What is the Berkshire e-Learning Foundation about?

With ICT now cutting across the curriculum and the workplace, the role of the Berkshire e-Learning Foundation is to ensure all children across Berkshire have access to supported learning resources using computer technology, both in and out of school, improving their opportunities to learn.

 

The objectives of the Berkshire e-Learning Foundation are :  

 

 

• To help local school projects generate sustainable funding to support home access to ICT, through the involvement of a range of stakeholders.

   

• To play an active role in fundraising to support projects, with priority being given to disadvantaged areas across the county.  

We do this by working with schools to help them identify, design and manage projects which will bring maximum benefit to the school and local communities they serve.

 

Three core principles lie at the heart of what the Berkshire e-Learning Foundation is based on:

 

1.  Equity of access

 

A school that provides equity of access is one where every child in a given group has exactly the same level of access to the school’s technology, at home as well as in the classroom, regardless of whether their parents have contributed to the school e-learning programme and regardless of how much they have contributed. Where a school operates a 1:1 ratio then every child will be provided with their own laptop or mobile device, regardless of parental contribution. Where a school operates their e-learning programme through a pool of shared computers, then every child will receive the same level of access, including the same rights to take a computer home at night.

 

 

2.  Sustainability

 

Sustainability is at the heart of the Berkshire e-Learning Foundation model. The education world is littered with examples of one-off funding for projects that grind to a halt three years on when the equipment needs replacing. It is not possible for the Berkshire e-Learning Foundation to fund all the schools across Berkshire that might wish to provide out of school learning through technology to their pupils.  Local sustainability is therefore vital, and the engagement of parents who make small but regular donations to the school e-learning programme ensures that the school can replace equipment when it needs replacing, and can also expand its e-learning activity to include more and more pupils at the school.

 

 

3.  Home use

 

The focus of the Berkshire e-Learning Foundation is helping schools extend access to ICT beyond the school day and the school gate, and in particular ensuring home access is universally available. While schools increasingly provide good access to ICT during the day, they rarely allow pupils to take school laptops, or other mobile devices, home in the evenings or at the weekend. Research confirms that high levels of home access to a computer makes a significant impact on the learning outcomes of schoolchildren, an impact that children from better off families inevitably benefit from in contrast to children from more disadvantaged families.

 

Schools have a key role to play in developing effective home-school links so that students can continue to benefit from school based support and resources when working at home. The Berkshire e-Learning Foundation supports schools that accept this role and are willing to engage with their families to achieve equity of access at home as well as at school.