Stick, Twist or Bust?

Learning Platforms in Northamptonshire

The learning platform landscape has been changing for a number of months across Northamptonshire’s school landscape. The provision of a countywide solution by the Local Authority on behalf of schools comes to an end in August 2010. From that time onwards, the strategic and financial management for learning platform procurement and adoption returns to the decision-making mechanisms of individual schools.

By devolving grant funding back to Local Authority, schools have actually been paying for their platform provision over the life of the centrally-procured contract. However, it was the quote for next year’s provision physically dropping into the heads’ inbox a few months ago that finally drove school leadership teams to crystallize their thinking in this area and to nail their colours to the learning platform mast.

Some schools have decided to ‘stick’ and continue to build on their experience with the present provider while others are desperate to ’twist’, hopefully seizing the opportunity to choose another platform flavour to complement the implementation of their strategic school vision and aims.

A significant third group, however, does not have a clear idea whether to ‘twist’ or ‘stick’. Having not really engaged meaningfully with the learning platform agenda over the last years, some schools feel they have neither the strategic framework nor user experience to be able to make effective decisions about a learning platform in time for the new academic year.

The arrival en masse on the Northamptonshire learnscape of potential new platform providers offers choice for some schools. For the undecided however, an even thicker collective fog of information and disinformation descends with every aspirational sales-pitch.

Schools finding themselves in the valley of learning platform indecision have another option – to strategically delay making a choice. Strategic waiting is neither the same as avoiding the agenda altogether, nor is it jumping on a bandwagon for the sake of it. Learning platforms are simply tools – not a panacea for every learning and teaching challenge known to man. As such, any learning platform decision needs to be placed firmly within a school-wide vision and strategy for using technologies to make learning better. This is not an optional step. Without it, the decision to ‘stick’ or ‘twist’ learning platforms will undoubtedly lead to ‘bust’ in terms of sustainable outcomes for better learning.

So if your school is undecided about learning platforms, why not invest some time now to evaluate where ICT fits in to your vision for teaching and learning? A school community with a common strategic vision for technologies, is a school well positioned to decide for itself what is required to make it a platform for great learning.