Teaching unions have given a cautious welcome to the Government's
soon to be launched £50m Curriculum Online service, which aims to
help teachers deliver the national curriculum for schools by using
the Internet.
Eamonn O'Kane, general secretary of the National Association of
Schoolmasters and Women Teachers, said, "Any measures to cut down
teacher workload are welcome." However, he highlighted a lack of
skills and resources as potential hurdles in the path of the
strategy.
"The difficulties stemming from online lesson plans are that many
teachers do not have access to computers and many do not have the
necessary experience to download the information," said O'Kane.
The Government has already predicted that, once up and running,
Curriculum Online will make lesson planning and administration
easier for teachers as well as freeing up time for actual teaching.
The Web-based system, which is being hosted by not-for-profit
organisation EduServ, will offer a central database of certified
resources, searchable by national curriculum key stage, subject and
topic.
Metadata tagging will allow fast searches of the system, and the
XML data format will be used by suppliers to load data onto
Curriculum Online, in compliance with e-government standards.
The online resources will be provided by publishers, teachers and
public sector bodies such as museums and, subject to approval by
the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the BBC.
The Government said key components of the initiative will include
both a library of e-learning materials and access to commercial
products for schools to purchase.
As part of the Curriculum Online strategy, the Department for
Education and Skills is distributing £30m worth of e-learning
credits to all maintained schools, non-maintained special schools
and pupil-referral units in England. This funding, which can only
be spent on Curriculum Online resources, will be topped up with an
additional £20m from April next year.
Ian Stanley, account director at IT solutions provider Parity,
which designed and built the Curriculum Online portal, said the
site has already undergone testing. "We have had a panel of
teachers doing usability testing and their recommendations have
been worked into the solution," he explained.
Testing has also been undertaken to ensure that interfaces to
suppliers of e-learning and digital content work correctly, Stanley
added.
However, industry experts have warned that increasing pressures on
teachers' time have made it difficult for them to learn new skills,
such as IT.
O'Kane said, "The Government has pledged to increase the number of
computers in schools and provide adequate training for teachers,
but when you are already working a 60-hour week it is hard to find
time to learn a new skill."
Last year a report from the Office for Standards in Education said
teachers' progress in developing professional skills can be slow
because they have to train in their own time. This problem was
highlighted as hampering the Government's information and
communication technology initiative in schools.