Becta’s Research films 2008
Models of innovation in learning online 

Ann Jones: We’re noticing what a different take young learners especially but learners altogether have when they’re learning outside formal context. 
Narrator: This year, Becta has decided to change the way we present and share the results of our commissioned research. To engage our key partners outside the world of Becta, we’re holding a series of seminars looking at the key themes we feel have current and significant importance.
Stylianos Hatzipanagos: I’m thinking of all the more exciting tools of technology that are out there at the moment. I would mention web tool, all the tools where communication is the main aspect. 
Tony Richardson: Young people use technology to make their lives easier and more interesting and importantly to stay in touch with one another. We want young people to extend their social networks and for all sorts of reasons, whether it’s to study, work or to enrich their social life, we want young people to enjoy being young and learning as part of that experience. Importantly, we want tomorrow’s workforce currently in school to develop skills that will enable them to collaborate in teams productively and effectively when they leave.
To achieve all this, we need to make sure we support all those who work in education to harness technology in a way that can exploit how young people are already using it. 
Narrator: Let’s take a look at how well the largest pupil referral unit in england has managed to engage its students by maximising the benefits of a funded technology project. 
Seamus Oates: The Bridge Academy targets learners from a range of different backgrounds. We’ve got learners who have been permanently excluded from their mainstream school for one reason or another; we also have learners not coping in the mainstream lessons or in the schools and have been identified for a managed move to the Bridge Academy.
Andrew Bailey: You’re gonna’ have to write three questions which you are going to ask the people who are sat behind you now. 
There are some fantastic people here. They are excellent in terms of their subject. There’s a certain amount of flexibility so I, for example, specialise in ICT but teach art as well, so there’s flexibility in those terms but also we develop their pastoral skills and we have tutors who are working with young people on a day to day basis and really get under their skin in terms of knowing what goes on in their home lives, knowing what’s affecting them on the street because invariably they bring that into school. 
Dhanisha Patel: So we start off with first thing…
Most of our kids use mp3 players, they play games, they’re always online, they use the internet, they’re used to the new technology and I think using the old kind of chalk and talk method wouldn’t work with these type of learners. 
Schoolboy: Is being on TV fun?
Teacher: Yep, being on TV’s lots of fun…
Teacher (off camera): Well the idea of today was that we took some situations that the kids have in their lives all the time – the use of mobile phones, the use of technology at home – and actually applied those to what we do in study, to make more real the experiences that they have. 
Dhanisha Patel: Being able to communicate with them on a platform that they’re used to or that they know well is absolutely necessary, I think.
Teacher: JC, a bit smaller, love. 
Fay Blyth: JC really wants to be a photographer and had completed at home a series of amazing photographs that she hadn’t been aware of how she could use those in arts. We were able to suddenly bring that in, tap on that huge resource and interest that she had and straight away direct her to using tools such as Photoshop, a little bit of video editing, things that she didn’t realise she could classify as art. The change in her and her enthusiasm for the subject has been phenomenal. 
Andre Bailey: But we found very quickly that we were forcing young people into classrooms that they didn’t want to be in and that was causing problems for us in terms of behaviour, in terms of attendance and all sorts of things, so we looked at our curriculum, and a lot of schools are doing this and have done this, to provide a more flexible curriculum for their young people, so we had a root and branch change of all our systems to go to a 4 days week, to have staff in here, to develop resources while the learners were at home being expected to engage with those activities.
Schoolboy: Well, it’s easier for me to work at home because here, like, I want, you get the work for the lesson that you gotta’ do it straight away but if, at home I can do it any time of the week, just as long as I get it done.
Andre Bailey: We provide a computer, we provide digital camera, the printer, everything they need to be involved in the digital age. Built into our learning environment there are certain monitoring systems that allow us to see what they’re doing online, where they’ve been on line, what they’ve, which resources they’ve looked at, how long they’ve looked at those resources.
Schoolboy: It’s great to work at home because you have power over when and how you learn. It’s an easy and much better way than previous work methods like books and stuff. I’d much rather go on a computer and, like, look at an online book most of the time. 
Schoolgirl: Like, you can email the teacher when you have a problem, if you don’t know what you’re doing and then they’ll get straight back to you and then the problems solved.
Seamus Oates: We traditionally run parents’ evenings here, as any other school does, and we’d often get 20 to 30 per cent attendance. On the day that we launched the Bridge Academy online, every single parent carer of this group of learners arrived to actually take part in the launch. 
Andre Bailey: Just go down until it comes up again.
We have a group of young people who are disaffected and believe you in me, we will pay for them at some stage and it might as well be now. We might as well have this relatively small investment to engage these young people in the learning system, to get them involved, to keep them in learning so that they have better life chance. 
Narrator: When online learning is designed and delivered to the right people at the right time, it can open up a world of opportunities where there never seemed to be any. Distance learning can provide expertise that may otherwise have been unavailable. Crucially, there’s the major benefit of being able to incorporate personalised student support mechanisms within an online delivery system.
If young people are keen to drive technology at home and at school, then we as educators need to recognise how best to extend and enrich their learning journeys. 
Tony Richardson: Online learning, the benefits and the challenges, the history but not the future. We don’t know what’s coming next but we do know that technology will be at the heart of it. 
Professor Grainne Conole: It’s a very exciting time. I mean, I think we’ve now got a range of technologies which are really kind of, have the potential to lead to a kind of paradigm shift in terms of what students are doing, both in schools and at home. 
Narrator: By commissioning research and holding seminars like this, Becta is supporting the hard work of all professionals who want better opportunities for learners.