College uses PDAs for student registers

A college in London's east end is using handhelds and electronic whiteboards to help kids stay in education longer.

While Tower Hamlets College is in the shadow of the futuristic Canary Wharf development, it is also in one of the most deprived parts of the country.

Nick Clark, director of IT services at the college, explained: "Students have less access to technology outside of college - generally students don't bring their own equipment; we provide it.

"General IT literacy coming in is low but it's improving because the schools are doing lots more work now."

Technology is a key tool the college is using to help educate students. Most courses use PCs at some point, and the college has wireless coverage over 95 per cent of the main sites. It also allows students to access its systems from the local IdeaStore library and education centres.

In addition, 16- to 18-year-olds are now offered up to £30 per week to encourage them to stay in education - but to get the cash the school or college has to prove they have been in class for the entire week.

And while a school can take a register in the morning and after lunch, at a college like Tower Hamlets students on different courses may start and finish at different times.

Clark explained: "This makes the timetable much more complex because it doesn't have a fixed start time so we have to measure attendance at each class."

Previously this register was taken on paper and then entered into the college's records system. But because attendance figures for each week are now required by the following Tuesday - in order for the kids to get their cash - the process had to be speeded up.

As a result the college is giving Dell handhelds to lecturers who will use them to take the register and have this update the college's systems automatically ( see here for photos).

Clark said: "We are aiming at 80 per cent of registers being taken electronically by the end of the year."

But that isn't just by using handhelds - lecturers can also use the interactive whiteboards ( click here for photo).

As well as helping keep kids in education by helping them get their cash, the handhelds should also help the college save money. With the paper system it takes someone a week to input the attendance details from two departments. As the new system could be rolled out to up to 16 departments this means that as many as eight staff could be freed up for more useful work.

More from this In Focus:

• Photos: Roll-call goes high-tech at London college
• Schools turn to IT to boost learning