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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39167546,00.htm

Essex school lessons paper trail with digital portal
An end to the 'dog ate my homework' excuse?

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Tuesday 19 June 2007

Emerson Park School in Romford has kicked off a trial in virtual learning involving 1,000 pupils and staff in line with a government drive to push technology into education.

The school has committed 10 per cent of its annual budget over the next three years to investing in computer tools for learning as a way of engaging students, training staff and streamlining the task of assessment.

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Emerson Park has distributed e-learning accounts hosted by managed IT service provider Extrasys. The system is based on Microsoft SharePoint Learning Kit and enables coursework to be filed electronically, so that teachers can access it easily and review a student's progress by looking at their coursework history. Teachers can assign work and create interactive content such as online educational quizzes. Students' work can also be showcased for other users to access.

Cheat Sheets

♦ Web 2.0
♦ Mash-ups

According to Emerson Park School head of IT Ralph Reid, student buy-in to the project was accomplished by surveying students' reactions to the portal and by setting up a newsletter called Student Voice.

For the staff, the main benefit will be improving the consistency in learning.

Reid told silicon.com: "The portal means a reduction in stress for staff. They can access any piece of work from any pupil. It also means that any teachers who join mid-way in the year, or supply staff, have access to all previous coursework."

This allows new or temporary staff to resume teaching where their predecessors left off.

The portal went live two weeks ago and so far 75 per cent of the accounts have been created. Reid hopes that the portal will be extended to parents in the future.

He said: "Emerson Park is a sports college and we are looking at the possibility of streaming content on events so that parents can see their children competing."