Developing the home-school relationship using digital ... - Futurelab

Case Study 1: Saltash.net Community School, CornwallSaltash.net Community School in Cornwall isan 11-18 mixed comprehensive school withspecialist status in science, mathematicsand computing.The platform is also used to showcasestudents’ best work and to share practicebetween subjects in school as well as betweenhome and school.STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONSCASE STUDY 1: SALTASH.NET COMMUNITY SCHOOL, CORNWALL3The school is using private social network sitessuch as Ning and Edmodo to support linksbetween young people’s learning in and out-ofschoolas well as MSN messenger for one-toonementoring. Science teacher and AssistantHead Dan Roberts has been using Ning as aplatform for GCSE classes to work togetheronline in the evenings. “Once the platform is setup it runs itself, with students and parents allcommunicating with one another, commentingon each other’s work and answering eachother’s questions”. The network is used sociallyas well as for communication around the topicsbeing studied in the classroom and beingset for homework. Students often post theirown discussions and questions either aroundthe current topics being covered in schoolor on completely new topics. “What happensonline then has an impact on what happensin the classroom” says Dan, with lesson plansconstantly shifting based on input from bothstudents and parents online.Ning groups now exist across most subjectsin the school and the feedback from bothparents and students has been very positive,with parents reporting that their children seemmuch more engaged and that they feel theyare much more able to get involved in theirchildren’s learning.MSN messenger has enabled teachers atSaltash.net to mentor individual studentsoutside of lessons (having individualconversations with up to 10 studentssimultaneously). Using messenger as a toolhas allowed much more one-to-one time thatisn’t often possible in a classroom setting.As the conversation is often more relaxedand includes day-to-day as well as targetedconversations around learning points it hasenabled teachers to get to know students andunderstand their interests much better.In introducing such Web 2.0 applications tosupport communication and learning betweenhome and school, there were some initialconcerns around safeguarding childrenbut these have all proved solvable. All MSNconversations are recorded for reference andpermission is sought at the beginning of eachnew school year from parents for teachers andchildren to be able to communicate online outof school hours.Links:School website: www.saltash.netDan Robert’s blog: chickensaltash.edublogs.orgNING social network site: www.ning.comEdmodo social network site: www.edmodo.com38