Background

The National Debate in Education showed that Scottish people want a curriculum that will fully prepare today’s children for modern adult life, be less crowded and better connected and offer more choice and enjoyment. Modern Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can go a long way towards realising this.  The huge investment to date in the National Grid for Learning and ICT in general reflects the view of the Executive that good ICT is a powerful tool to support and transform learning and teaching across the curriculum.

SSDN

While the technical side of the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) aimed at linking all schools to the Internet, The Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN) (http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ssdn/) aims to link all Scottish schools (and key agencies) directly to each other to share a wide range of educational services. Learners and teachers will be able to work in completely new ways and collaborate with each other on a scale not previously possible.

Some parts of SSDN are already in place.  A broadband network (The National Interconnect) already links all 32 Scottish Education Authorities, and other key agencies, and installing storage systems throughout Scottish schools and authorities has facilitated resource exchange.

We are now building the last key part, The National Intranet.  This is a safe environment where teachers and learners will be able to use a package of services and applications aimed at facilitating and improving learning, teaching and educational management.

What will you be able to do?

Users will be able to use the Intranet from home, school, or any computer connected to the Internet.  The various applications and services will be integrated in such a way as to make them easy to use.

What will make the National Intranet powerful and unique is the National Directory and authentication system.  This is a single, central system to recognise who you are and what you are permitted to do and see.  The user will only need to “log on” once and the system will automatically make available the tools and services appropriate to that individual. Thus teachers might see their own timetable, links to the interest groups they belong to and their own personal set of web-links.  Clicking on a particular interest group will then give access to members of the group and communication will be possible using the tools available to that group: tools such as email, chat and web-conferencing.

In general, users will be able to: search for and access resources including resources available to all and resources only licensed to one school or authority; make collections of resources available to specified groups of pupils; collaborate with colleagues via email, chat or web conferencing; publish resources; record the results of assessment and automatically mark some types of test.

What will be the advantages?

SSDN will be a safe ICT infrastructure underpinning A Curriculum for Excellence and in particular it will realise the desire to create a climate within which reflective practitioners share and develop ideas.

By providing access to a rich bank of resources, from other teachers, commercial content providers, LTScotland and other publicly funded bodies, including education authorities, it will provide teachers with choice and flexibility in how to organise and deliver the curriculum – a key ambition of A Curriculum for Excellence. 

For learners, SSDN will provide a safe environment which reflects the technology-rich context of the most modern schools and offers the potential for independent learning and personalisation of learning. All this will make a massive contribution towards the development of successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

The ability to access SSDN from outside school will extend the sphere of learning and allow Local Authorities to develop new models of support for children who for a variety of reasons are unable to attend school. 

Supporting the Implementation of SSDN

By June 2006 each Authority aims to have in place a plan for the roll-out of SSDN.

A suite of online training modules will provide sufficient support to allow some staff to use many of the SSDN elements without formal training.  A Professional Development Programme will support others.  This programme will initially focus on the residential-based training for around 600 SSDN Mentors who will be nominated by their Local Authority.

What can I expect as a Mentor?

The role of Mentor is crucial to the successful roll-out of the SSDN.  As a Mentor you will have the privilege of early access to the SSDN tools as they become available and you will be provided with your own personal laptop and web cam.

Your training will be based on best practice and will include: attending the SSDN Programme at SETT in September 2006; pre-course activities to familiarise yourself with the SSDN environment; a two-day residential course in 2007; and additional support provided locally.

The training will prepare you to use the components of the SSDN and develop your understanding of how SSDN can support learning and teaching in the context of A Curriculum for Excellence and other national initiatives. It will also prepare you to support colleagues.

The residential course will offer a degree of flexibility to suit the differing needs of mentors but might include some or all of the following:

• introduction to the SSDN components and functions such as email, shared white boarding, web conferencing, interest groups, targeted mail, finding and contributing resources;
• learning and teaching with SSDN;
• developing innovative ideas for using SSDN;
• relationship of SSDN to current national initiative; and
• how to support in-service sessions.

What happens once I am trained?

This will depend on your Local Authority’s plans. For example, you may be asked to review, develop and implement in-service programmes, provide local support, or find and share teaching resources. Online and paper-based resources will be available to help you and it is envisaged that, in pursuit of your mentor duties you will use the SSDN collaborative environment as a matter of course.