Policy into practice - Technology in education
Anne Longfield
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The issue: The world of technology is rapidly evolving and no single group has been quicker to embrace shifting trends than children and young people.
More than two thirds of children in England and Wales have internet access in their homes and regularly log on to an outside world where they can exercise their imagination and creativity.
It seems fitting that these skills should be made a larger part of children's overall education so that young people get the most out of the digital technology available to them.
Children's organisations are exploring new ways to take advantage of young people's interest in technology to benefit their educational and cultural development.
CASE STUDY 1 - WebPlay is an arts-education charity that combines drama and the internet to create projects for schools and link them online with professional theatre artists and drama practitioners.
The idea is to improve communication and understanding between children from different backgrounds while giving them a greater understanding and experience of theatre.
All projects are aimed at Key Stage 2 pupils and focus on the English, literacy, ICT and drama aspects of the National Curriculum.
The children learn to build their own web pages, write about their lives and describe where they live. The original pilot linked six classes in London with classes in Los Angeles. Since then, WebPlay has worked with more than 20,000 children from 400 schools across England, the US and Bangalore, India, and there are plans to expand into China in 2010.
CASE STUDY 2 - OOKL is an interactive service that enables visitors to museums and galleries to collect cultural artefacts with their mobile phones.
Students explore museums and galleries, learn about cultural artefacts, record their own memories and build virtual collections and online galleries for others to access and respond to.
The service uses websites and mobile phones to tap into museums, galleries and exhibitions, with the aim of developing young people's cultural appreciation in the process.
The response from teachers, museums and students has so far been extremely positive.
Anne Longfield is chief executive of 4Children.
