ENIS - UK

Seed newsletters

November 2003 | October 2003 | September 2003 | June 2003

On this page, you will find newsletters that have been sent to UK schools taking part in the Seed project and our international partners.

November 2003 newsletter

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the November newsletter for UK schools taking part in the Seed project, and our partners in Norway, Spain and Switzerland. In this letter you will find out something more about

communities that may support your work
what some of the participating schools are doing
examples of an initial description and a diary
a message from an MEP
activities in partner countries
coming to see you

If the letter looks too long, you do not need to read it all in one go. As you read it, if any suggestions or questions occur to you, please send them to me.

Andrew

Thanks

Thanks for all the information that is coming through - please keep it coming. And please will those few who have yet to let me have things make a start...? I've included some examples with this newsletter to show how easy it is.

Building integrated communities?

We are certainly doing that - but perhaps what is emerging is rather a set of disintegrated or overlapping communities, so that one teacher or learner uses several: a teacher, say, uses one for obtaining learning resources, another for discussion of a subject, another for reflection on leadership and management, and yet another for learning about new kinds of pedagogy with emerging technologies.

In the UK, teachers taking part in Seed have created new tools and resources for communities (for example, Web sites, message boards and mailing lists which were not there before). But we have also found new uses for existing tools and resources - since many of us already have developed these or used them in building up stable and active communities for learning and support.

If you are still feeling a little isolated, then you may wish to make use of one or more of these, not only for now to support what you are doing in the Seed project (though that's not a bad reason to do so), but also to support your activity as teacher, mentor and, perhaps, learner into the future - and sustain your school's continuing participation in the European Network of Innovative Schools.

General tools and resources

www.byteachers.org.uk - Association of Teacher Web sites - portal for open learning resources
www.theeducationcommunity.com - Exchange and message board for teachers and managers
enis.eun.org - The ENIS portal at the European Schoolnet
www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/login.cfm?area=816 - The Seed message board
tecfaseed.unige.ch/door - Portal for collaboration and exchange

Resources and tools for teachers and learners of English

www.teachitenglish.co.uk - Exchange for resources
www.smartgroups.com/groups/english.teaching - Message board, file sharing and more

Resources and tools for teachers and learners of history

www.activehistory.co.uk/ - Interactive learning resources
www.schoolhistory.co.uk/forum - Teachers' forum
www.schoolhistory.co.uk/studentforum/ - Student forum

Resources for special educational needs

www.symbolworld.org - Have your children's work enriched with symbols

What are schools doing?

In the UK we have schools of many different types in the project. In every case they have used the project for one activity (or more) that supports teaching and learning and/or some aspect of organization, management and communication among learners, mentors and teachers. These activities are still emerging and respond flexibly to the needs of the learner and teacher - but I have compiled a short account of what each school is doing in the Seed project. If I have got this wrong, then please correct my mistaken impression...

All Saints C. of E. Junior School

Teaching and learning in the primary curriculum, using Open Source software and learning objects.

First stage - set up a network of wireless laptop computers, using Linux operating software and open source applications (browser, office productivity tools and so on).
Second stage - support classroom teachers in working with partner(s) elsewhere (UK and abroad) in several areas of the primary curriculum.

Cheslyn Hay High School

Using Open Source software to develop learning objects and tools for collaboration. Collaborating with Vassmyra in Norway, and the developers of Collide software.

Ganton Special School

Partnerships with Moat College (learning about each other), with Catalonia (focus on Christmas events and celebrations) and Norway (Elvebakken).

Kingsbury High School

Teaching chemistry (in collaboration with Sackville College), English (collaboration with Sackville) and teaching art (see description later in newsletter).

Moat Community College

Partnership with Ganton Special School - citizenship (finding out about each other: Moat learns about special needs and disability; Ganton finds out about Islam in Britain).

Ninestiles School

Working in UK partnership for schools - www.theeducationcommunity.com
Activities in teacher education and training
School leadership - building a federation
English teaching - sharing resources through the Teachit exchange at www.teachitenglish.co.uk

Priory Community School

Support for gifted and talented students.
Building a local federation.

Sackville Community College

Chemistry teaching - collaboration with Kingsbury
English teaching - collaboration with Kingsbury

St. Mary and St. Andrew's

Working on Vikings - looking for partnership with schools in Spain and Norway

Wolverhampton Grammar School

Developing a virtual simulation for teaching history - an online interview with Martin Luther King. This will appear on Russel's Active History Web site at www.activehistory.co.uk (you can see examples of previous simulations here). Russel will be collaborating with Dan Moorhouse and his students at Laisterdyke School in Bradford, to test the activity as a community learning resource online.

Project description and diary entries

I am attaching an initial project description, extracts from a diary and a message sent to one of our schools - thanks to Julia at Kingsbury for the first of these, and to Vivien at Ganton for the last two.

Seed Project in Art at Kingsbury High School

Description of Classes

The groups involved in ICT work this term are Year 7 pupils of mixed ability. They began the Art course in September 2003.

Pedagogical

During the Autumn Term Year 7 pupils study 'Colour' and their target relating to this theme is 'I can express feelings through the use of colour'.

Each lesson two pupils use the two computers in their Art room. Pupils follow a worksheet (attached) and the work is designed to take one lesson only. By the end of the term it is expected that each pupil in the class will have had access to the computer.

The ICT work undertaken is designed to familiarise pupils with

logging on procedures
accessing the internet
searching for a specific information (i.e. a specific artwork by a particular artist)
identifying appropriate information and images.

The ICT work aims to extend Art teaching and learning by encouraging independence in

researching and accessing art images and information
developing visual language skills
analysing and evaluating the work of others.

I am in communication with several teachers in Europe in order to establish a joint project between schools to develop cultural links. Creating and sustaining communities that support learning will be tackled in the Spring Term when KHS Year 8 and 9 classes have access to ICT suites and the project has been fully planned between schools.

Organisational

Three of four Art rooms have access to two computers. Throughout the department pupils are encouraged to use ICT facilities to develop and extend Art learning (research, generating ideas, development, modification, production of final pieces, evaluation).

Within the Art curriculum, Year 7 pupils only have access to ICT facilities in Art rooms and do not have timetabled access to ICT suites during Art lessons.
Years 8 and 9 have access to ICT resources within the classroom and the majority of classes have timetabled sessions in ICT suites (this is dependent upon the availability of facilities).
Year 8 undertake animation and the aim is to provide 6 consecutive lessons in an ICT suite.
Year 9 undertake ICT image-making (using scanner, digital camera, graphics software) and the aim is to provide 4 consecutive lessons in an ICT suite.
All 7 Art teachers at Kingsbury High School undertake the teaching of ICT.

Economic

The department was fortunate to be granted school funding for 6 computers, a scanner, printer and digital camera, enabling pupils to have access to ICT resources and the internet during Art lessons.

However, insufficient school ICT resourcing (i.e. ICT suites) limits the number of lessons and groups obtaining access to whole class ICT Art teaching.

Technical

The software - e.g. Complete Animator and CorelDraw - available to staff and pupils is largely straightforward to use (following demonstrations). KS3 pupils often have difficulty in using the Internet effectively and require specific direction.

Cultural

Pupils appreciate the vast Art resource available to them via the Internet, enabling them to access Art from the past and present and from different countries and cultures.

There is, however, a lack of understanding about how to utilise this information effectively. Pupils need to be shown how to access relevant information and how to search for key points which can then be used in their own analysis and evaluation.

Diary extracts: Seed project at Ganton Special School

13 October

We sent a parcel containing pens with a Hull logo to the students at Moat to thank them for collaborating with us. Hopefully, we will keep in touch.We began work on our Christmas recipes to send to Spain. The children used Google to find recipes they liked and downloaded them. We then decided we could improve them. The more able children were helped to word process the recipes.

20 October

We received several large files from Alex Font in Spain, with instructions to download a program called Clic and then open the files using this program. This proved difficult and we sought Andrew's help to open and assemble the files. Alex had sent some excellent puzzles using images of the children in his school who would be collaborating with the Ganton children. This was a very attractive and stimulating way of introducing his class to us.

27 October

Finalised details about Diana Wallis's (MEP) forthcoming visit to Ganton - decided that the theme of her visit would be 'Europe' and we will show her the work done through our Seed projects and other work associated with Europe.

3 November

Two students were helped to write the simplified recipes using Word and adding clip art and photographs. They then sent them to Spain as attachments to e-mails.

10 November

The full class took part in trying out the recipes we had sent to Spain. The less able students enjoyed taking part with hand over hand help. Everyone enjoyed tasting! We recorded the whole process using a digital camera and sent the images to Spain in a Word document attached to an e-mail. We invited the children from the classes in the Spanish school to send us a traditional Spanish Christmas recipe to try. We began to think about designing a Christmas card to send to Spain. Some children drew their designs on the computer. We voted on a design and stared to prepare materials for assembling the card.

A message from the personal assistant to Diana Wallis, MEP

Dear Vivien,

Thank you very much for the 'Spring Day in Europe' book. It was lovely and I have now posted it on to Diana's office for her. I have also sent your choice of dates and am pleased to say Fri. 23rd. Jan. will be fine, so we can make the arrangements. Just let me know whether you would like morning or afternoon and what you would like Diana to do. Among other things, she is used to doing a very simple account of who she is and what she does and responding to whatever questions get asked, but I suspect the Ganton visit will need to be heavily reliant on what the students want to say (including those who can't talk) and show her. Would it be useful if Diana could prepare to use some of the sort of equipment you use: camera, slides, computer? Should she base what she says on the 'book'? To judge by what you have succeeded in helping the students to communicate through that, I'm sure you will be able to advise on how to make Diana's visit meaningful to them. It will certainly be educative for her.

Best wishes,

Rosemary.

News from international partners

Switzerland | Spain/Catalonia

Net-Ch projects from our partners in Switzerland

Here are more details about two projects your school may wish to join. They are suitable for the validation of Seed, though they will continue beyond the current term. It is not too late to start them. Find more on these and other projects at www.net-ch.org/en/projects

The International Space Station

Suitable for upper secondary pupils, this project seizes the opportunities offered by the International Space Station to explore various scientific areas. It will involve collaboration between a group of Swiss classes and classes from other countries speaking French, German or English.

Learning - 1) Introduce various scientific notions in a meaningful way thanks to the study of the international space station. 2) Exchange with students from Switzerland and abroad about observations, compare figures and analyse differences. 3) Approach scientific problems globally thanks to this collaboration. 4) Develop skills in writing (for the Web), foreign languages (exchange with experts and students in the other classes) and technology use (on-line, collaborative platform).
Teaching - to explore online collaborative learning with students, in particular in creative working on the design of projects.
Teacher training - to experiment an innovative approach to teacher training building on a socio-constructivist, project-centred basis involving the creation of an integrated research community around each project.

Diversity in the Local Community

This project explores the question of diversity in the local community as part of a drive to promote tolerance and encourage active citizenship on the part of pupils. The project involves collaboration between a group of Swiss and European classes speaking French or German. Suitable for primary (last years only), lower and upper secondary classes.

Learning - 1) To discover various facets of diversity in the local community 2) To become aware of the richness of diversity in the local community but also of the difficulties it can produce and how these difficulties can be solved. 3) To exchange and compare results and solutions with other pupils in Switzerland and elsewhere. 4) To develop skills in writing for the Web (in particular related to interviewing)
Teaching - to explore project-based, online collaborative learning with students, in particular in exchanging perceptions and hypotheses about aspects of society.
Teacher training - to experiment an innovative approach to teacher training, building on a socio-constructivist, project-centred basis involving the creation of an integrated research community around each project.

Clic open source software from our partners in Catalonia

Clic is a freeware authoring application with templates, allowing teachers to create multimedia activities for their students in an easy way. It is an open source application, freely distributed on the Internet. Users of Clic have made a network of websites with freely usable material. It is flexible, easily adaptable and translatable. Types of activities include puzzles, associations (identifying relations between elements), text activities (fill the gap, dictations, putting elements in the right order), memory games, scrambled letters, crosswords etc. Activities can be grouped into sequences (packages), which in their turn can be linked by logical criteria (one package completed with a certain percentage of correct answers leads to the next package etc.). Sounds, film clips, animations etc. can be integrated into the activities. Applications are created through filling in simple forms/dialogue boxes. An administrative tool shows each student's progress.

Clic is a collaborative effort - several organisations take part in the development and translation of the tool. The tool is available in a number of different languages, including English, French and German. A number of websites in different languages offer download of activities etc. The main website has a search tool for locating and downloading activities sorted by language, topic and level. You need the Clic application downloaded to your computer to run the activities. Also available: Mailing lists / newsletter, discussion forum, user manuals. Next step: JClic project - this will have new features (animations and films integrated, not just attached to the activities etc.), new file formats supported, multi-platform (incl. Mac, Linux etc). It is based on XML documents (unlike previous version). It uses JPG, PNG, animated GIFs, flash movies, skins, shapers, customised event sounds etc. There will be the JClic application, the JClic player, the JClic author and the JClic report (administrative tool that tracks student progress for the teacher through a web browser).

Get Clic from www.xtec.es/recursos/clic/index.htm

Visits to schools

I would like to confirm the days for the planned visits to your schools. Ideally, I would like to spend most of the day with you - and we will certainly need several hours. You have the project grant to pay for supply cover on the day. Philippa Lee, who is the head of leadership and European activities at Becta, will be coming with me on three of the visits - as shown in parentheses.

I will be bringing your school's ENIS membership certificate - so you may wish to have this presented officially to the school. (You may, also, wish to keep it for now and have some other dignitary, like an MEP, present it at a later time...) Here are the dates:

Tuesday 2 December: Ninestiles School, Birmingham (Philippa)
Thursday 4 December: Cheslyn Hay, West Midlands
Friday 5 December: Wolverhampton Grammar, Wolverhampton
Tuesday 9 December: Sackville College, Essex
Wednesday 10 December: Priory Community School, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
Thursday 11 December: All Saints Junior School, Hessle, East Riding of Yorkshire
Friday 12 December: St. Andrew and St. Mary, Barton, Lancashire
Tuesday 16 December: Kingsbury, London (Philippa)
January (to be arranged): Visits to Moat Community College, Leicester, and Ganton Special School, Hull.

October 2003 newsletter

Seed - newsletter for schools

Dear Friends, Welcome to the third newsletter for UK schools taking part in the Seed project, and our partners in Norway, Spain and Switzerland. In this letter you will find out something more about

money to support the project
the ValNet validation
letting me come and see you
experts who can support your learning community

Andrew

A word of reassurance

You may think that you have done little to make this project happen since our meeting in July (though I know some schools have been very active already). If that is so, please do not feel that this means you cannot keep taking part - you can, and you are important.

We are trying to find out if the Seed concept can work in ordinary school situations, in different national or regional contexts and curriculum models, without a lot of external support. And we will evaluate that honestly. And we know that the time we have allocated to the validation is almost impossibly short - so in many cases, by December, we will be reporting on future expectations, not so much current or past achievement. But you are not on your own here. The point of Seed is to create supportive communities - so, please ask for support, if you have not yet found it.

Money to support the project

Philippa Lee is now administering things related to the European Schoolnet at Becta. She would like to distribute the grant of 1,000 Euros per school, as our partners are doing in the other countries. We will round it up to a notional 700 pounds, but subtract the amount that each school has had already in any expenses.

This means that you will have more immediate local discretion in doing things to support your participation in the project - the grant can pay for such things as supply cover, travel costs and related costs of hosting meetings or hospitality. It is now up to you (and your school managers) to allocate the money.

But first you must claim it, by sending an invoice to Becta. Please invoice us for £700, in respect of the associated costs of taking part in the Seed project and ValNet validation activities. Address the invoice to Philippa. In case you have mislaid the address of Becta (or even if you haven't), it is:

Milburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7JJ.

You do not need to subtract any sum that you have had already - we can do that, from our own accounting, and give you the balance of the £700.

The validation activity

You will know that as well as taking part in the project, you have agreed to let us (Becta and its subcontractors, working on behalf of the European Schoolnet) carry out a validation, by gathering data, asking questions and making observations. In this letter, I will try to set out more clearly what we expect to do and when, and show how you can help us. This should not involve you in any work that goes beyond what I have already outlined in the two previous newsletters.

What we are validating - the kernel of Seed

The Seed project as it happens in your school will have many unique or locally distinctive features. We will find out about these in our evaluation. But you need to know more simply what is the essential characteristic of the project - the thing that we are setting out to validate. In its simplest form this has three requirements. These are that:

you are developing an integrated community for teaching and learning;
this community uses digital technologies for communication; and,
this way of making communities promotes change in the culture of teaching and learning.

The community can be of any kind - but typically will include one or more teachers, some other experts or mentors, and a number of learners. "Integrated" here means simply that there is some kind of coherence and stability - that it has some of the characteristics of any other community in the physical world.

The communication can be among people in the same local area, a region or country or international - the point is that it will sometimes happen among people who are not physically in the same place. (Though some real world meetings to support the community are perfectly in order.) It is not a requirement that the project starts the cultural change - in many cases, this was happening already. This might be one of the things that led to join ENIS in the first place. But your activity in Seed should be sympathetic to, or maybe accelerate, that change.

Part of our task is to find out whether this idea can work in schools across Europe, without massive resources, and taking up your time. So you should be ready to interpret this explanation flexibly. You are not being forced into a very strict model of how to do it, since Seed is meant to help the learner become more autonomous.

How we will validate your school's participation

The validation begins now. It has several parts, which are:

making a baseline - a simple description of the class or teaching group(s) in the project
a project diary - keeping a weekly log of what you do in the project
observation - I will observe some of the learners in the project (where relevant)
structured interview - this will be with one or more teachers in each school
questionnaires - these will be completed by one or more teachers and a small group of learners.

The baseline activity can be retrospective, but should be completed soon. The diary runs from now till December (or beyond, if you wish, though I will want to have a copy of it up to December).

The observation and interviews will happen when I visit your school in December. The questionnaires will be available in digital form in December. (If there is any problem in completing them remotely, I can administer them when I visit your school.) I will also be making a more detailed case study of one school, while our partners in the other countries may do likewise.

That may look like quite a lot of work. But it need not be. Why not?

The baseline description can be as brief as a few sentences, or notes/bullet points in response to a short set of prompts. I will send these separately.
The diary can be as brief as a sentence or two each week, using a series of headings that are common to all of the schools in the ValNet activity.
The observation and interviews should fit into your normal school day, though they may require you to have some supply cover (which the grant can pay for).
The questionnaires will contain no more than 40 questions, each of which will require you to select a response on a given scale. There will be an option for open comments, but these are not required. The questionnaires for learners will be brief enough to complete within part of a lesson.

How to send me information

At the end of the period for the validation in schools, I will have to write a report (which will also include information from the reports by Alan, Fina and Karianne). It does not matter to me how I receive information from you, so long as I get the right words and statistics. So please use what is easiest for you - this may be to put things straight into an e-mail message, or a word-processed document that travels as an attachment. Or you may even be making a record on a Web site or on a message board, where I can see what you are doing directly.

I know that some of the UK schools have begun to work with the partners abroad, but have not yet let me know about what you are doing - maybe because you think it is not yet a firm arrangement. But even if it does not work out, it is worth noting, as it is part of the activity of trying to create a community for teaching and learning.

How I will ask you for the baseline description and diary

I will send you a separate e-mail message, with headings and prompts included. Please forward it to anyone with whom you are collaborating, and who may be able to reply to it.

Please reply to the message some time this week (even if you defer the baseline description till later this month). The hardest part of the validation for me is likely to be collating information from ten UK schools. (Happily for me, but not for them, Alan, Fina and Karianne will do this for the schools in their countries.)

If you would like to send anything extra, that is very helpful - I am happy to have a mass (or mess, even) of information at this point, so that I have plenty on which to base the validation report later. That includes URLs, images, reports and more...

A profile of your school - a reminder

Please can you make sure that you have a portrait of your school and its innovative use of ICT on the ENIS database? Go to www.eun.org/kms/sites/enis/schools/ for this. (If you have lost your password, I can tell you it again...)

Letting me (and Philippa) come and see your school

If you know what would be a convenient day for you in December, then I am ready to start booking visits. If you have a preferred day of the week, but do not mind about the date, then, again, let me know, and I will agree a date with you. Philippa has asked if she can attend some visits (I will obviously clear this with you), and is also keen to know the dates for these. I'd much rather sort this by e-mail, but if not, there's always the phone...

Experts who can help your school

An important idea in Seed is that we bring in experts as mentors to support teachers and learners. We hope that our collective activities will lead us to many of these helpers. Two places where we have already secured help are Viking Net and Symbolworld.

The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs has sponsored Viking Net, the Viking Network (http://viking.no/). Viking Net is offering schools in Seed an "ask an expert" service, where learners (or anyone who is interested) can ask questions about anything related to the history, activities and culture of the Vikings.
Symbolworld (http://www.symbolworld.org) has been set up to provide a web site with material suitable for symbol readers of all ages. Already it has published pages of activities from one of the UK schools in Seed. If you would like to see your students' work appear as text with symbols, then contact Cate at Symbolworld. For more see SymbolWorld.

Who else is in the Seed project?

Your school is one of 40 in Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the UK (ten in each country) that are taking part in Seed. The ten UK schools in the project are:

All Saints Church of England Junior School, Northolme Road, Hessle, East Riding of Yorkshire
Contact Phil Williamson: phil.williamson@allsaints-jun.eril.net
Cheslyn Hay High School, Saredon Road, Cheslyn Hay, West Midlands
Contact Gavin Rhoades: cheslynhayhigh@hotmail.com
Ganton Special School, Springhead Lane, Hull
Contact Vivien Mariau: vmariau@yahoo.co.uk
Kingsbury High School, Princes Avenue, London
Contact David Bateman: be@kingsbury.brent.sch.uk
Moat Community College, Maidstone Road, Leicester
Contact Claire Jackson: claire.jackson29@ntlworld.com
Ninestiles School, Hartfield Crescent, Birmingham
Contact Eddie Halliday: eddieh@ninestiles.bham.sch.uk
Priory Community School, Queensway, Weston super Mare
Contact Ron Richards: RRicha7122@aol.com
Sackville Community College, Lewes Road, East Grinstead
Contact Nick Falk: mrfalk@science-active.co.uk
St. Mary and St. Andrew's Catholic Primary, Station Lane, Barton, Lancashire
Contact Christian Duckworth: xtiand@aol.com
Wolverhampton Grammar School, Compton Road, Wolverhampton
Contact Russel Tarr: russeltarr@activehistory.co.uk

September 2003 newsletter

Seed - newsletter for schools

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the second newsletter for UK schools taking part in the Seed project, and our partners in Norway, Spain and Switzerland. In this letter you will find out something more about

what you should be doing now
tools to use for collaborative activities
certificates for ENIS membership
letting me come and see you
things happening in our partner countries

If the letter looks too long, you do not need to read it all in one go. As you read it, if any suggestions or questions occur to you, please send them to me.

Andrew

What you should be doing now - or beginning to do

Many of you have only just started a new term - and have many other pressing things to do. This project should not be something extra, but a way of doing (perhaps differently) what you had to do, anyway - it's an approach to the curriculum, not an addition to it.

You have perhaps already found other people with whom you wish to collaborate - locally, nationally or internationally. After our meeting in July, I know what some of those things might be.

A profile of your school

Although I will want to come and see what you are doing later this term, and ask a few questions both in a structured interview and with some questionnaires (we will keep them short and humane), the best way to gather evidence at the start of your project, and as it continues, may be to keep a record, log or diary, or other account.

You may wish to do this anyway, as a way of letting school managers and governors know what you are doing, or as copy for a press release (getting your school in a local or regional newspaper). There is no strict requirement to use a particular medium or format - so long as I am able to know what you are doing, then I can make sure this appears in the report that is part of the final evaluation.

I would very much appreciate it, therefore, if you could send me anything that you already have by way of a record, or a copy of any e-mail you may have sent, relating to a joint activity with another school. At this stage, I cannot get too much information - but you need not produce it especially for me. Any such documents can become part of the evidence of how the project develops - so all work in progress, and bits of the dialogue with partners, any of this, is useful. Please get in the habit of putting my e-mail address into the CC field of any messages you send about Seed and ENIS activities.

Communications tools

We have talked about making a collection of tools that are free to end users, to help with communication. Here is a short list of some that are ready now. Please tell me of others that we can share if you have any, or know where to find them.

Seed EUN community at http://www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/login.cfm?area=816 This simple message-board comes from the European Schoolnet. You have all been invited to join and use it - and you can extend that use to any other people who are involved in your Seed activities.
Web-based communication system from Switzerland at http://projects.net-ch.org This is another messaging system, based on Open Source software. Alan (McCluskey) has made it available to participants in Seed and ENIS schools generally. It is functional now, but may become more sophisticated as it develops.
Multilingual messaging system from Switzerland at http://tecfaseed.unige.ch/door This is a portal and message board that came from the original Seed project in universities. It is very useful for activities that involve work in English and French.
Mailing list for Kingsbury and partners David Bateman has set up a mailing list, using the EUN Web server, to support activities for Kingsbury School and its partners. If you are working with David, you may already be on the list. If you want to know more, get in touch with David. If you want one of your own, then please ask for it by e-mailing Thomas Maier in the EUN office: thomas.maier@eun.org

ENIS certificates

The European Schoolnet awards certificates for membership of the European Network of Innovative Schools. I have these now, and will bring yours when I come to visit you later this term. They are rather large for posting. Your school managers may like to display the certificate prominently in the school.

Letting me come and see your school

I can gather much of the important evidence for the ValNet evaluation by visiting your school. This will be a chance for me to administer some simple questionnaires, conduct structured interviews, observe the work of a class and talk to you about your experiences of Seed.

The exact menu is not yet fixed, and will partly be determined by further work among the national validation coordinators for Seed, and the other projects in the ValNet activity. But you will know this well ahead of the meeting, which should not require me to take up a large amount of your or any one colleague's time, but will include a series of tasks for gathering the information that we will need for the final evaluation.

Ideally, this should be in mid to late November or early December. (I would quite like to be able to visit schools in the midlands and further west close together in time, to save on needless travel.) If we can begin to identify possible dates now, this would help a lot.

Meeting in Oslo for Norwegian partner schools

On Monday 15th September the Norwegian ENIS schools in the Seed project will meet in Oslo. That's very soon, but if you want to find a partner school there, then please send your request to Karianne (and copy to me). Several UK schools have done this already.

And if you have any messages for our friends in the north, then please pass them on via Karianne or me.

An invitation from Switzerland

Alan and his colleague Stephanie invite Seed schools from other countries to take part in the two projects that they are running in parallel with Seed. Here is an invitation from Stephanie:

Hello, As the new collaborator of the Swiss EUN-CH network, Alan McCluskey has asked me to contact you about 2 projects we are launching this fall. These projects are intended for some twenty Swiss and European teachers wishing to use ICT in their class in collaboration with classes in other countries.

The first of these projects addresses upper secondary school teachers and concerns the International Space Station. The second, under the title "Diversity in the local community", is for pupils from the last years of primary to upper secondary and concerns diversity in the local community, its richness, difficulties and solutions.

Each project will involve exchange and collaboration with pupils in classes with either French, German or English speaking classes in other countries. The CTIE will provide an online collaboration space for all participants and their pupils. Both projects will run between the end of September and the end of May and could culminate with a participation in the eSchola contest.All useful information about the projects as well as a sign-up form can be found on our website at www.net-ch.org/en/index.html. As the project is about to start, make sure you sign up soon.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions or suggestions about the project. I work in Bern on Mondays and Wednesdays, but you can contact me any time via e-mail. Best regards, Stephanie Burton, stephanie.burton@educa.ch

NET-CH is an initiative of the Swiss National Agency for ICTs in Education (CTIE) designed to encourage and support innovation and networking between innovative Swiss schools as well as the participation of such innovative Swiss schools in international projects and networks related to the integration of ICTs in education.

Two more offers

Magda Zervou, of the original Seed project, has invited us to send a small selection of teachers to a meeting in Athens on the weekend of 17 and 18 October. Your school's allocation of 1,000 Euros can be used to cover the costs of travel and accommodation, if you wish to attend.

Stefano Gorla, who organizes ENIS schools in Italy, has invited us (and each other ENIS country) to send one teacher (at the expense of the Italian ministry of education) to a meeting in Palmaria (island near Genoa) on 27th to 29th October. For many of you that falls in the half-term holiday. If you would like to be the UK representative teacher, please let me know. (I think that this offer will go to the first person to claim it - I mentioned it in an earlier e-mail, but no one has claimed it yet.)

If you are interested in either of these meetings, please let me know.

The other countries taking part

The other countries taking part are Norway, Spain and Switzerland. The ENIS coordinators are:

Norway: Karianne Helland; Karianne.Helland@ls.no
Spain: Fina Denia; fdenia@pie.xtec.es
Switzerland: Alan McCluskey; alan@connected.org;
Alan.McCluskey@educa.ch

If you want to find teachers or students in the partner countries, then please contact Karianne, Fina and Alan.

Who else is in the Seed project?

Your school is one of 40 in Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the UK (ten in each country) that are taking part in Seed. See October newsletter for the full list.

Karianne has given you a list of the Norwegian schools. I will send out an expanded version of this as a separate attachment. You can use Karianne as a go-between where necessary, but should feel free to contact schools directly.

June 2003 newsletter

Seed - newsletter for schools

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the first newsletter for UK schools taking part in the Seed project. In this letter you will find out (I hope) something more about

what it is that your school has joined
why it will be a good thing
who else is doing it
the other countries taking part
the meeting on July 4th
things to do before the meeting

I'm sorry that it's so long - you do not need to read it all in one go. As you read it, if any suggestions or questions occur to you, please send them to me.

Andrew

The Seed Project

See the separate introduction to Seed, by clicking here. From the viewpoint of the European Union, Seed is the name of a School of Tomorrow project (one of many). It began life in a number of universities. Now it will be one of a group of projects that happen in schools, and that exist in their own right, but which will also be the subject of a Europe-wide evaluation. (This evaluation, called ValNet - which is also the name of the network that administers it - will look at many kinds of ICT use in schools. The good news is that you are not expected to be aware of the evaluation, beyond answering some questions about what you do in the Seed project.)

The original project Web site says that Seed has the aim of "seeding cultural change in the school system through the generation of communities engaged in integrated educational and technological innovation". So the purpose of the Seed project is to create communities of teachers, mentors and learners - who use information and

learning technologies to share ideas and practice and support each other. That is it, in summary.

A bit more about Seed

Seed started life in universities - but the plan was always to introduce it to schools. You are being asked to take part in a trial of a sort - where ten schools in each of four countries (UK, Norway, Spain, Switzerland) apply its principles and use its activities in a programme of study that is part of the school's normal curriculum.

It is not a course of study in itself. It is much more a way of making something explicit - and that is developing networks (communities) that support the teacher and learner, with digital technologies. This may be as simple as a teacher in Norway using a message board, a mailing list or instant messaging, to get help from (or give help to) another teacher working in the Norwegian national curriculum or in Scotland.

This means that in some countries Seed will readily become complementary to new or established systems of support. In Norway and the UK, for example, advanced schools or teachers act as mentors to other schools or the surrounding community. Seed is obviously complementary to schemes to build up high-speed networks for learning in EU countries.

I thought there was some free software

The parent project for Seed began in universities - and each has developed software tools or applications. The original aims of Seed do not explicitly mention software, though they imply it by mentioning designers of software.

All of the software that Seed has produced is freely available for your use. This consists of these things:

e-Slate: an environment and modules for learning (called Microworlds), from Athens, Greece.
Collide: a range of applications and modules for learning from Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
VirtualBook: simulations from Hull, UK.
Tecfa seed: collaborative learning environment, from Geneva, Switzerland.

You may wish simply to install and use the software. You may wish to explore it or give it to students to explore. You may even wish to become involved in the development. All of these are possible. But equally, you may find that you can do all you need to in this project without using these new systems or products, and using the tools that you have already found to be appropriate for teaching and learning. You will find more about this in an appendix - details of what is available and where. In UK schools (and perhaps in our three partner countries also), having useful software is unlikely to be a problem. If you do use, or look at, the software developed for this project, then you will be invited to comment on its usefulness and relevance to your teaching and learning activities.

Why is this project a good thing?

This project should be a good thing in itself - because teachers and learners in your school can share ideas with, and get support from, friends in other schools. Depending on what you want to do, this may work mainly within your own country, it may involve your working with friends in one or more of the three partner countries (or beyond, through the ENIS network) and it may involve both of these.

It is also a good thing because it will lead to other opportunities for collaboration and innovative work (either within specific projects or more generally). And it will promote links between your school and friends in other countries. ENIS is not a travel club - but it often leads to travel...

Who else is doing it?

Your school is one of 40 - though some may not be identified yet - in Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the UK (ten in each country) that are taking part in Seed. The communities that they use do not have to be confined to these 40 schools (it would be silly to try). But I hope that you may want to work with friends in one or more of the other project schools where you see a common interest.

When we meet in July we can find out more about the curriculum interests of the teacher(s) in your school who are taking part. But you need not wait - you may wish to e-mail the teachers listed below to make, or respond to, offers of collaboration.

The other countries taking part

The other countries taking part are Norway, Spain and Switzerland. The ENIS coordinators are:

Norway: Karianne Helland; Karianne.Helland@ls.no
Spain: Fina Denia; fdenia@pie.xtec.es
Switzerland: Alan McCluskey; alan@connected.org;
Alan.McCluskey@educa.ch

If you want to find teachers or students in the partner countries, then please contact Karianne, Fina and Alan. I hope that they will be able to join us on July 3rd and 4th.

The meeting on July 3rd and 4th

The main meeting is scheduled for July 4th, at Warwick University. You will receive more information about the venue later, along with an agenda for the meeting. If you are travelling from a distance, you may wish to stay overnight at the conference centre that we will use for the event - and there will be some activities for those who do this.

The purpose of the meeting is to inform you as fully as is possible (ahead of the project) of all the things you need to know to take part in the Seed project with confidence. So it makes sense to invite you to contribute to the agenda. I will send out a draft soon, but will make sure that it contains any ideas that you have expressed. However, I can say that it will be a mixture of things that will include: your sharing with others your current practices and ideas for the future (in innovative use of technology for learning), some necessary briefing about administration and timings in the project, and a lot of reflection and discussion about how to develop it appropriately.

Things to do before the meeting

There are several things that you might like to do before the meeting. Here are some requests or suggestions:

Have a look at your school's record on the European Schoolnet database (to do this, go to http://www.eun.org/kms/sites/enis/schools/), correct any errors and add information about the school - you will need the password for your school, as sent in my earlier message to you.
Be prepared to tell teachers from the other schools about innovation in yours.
Have questions or requests for me and for the ENIS coordinators from our partner countries.
Think about the communities to which you already belong, or which you think you need to join, that use information and learning technologies (discussion lists, forums, message boards, mailing lists and so on).
Send a message to some or all of the other ten schools to let them know who you are and what things you would like to share in the project.
Let people know (for example your local education authority or school governors) that you are taking part in this European Schoolnet project, and that your school is now a member of the European Network of Innovative Schools.
Decide which teacher is coming to the meeting (you or someone else who will be doing the project) and let me know who this is.

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