Department for Children, Schools and Families : Publications : e-Strategy

e-Strategy - 'Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children's services'

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Executive Summary

Digital technology is already changing how we do business and live our lives. Most schools - and every university and college - now have broadband access. Teachers increasingly use information and communications technology (ICT) to improve their own skills and knowledge - and to bring their lessons to life. Services for children, families, young people, and adults are testing out new and better ways to deliver services, with common processes supported by technology. The technology is making many administrative and assessment tasks easier.

Parents and carers use the internet to find advice and information to support their parenting role. Pupils use the internet for research: many have their own e-mail accounts. A growing number of schools keep parents informed online. Adults use online resources to improve their skills. The evidence is that where ICT is used effectively, lessons are better taught and students get better results.

These developments reflect government investment and local innovation. But their growth has also been haphazard: systems are often incompatible with each other. Each institution or organisation has the freedom to buy its own system and support services. The result is that they are often more expensive than they need be. There are too few economies of scale.

A strategic approach to ICT

That is why we need a more strategic approach to the future development of ICT in education, skills and children's services. By doing so, we believe we can:

transform teaching, learning and help to improve outcomes for children and young people, through shared ideas, more exciting lessons and online help for professionals;
engage 'hard to reach' learners, with special needs support, more motivating ways of learning, and more choice about how and where to learn;
build an open accessible system, with more information and services online for parents and carers, children, young people, adult learners and employers; and more cross-organisation collaboration to improve personalised support and choice
achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness, with online research, access to shared ideas and lessons plans, improved systems and processes in children's services, shared procurement and easier administration.

These are our four key objectives against which we will evaluate this strategy.

A greater focus on technology will produce real benefits for all. Parents could see more about what their children are learning in school through a school's website. Employers and communities could access ICT training and support more readily. Young people and adult learners should be able to see courses tailored to their personal needs, and progress more easily through different institutions at different stages of their lives. And those working in education and children's services will benefit from more online support and technological solutions to assessment and administration.

We will not impose our view of what the technology should provide. We need to listen to people's views, and ensure that technology meets their needs. In this way, we make the most of what ICT can offer.

Priorities for reform

Our strategy therefore focuses on what the technology can do for informing and advising citizens, for supporting children and learners of all ages in their encounters with the system, and for transforming the experience of learning. To make this happen, we have identified six priorities, to provide

An integrated online information service for all citizens
Integrated online personal support for children and learners
A collaborative approach to personalised learning activities
A good quality training and support package for practitioners
A leadership and development package for organisational capability in ICT
A common digital infrastructure to support transformation and reform

Our first priority is to improve everyone's access to online information, transactions and advice services. The Directgov network will provide links to the full range of government services. We shall encourage schools to use their online networks to provide parents with more information. Education and children's organisations will be expected to collaborate in providing easy integration of information in support of users' needs. And we will introduce new interface standards to make it easier for people with disabilities, and those unfamiliar with computers, to find what they need online.

The technology offers more than access to information. Because it can store personal data securely, it enables public services to offer more integrated support to children and learners. With children's services becoming more focussed on outcomes, ICT can assist them in meeting the needs of the children, families, young people, and adults with whom they work. The effectiveness of those working in children's centres, schools, social care, health, youth services or other front line services can be improved by improved administrative processes, as well as better information and training.

Our second priority extends this personalised support also to learners, helping with all stages of education, and with progression to the next stage. We will encourage every institution to offer a personal online learning space to store coursework, course resources, results, and achievements. We will work towards developing a personal identifier for each learner, so that any education organisation can recognise them and carry forward the record of their achievements. Together, these facilities will become an electronic portfolio, making it simpler for learners to build their record of achievement throughout their lifelong learning.

We want to do more to exploit the educational potential of the new technologies. Our third priority, therefore, is to do all we can to accelerate the move to the next generation of e-learning activities and resources. We need better digital resources more widely available and more flexible learning packages that teachers can adapt to their learners' needs. We must support innovation in the market by improving our knowledge of where e-learning works particularly well, and up-date our standards for pedagogic quality, accessibility and safety. And we must keep the curriculum moving, to take advantage of new methods in all subject areas, and to keep demanding a better response from the technology.

The education and children's workforce, including leaders, teachers, classroom assistants, trainers, researchers, and lecturers, should all have access to good quality ICT resources, professional online support networks and technology that reduces their paperwork. Good practice in ICT should be rewarded. And those wishing to upgrade their skills should have access to flexible courses, with advanced support for those seeking to specialise further.

Leaders in both education and children's services are crucial to the effective adaptation of ICT within their institution or organisation. Through better training and development, improved professional and business partnerships, and peer networks, we can enable them and their organisations to make more effective use of ICT.

The infrastructure must support these goals. So we plan an integrated teaching, research and administrative network for education. We want common systems for electronic learning, administration and business. We need common open standards to communicate with each other easily and safely. And we will enable all organisations to benefit from a collaborative approach to purchasing ICT equipment and services.

The impact of ICT in education and children's sectors

Schools will see a big improvement in the ICT services available to them. All will have broadband access by 2006. Internet channels for teachers, parents and learners will be further developed and, we will encourage institutions to offer every learner their own online learning space. Teachers will have access to richer online curriculum materials and improved training. ICT will also help schools to assess their own progress.

Every learner over 14 will have access to flexible, co-ordinated courses, with the opportunity to learn at home, in work, in college or in other community settings. Education and industry working together, through shared e-learning resources and support, will contribute to the aims of our Skills Strategy to improve basic and higher level skills, across the workforce, throughout life.

Universities are making use of online provision to reach out to schools, colleges and the workplace, to help more people progress to higher education. Teaching staff are taking advantage of online facilities to blur traditional boundaries between teaching and research, and to be more innovative in their teaching. Universities already share much research online, and now offer courses wholly or partly online. We will encourage more of this, where appropriate. We will support more online information-sharing between researchers. We will also encourage the development of virtual science parks, so that collaboration with industry is not tied to location.

ICT has a key role in helping us to train and develop the children's workforce. It should also make it easier to communicate with those traditionally the hardest to reach and to deliver more efficient services to them. ICT can provide better information for parents and families. They should in the future be increasingly able to choose, enrol and apply for services online.

Implementation

All this requires the right systems of governance and accountability. We shall set ourselves challenging goals to measure our performance, and test the views of those who use our services regularly to measure the impact of this strategy.