Home connections

With over £1 billion invested in school ICT over the past five years, the question still remains: is ICT another source of educational disadvantage for the less well off or a major opportunity to level the playing field?

We already know from research that good ICT access has an impact on educational outcomes.

Where ICT is involved:

• children enjoy learning more

• attention span, particularly in boys, appears to increase

• there is more freedom for children to learn in ways that suit them best

• children become more independent learners

However we also know that ICT is not consistently available in schools, nor consistently used. The same is true at home.

Home access

In 2004 just over half of all households had a computer and less than half had the internet. Children from low income and single parent families were significantly less likely to have a computer at home.

And that does not consider if the computer works, is connected to the internet and is not fiercely competed over with siblings for access.

As we know, the quality of the 85 per cent of a child's life not spent at school has a huge impact on their education. So does e-learning increase educational disadvantage or level the playing field?

It depends on whether a school has recognised the importance of good ICT access and has taken steps to ensure equity of access - not just for the ICT curriculum, not just for an hour or two after school, but whenever and wherever children want to learn, including evenings, weekends, holidays.

In developing an effective ICT access strategy, e-confident schools have universally tackled three issues: equity of access, home-school links and sustainable funding.

Equity of access should be at the heart of any ICT approach. Schools with laptop schemes for parents who can pay for a computer simply compound the problem.

Schools that have parents contribute to a pool of portable computers that all children can take home are improving equity of access.

Where parental contributions are significant, schools may find that they can provide a computer for each child. Regardless, the extra money still buys new resources, achieving much better personal access.

Home-school links

Home-school links are absolutely vital in a personalised learning context. Where a child's home lacks learning support, for whatever reason, technology provides probably the best chance to help that child get the same support as more fortunate children.

Schools that have evolved from an ICT suite with desktop computers to a mixture of desktops and portable computers to take home are extending learning support beyond the classroom and the school day to those who need it most.

When this is supported by online access to school learning resources, we have the makings of a personalised e-learning environment.

None of this comes cheap. Yet there are schools that have found the resources because they are so convinced of the impact it will have on students' learning.

Others have chosen to follow the e-Learning Foundation route, which is to establish a learning partnership with parents.

Through charitable donations from parents, set at a level that recognises individual circumstances but ideally about £5 a week over three years, schools can deliver a true 21st century learning environment.

In practice the schools achieve significantly higher levels of access during the school day, deploying ICT right across the curriculum and for all ages.

It means that children who lack home ICT, or rarely get quality, uninterrupted access, are no longer disadvantaged.

Families who lack ICT confidence can build their knowledge through their children's growing enthusiasm and skills - a Trojan horse approach to adult ICT literacy.

And it provides students with the opportunity to learn in the way that works best for them.

When faced with an e-learning appeal of this magnitude, many schools come up with a host of reasons why it wouldn't work in their school, in their area, with their parents...

But for schools that are more interested in doing something positive, the experience is a good one - with parents rapidly seeing the impact on their children's attitude to homework when they bring a computer home.

And of course most schools encourage the rest of the family to use the computer and they provide IT classes for those keen to keep up with their children.

In that way, regular donation results in real benefits for families.

And ICT truly does begin to level the playing field for all students.

To find out more about the e-Learning Foundation approach, go to www.e-learningfoundation.com or call 01372 824372

By Valerie Thompson, Chief Executive of the e-Learning Foundation