Management Information Sheet
Learning Platform Status for 2011-12
Introduction
This document sets out the status of Learning Platform provision for Norfolk schools for the period 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012 and the ongoing position in relation to the ICT Services for School project.
Primary and Special Schools
Background
All primary and special schools have been provided with accounts for the Netmedia Learning Platform and Espresso content.
These products have been centrally funded.
The current contracts for these products expire 31st August 2011.
Central funding for these products also ends on 31st August 2011.
A pilot to explore the use of Fronter Learning Platform and It's Learning product has been undertaken.
Current position
The pilot project review for a replacement for the existing Learning Platform commenced before the funding decisions of the current government were known.
In the meantime the ICT Services for Schools project has been consulting with schools on the ICT provision to form a revised service design based on school requirements.
Following feedback from schools and the different levels of usage of learning platforms across the primary sector, the ICT Services for Schools project team has decided the following arrangements for primary and special schools:
Secondary Schools
Current provision
Fronter Learning Platform is the solution for secondary schools which is adopted in the majority of secondary schools and this will not change in the future.
It will be centrally funded for financial year 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012. From 1st April 2012 schools will be responsible for paying for their use of Fronter.
This document sets out the status of Learning Platform provision for Norfolk schools for the period 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012 and the ongoing position in relation to the ICT Services for School project.
Primary and Special Schools
Background
All primary and special schools have been provided with accounts for the Netmedia Learning Platform and Espresso content.
These products have been centrally funded.
The current contracts for these products expire 31st August 2011.
Central funding for these products also ends on 31st August 2011.
A pilot to explore the use of Fronter Learning Platform and It's Learning product has been undertaken.
Current position
The pilot project review for a replacement for the existing Learning Platform commenced before the funding decisions of the current government were known.
In the meantime the ICT Services for Schools project has been consulting with schools on the ICT provision to form a revised service design based on school requirements.
Following feedback from schools and the different levels of usage of learning platforms across the primary sector, the ICT Services for Schools project team has decided the following arrangements for primary and special schools:
| ICT Services to develop an industrial strength simple virtual learning environment based on primary and special essential requirements in Google apps with the aim to be ready from September 2011. | |
| We are pursuing conversations to embed Espresso into the Google development. | |
| For those who have invested significant resources into Netmedia and want to stay with it, we will investigate the possibility of extending the contract for 1 year only. At the end of this period schools will have the choice to either: |
| Adopt the Google solution | ||
| Move to Fronter Learning Platform if they want a comprehensive VLE | ||
| Or make their own arrangements |
| We would encourage schools not to create their own tools in Google apps because we will be developing a learning portal which will be supported, secure and safe for all learners across the county to create, store and share their own content. |
Secondary Schools
Current provision
Fronter Learning Platform is the solution for secondary schools which is adopted in the majority of secondary schools and this will not change in the future.
It will be centrally funded for financial year 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012. From 1st April 2012 schools will be responsible for paying for their use of Fronter.