Innovation Profile 137

The whole is wider than it was

All parts of the learning environment, and all activities that happen within it, interact to promote learning. While homework has been acknowledged as important, it has not been well integrated with the rest of the learning environment.

Some schools/colleges, and some companies supplying learning resources, now realise this must change. The 'trialogue' of communication between student, teacher and parents can now happen faster and more effectively. Learning resources can be used effectively in the home.

When a school realises it can and should plan, on the assumption that all students have Internet access out of school, a radical change in attitudes and approaches to teaching and learning can happen. Concern that those without home access are disadvantaged turns to concern for the majority. If teaching approaches are not taking advantage of the Internet it is the majority, who do have access, who are being disadvantaged, .

Strategies are available to help the minority without out-of-school Internet access. But this is a small problem to be dealt with, compared to the big opportunity to change and improve teaching and learning approaches. All that is required, to start taking advantage of these opportunities, is for a school to decide that it will view the whole learning environment as fully inclusive of out-of-school learning. Just make the decision; your view of how the learning environment can best be used will immediately start to change.

The evidence is available that shows out of school access to structured learning opportunities can enable a big improvement in learning. Schools using SAM Learning's online learning service are finding that on average 57% of usage of the system by students happens out of school. To see the resulting improvement look at the studies at http://www.samlearning.com/examrevision/index.html.

As the teachers set about making changes in their pedagogy, it is necessary to convince the students and the parents that these changes are desirable. Students are easily convinced if they find they can access learning services which make it easier to learn. Convincing parents requires a strategy to present the benefits. If you click on the 'documents' link in the SAM Learning website you will find example presentations and letters that can be used to help parents understand the improvements that are possible and how they can be involved in helping their children.

Very big changes and improvements in learning need only a small decision to begin.

The SAM Learning company profile on our web site will give you a list of other Innovation Profiles connected with it.

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If you know of examples of innovative use of ICT-for-learning that others would be interested in, please email innovations@eep-edu.org

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