliver better outcomes for learners. This past year has seen them continue this as they have begun to explore the use of a range of devices in their schools with pilots trialling iPads, Android tablets and iPod Touches.

One of these pilots saw 30 iPads being made available to Mackie Academy in the beautiful coastal town of Stonehaven. We visited the school and met with Fiona Robertson (DHT) who gave us an overview of how the school planned to use the devices in their pilot.

Mackie Academy: iPad pilot overview Pilot overview (apologies for slight interference in this recording)

The school decided to share the devices between learners across the Faculty of Expressive Arts. This faculty was chosen because they felt that it might have been the obvious choice to put the devices into the language or maths departments, so they wanted to see how they could enrich the learning in the arts. The teachers in the Faculty of Expressive Arts worked together at the start of the year to identify the key aspects of learning they would like to cover with the aid of the iPads. From this meeting an agreed rota for learner access was established to meet these objectives.

Early thoughts on impact on learning

Mrs Robertson commented that Mackie Academy wanted to make sure that their young people would get a range of experiences with ICT provision, but that this had to be linked to effective methodologies that teachers could employ so that better learning could be achieved. She was keen to stress that a device, and the iPad in the this case, is not solely the answer to helping effect change. Although the school was in the early stages of the pilot Mrs Robertson felt that she was seeing teachers making good use of the devices to complement existing practice and that there were growing examples of the devices being used to present learning in different ways to learners.

MackieFRobertson3 Early views on impact on learning audio recording

East Lothian Council: Chromebook pilot overview

Preston Lodge HS: Chromebooks embedded in learning
Preston Lodge HS: Chromebooks embedded in learning

Preston Lodge High School strives to develop skills for learning, life and work. Twenty Chromebooks, on an unfiltered network, were introduced to the science department at Preston Lodge High School in December 2011. An unfiltered network was installed as it was not possible to use a device which was not on a Windows operating system on the school’s existing wireless network.

The Chromebook looks like a notebook but works instantly, going straight to the internet for everything, creating a ‘window’ in. Practitioners shared instances of waiting 25 minutes, or longer, for laptops to load up, after which learners were still not logged in. This frustration and ‘dead time’ coupled with limited reliability meant that technology was not embedded in learning. The Chromebooks are ensuring reliable access to technology and this has increased confidence. They are shared devices which automatically update and improve. They have an unusually long battery life of eight hours continuous use, made possile by absence of a traditional motorised disk drive. They can be closed and opened during classes without causing undue delays restarting. This also helps save battery life. The devices are in continuous use, and do not need to be ‘topped up’ with charge during the day. This has allowed a simple trolley to be used, without power supplies. Practitioners noted that the devices had improved considerably during the 11 months in which they had been in the school.

Chromebooks are available for use as and when required in the science department. This reliable availability has enabled practitioners to plan to use Google Apps for Education and general Internet tools for purposeful learning. Practitioners have learned through experience that learning activities should not be ‘Chromebook centric’, learners do not always respond well to being directed to use the devices but instead prefer the opportunity to access them as and when required.

Preston Lodge HS: Chromebook overview David Gilmour of East Lothian Council gives an overview of the Chromebook pilot

Through eduBuzz.org, East Lothian’s on-line learning community, every learner has an eduBuzz Google Apps account and increasing numbers are familiar with logging into Google Apps. This made the introduction of the Chromebook a sensible and quite seamless process as learners log in using their edubuzz.org Google Apps account, their instance of the Chrome browser appears, their Google Apps and Chrome Web Apps appear, and workflow continues.

Balbardie PS: Engaging with the local authority strategic approach

Learners with devices
Strategic plan to help enable devices to impact on learning

Balbardie PS is in Bathgate in West Lothian. The school has recently engaged with the central team at West Lothian Council to get their anywhere, anytime learning (AAL) channel switched on for learners.

Greg Welsh (headteacher) gives an overview of the supported network for school-provided devices and the AAL channel that pupil-owned devices can access in West Lothian schools. He talks about how he is managing a range of devices in school and how they are preparing the ground that will allow learners to bring their own devices in to school.

Balbardie PS: Greg Welsh HT – overview Mr Welsh (HT) gives an overview of pilot as Balbardie PS

Mr Welsh shared his experience of engaging with the central West Lothian team to prepare for his school’s AAL channel to be activated. This involved preparing a plan that indicated key timescales, key stakeholders, staff capability and support, parental engagement and, most importantly, how the introduction of the technology would impact on learning across the school. He described this process as a rigorous one but one that was fundamental to the school’s strategic approach to planning for better outcomes for learners.

Balbardie PS: Engaging with the Local Authority strategy Mr Welsh (HT) discusses the process for engaging with the Local Authority strategy at West Lothian

As a result of working with the central West Lothian team to prepare their learning strategy for their AAL channel Balbardie PS decided that there would be a focus on literacy and numeracy as well as encouraging a culture of independent learning with devices. Mr Welsh wanted to ensure that the learners at his school would be capable of making informed choices about what to use and when to use it to support their learning.

Balbardie PS: Vision for the AAL channel Mr Welsh (HT) discusses his vision for the AAL Channel at Balbardie PS

West Lothian Council: Anytime, Anywhere Learning overview

West Lothian Council: Overview of AAL programme
Strategic focus on transforming learning

With a clear strategic focus on  increasing attainment and achievement and transforming learning, teaching and assessment approaches West Lothian Council has been implementing a substantial programme and investment to improve infrastructure to realise their vision of having ‘Anywhere, Anytime Learning’ (AAL) available across the school estate.

AAL is intended to support a transformation in learning and teaching by enabling a school and classroom environment where every pupil and teacher can use personal mobile devices to communicate, collaborate, research, share and expand knowledge. In parallel with a curriculum and pedagogy which promotes: active learning, independent learning, collaborative learning, learning how to learn, investigating, exploring, purposeful play, personalisation and choice in contexts that are relevant to life and work; AAL can help us engage learners in the highest quality learning activities.

To enable a change in culture, pedagogy and behaviours and to ensure social inclusion and sustainable approaches the Learning and Teaching (ICT) Development Team planned with Corporate IT Services to design an infrastructure which would allow West Lothian funded devices and personal-owned devices to access the network.

John Low and Laura Compton from the Learning and Teaching (ICT) Development Team shared West Lothian’s vision for their AAL programme.

West Lothian Council: Overview John Low and Laura Compton discuss the vision for West Lothian Council’s AAL Channel

Bellshill Academy: Pilot overview

Bellshill Academy
An iPad for every S1 pupil

The device pilot at Bellshill Academy in North Lanarkshire involved every pupil in the S1 cohort and every teacher who volunteered to be part of the pilot being given an iPad. In this interview Anne Munro (headteacher) and Willie Davidson (The Learning Centre) discuss their school’s involvement in North Lanarkshire’s device pilots and explain their thinking behind allocating an iPad to every first-year pupil and the importance of ensuring that they had buy-in from the staff.

bellshill_overview Mrs Munro (HT) and Mr Davidson (The Learning Centre) give an overview of the iPad pilot at Bellshill Academy

Anne Munro also discussed the thoroughness of the preparation required in the build up to running their pilot and what was involved in planning for parent information evenings to support their plans.

Bellshill Academy: Preparation Mrs Munro (HT) discusses the planning that took place prior to the pilot starting

Mearns Academy: Android pilot overview

Android devices at Mearns Academy

Mearns Academy in Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire is currently trialling Toshiba Android tablet devices. We paid them a visit towards the end of 2012, not long after their pilot had begun, to see how things were starting out. The school had access to 29 devices and had decided to make them available to staff via a booking system. If a teacher wanted to use them then they would book them out in advance.

Mr Stewart from the Social Studies department was one of the teachers we spoke to about his early experiences of using the devices. He told us that they were being used by pupils mainly to access short video clips, for exam revision and for accessing research notes. He commented on how much better it was to have devices that were instant on in the classroom as opposed to having to access the computer suite.

At that time the school was not focusing on using apps that were available for the Android platform, but they had decided to use the browser to access the learning materials/resources that were recommended by the staff.

Mearns Academy: Mr Fleming gives an overview of the pilot Interview with Mr Fleming

The school was keen to have us back later in 2013 to see how progress was being made once the pilot had been given time to bed in and develop. Look out for further posts from Mearns Academy.

Sciennes PS: iPad pilot overview and the need to trust learners

Sciennes PS, Edinburgh

Sciennes PS in Edinburgh has a long history of engagement with handheld digital technologies. Over the years they have trialled a variety of devices such as Palmtops, uMPCs, PDAs, laptops and now that they are using iPads they have quite a good deal of experience to help them implement as effective a pilot as possible.

Lucy Gallagher (depute headteacher) at Sciennes PS has been instrumental in managing and establishing the vision for the iPad pilot at the school. Like so many teachers in schools across Scotland, Lucy is someone who has been actively involved in working with technologies to ensure that they are used to best effect to help ensure that there is a positive impact on learning and teaching.

Mrs Gallagher gave us an overview of the pilot at Sciennes PS, a pilot that has 1:1 deployment across three stages. This pilot also allows the learners to take the device home so that it is an always-available learning tool. Listen to our interview with Mrs Gallagher:

Sciennes_LG_overview Interview 1 with Mrs Gallagher

Many of the schools we have visited have also decided to let the learners take home the device that they have access to as part of the pilots that are happening. This decision has been one that has come about as part of in-depth discussions about safety of the devices, integrity of the pilot and misuse outside of the school environment; however, this deficit view is not one that Sciennes PS decided to subscribe to. They wanted to trust in their pupils and their families and to ensure that the device could play as full a part as possible in enhancing learning both in and out of school.

Listen to Mrs Gallagher discuss the initial reservations that the school had and how their subsequent decision to allow the devices to go home was the correct one for them with any concerns about misuse etc not being realised:

Sciennes PS: Trusting learners Interview 2 with Mrs Gallagher

Dalreoch PS: Sharing a small number of iPads

Focused use of devices at Dalreoch PS

Sat Bance is the headteacher at Dalreoch and is someone who has been very keen to ensure that ICTs  permeate the life of learning in his school and that they are not to be seen as an add-on or as a discrete subject. In our interviews with him he explained that he wanted to use the small resource that he had available to him in this pilot as effectively as possible. To do this he and his staff decided to employ a methodology that would see the iPads used in direct teaching contexts in relation to numeracy and literacy in the mornings, but then to be used more freely by the pupils in the afternoons when there was greater scope for inter-disciplinary learning. Mr Bance explained that he was very impressed with the way that the instant access to learning with a device such as an iPad meant that it saved much time otherwise wasted by movement to the traditional ICT suite and the process of logging on etc that comes with that. He felt that the devices were offering his learners a greater freedom to learn.

Mr Bance discussed the issues of sharing an iPad between learners and he argued that the way in which his school had designed and established a labelling system for the devices meant that there had not been any real issues in relation to sharing devices that did not allow them to logon with their own profiles and keep their materials separate and accessible only to them.

You can listen to Mr Bance’s overview on this audio recording:

Overview of the pilot at Dalreoch PS Interview with Sat Bance (HT)