SMALL AND STURDY SAVES THE DAY

Bournville Infant School, a voluntary-aided 269-pupil school in a leafy Birmingham suburb, is in what could be considered the enviable position of being a Grade II listed building in an area of historic Victorian interest.

AlphaSmarts have become very much part of the daily norm at Bournville, with work regularly printed-off and stuck into pupils' books. Year 2 pupils used them to write thank-you letters after visiting a war memorial in connection with history work. These have been reproduced in one of the school's regular newsletters to parents, who feed back positively about the school's use of ICT.

Summing up Bournville's experience Pam said, "We have found the AlphaSmarts good value for money and easy to manage, and they count towards the DFES ICT per pupil ratio. Without them, our ICT would be unsatisfactory. They simplify ICT and make it efficient – something we have shared with local schools who have come to have a look. On a tight school budget, their longevity is also something we appreciate."

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THE ALPHASMART THAT PROVED A 'MAGIC WAND'

Attempts to teach the 10-year-old boy, who though in many ways able is thought to be suffering from a form of autism and has complex learning problems, are interrupted by severe misbehaviour including shouting, throwing, and leaving his desk to upset other children in the class.

But then the school's ICT co-ordinator, Elaine Brent, suggested a solution – taking advantage of the child's love of computers by encouraging him to use the school's AlphaSmart Neo word processor.

"It worked like a dream", says Rachel. "Suddenly, for that one hour at least, peace descended. From hating writing, from doing his utmost to avoid work, he was applying himself to comprehension tests and grammatical tests and other quite involving literary work. The AlphaSmart Neo proved the perfect motivator, keeping him to task and creating incentive where very little existed before. It was like waving a magic wand."

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SUMMARY OF SCHOOLZONE EVALUATION OF ALPHASMART CLASSROOM RESPONSE SYSTEM (CRS)

All evaluators of the CRS voting system were enthusiastic about the system, as were the students in the classes that were included in the trial. No significant difficulties were encountered with installation or use. The teachers commented that the display screen on the handheld unit makes it unique in the marketplace.

The teachers commented on the fact that quizzes or tests designed to be used with the CRS could be differentiated to suit all abilities, and that all were encouraged to participate in lessons by the degree of confidentiality afforded by the system. This affected both extremes of the ability scale: the very able as well as the less able. The CRS enabled teachers rapidly to assess learning in the classroom and hence adapt planning, even in the course of a lesson. They were better able to target resources to those students who needed them as a result. The possibility of enlarging text was invaluable to enable a child with significant sight impairment to use the CRS.

"In terms of integrating the product into schemes of work there is hardly any work to be done. The product can be used (in my opinion!) at anytime in a lesson with any class - and believe me I've deliberately trialled the product with some of my school's most challenging pupils."

"To say that pupils were enthused by the product is an understatement! There was a real buzz of excitement using this product, and I personally have not had the situation of pupils asking for more homework because they enjoyed doing it so much."

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Full details found at www.schoolzone.co.uk.

AN AMERICAN LAPTOP IN SURREY

When a teenager is used to doing their schoolwork on a laptop, and then moves to a school that only provides computers in the ICT suite, how do you stop their work from suffering? And how can you help them complete long essays quickly and accurately, without the frustrations of a return to hand-written homework?

When Colin moved schools the new one was concerned about pupils becoming distracted on their laptops - for example, by using the internet, or by playing with different fonts and WordArt. There were laptops in the computer labs but none for pupils to use in their other lessons or at home.

Colin's school, TASIS, the 1,000 pupil American School in Surrey, used AlphaSmart 3000s with its pupils in the year groups below Colin, but Colin blazed a trail by being the first Neo user.

Colin finds it much easier to type on a Neo than a laptop, "I can take notes quickly and easily and then take them around with me as I go to lessons. The Neo is a straightforward word processor which means there are no distractions on it, such as the internet or games. So I have no excuses for not getting on with my work!"

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IT'S THE BEST BIT OF KIT I'VE EVER HAD!

When we hear someone enthuse strongly about a particular product, a typical first reaction is to think they must be exaggerating. However, the team at Naace - the professional organisation for advancing education through ICT - see new ICT products all the time, so when their general secretary describes something as "the best bit of kit I ever had", it's worth finding out what she's talking about.

"It's a wonderful piece of equipment - simple, effective and practical. I use it at all my meetings to take notes instead of writing them by hand. Now I don't need to transcribe anything, I just download it to my laptop when I get home for formatting and sending on to colleagues. My notes are now much more accurate and detailed.

The Neo may have been designed for the education sector, but it's just as useful in business. It's the best bit of kit I've ever had."

Mary Barker, general secretary of Naace

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FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE FARM

"We believe ICT should be out there in the field and wood, not just bound to the inside. Using ICT to create text is often seen as just typing at a desktop PC or laptop, but it can be created for different purposes both around the classroom and outside. The ICT shouldn't restrict what the children can do.

The Neos are light and durable, so they're ideal for farm explorations, and they don't mind the bumpy coach journey.

ICT has to be seen and used as an embedded part of our learning to justify the money spent on it. A device like the Neo, demonstrating as it does robust design and ease of use, makes this process so much simpler to carry out."

Kevin Cotter, Senior Teacher at St Davids Church of England Primary School in Devon

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ALPHASMART NEO, SMALL BUT BEAUTIFUL

Identifying the teacher who could best fully exploit it he [Geoff Carr, deputy head] handed it to Lorette Staff, Special Educational Needs Manager, who gives added attention to pupils ranging from those with special needs to the gifted and talented.

Lorette had reservations. There were few spare minutes in her day, it was technology she wasn’t used to, and she suspected she might end up giving it back.

In a review a month after she’d introduced the Neo she was, Geoff says, "bursting with enthusiasm" at the impact it had made.

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NEOS AT LARGE AMONG TUDORS AND VICTORIANS

St Paul's C of E Primary School in Tipton urgently needed to address its lack of ICT resources in order to teach pupils keyboard skills and help them develop their writing abilities. However, budgets were limited and staff were concerned about potential vandalism.

Both problems were solved by the purchase of a classroom set of AlphaSmart Neos, a low cost digital notebook which helps students develop their writing and keyboard skills without the distraction of the internet or graphics packages.

St Paul's is also seeing noticeable improvements in writing skills in year 5 and enjoying the fact that pupils are more exposed to keyboard work than ever before. Previously there were so few resources that the pupils had a rota for using ICT.

"During the 18 months of having the Neos we have noticed how much the children like being able to correct their work, save it, come back to it and redraft it. We're also seeing improvements in pupils' ability to work in pairs and teams, gathered round a Neo working on projects together and generating creative ideas."

Patricia Hall, Head Teacher

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THE BOYS LOVED DOING THE WRITING

Boys’ attitudes to reading and writing have been the focus of much Government and media attention recently. It is known that the difference between the sexes starts at an early age: for example, in England girls score consistently higher than boys in English all the way from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 4. The difference is much less marked in maths and science.

The first challenge for teachers trying to address this is to hold the attention of everyone in their class and get them interested in the lesson.

However, could using ICT in English lessons change attitudes, particularly those of boys, and help teachers unleash pupils' creativity?

Caroline Coster, an English teacher at a middle school in rural Bedfordshire, certainly thinks so. In her experience, bringing ICT into English lessons improves both attitudes and performance.

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ENCOURAGING RELUCTANT WRITERS

Putting pen to paper seems to switch off a vast percentage of my writers, but as soon as I flashed a Neo in the classroom their eyes lit up. Since them, every lesson is a virtual battleground over whose turn it is to use these amazingly simple and accessible keyboards.

I have the notorious Set 3 for English, with whom I somehow have to achieve those elusive level 4s for English, but now that I have my Neos the writing, particularly with the boys, has improved dramatically.

Rowena Doble is Head of Geography and General Subject Teacher at Leiston Middle School, Suffolk.

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TAKING ICT INTO THE FIELD

Taking students on a field trip or away from the classroom environment usually means leaving ICT behind. Laptops are expensive, delicate and have a short battery life, and PDAs are beyond the budgets of most schools. So students have to take rough notes by hand and transcribe them when they return to their classroom.

Now Shaun Joynson, ICT teacher and Scout leader in north London, has found a way to eliminate this laborious process and enable students to focus on gathering and sharing information. His solution is very affordable – less than one-third the cost of a basic laptop.

Shaun's solution is the AlphaSmart Neo - a low cost computer companion that is ideal for capturing data and writing. This has provided a completely different way of working.

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SUDDENLY HIS RESULTS WERE TWO GRADES HIGHER

What do you do when your child is clearly intelligent but struggling to write legibly? Will it improve with time, or is there an underlying problem?

Dyspraxia, or developmental co-ordination disorder, is diagnosed in children who have significant motor difficulties with no evidence of neurological, biochemical or physical abnormalities. It affects about 5 per cent of children, and tends to cooccur with Asperger syndrome, one of the autistic spectrum disorders. Children with Aspergers frequently suffer from clumsiness and motor coordination problems.

To try to help Chris with his schoolwork, the school gave him an AlphaSmart computer companion to use in lessons. This enabled him to type his written work in all his subjects. He printed the work out by connecting the AlphaSmart to a school printer using a USB cable, and handed it in for marking.

The results surpassed even his teachers' expectations. Suddenly a child labelled as 'Grade C' was getting A and B grades in every subject.

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MEETING SPECIAL NEEDS IN MAINSTREAM EDUCATION

Teaching special needs pupils in mainstream education and helping them keep up with the rest of their class is an ongoing challenge in schools across the UK.

At William Brookes School, a comprehensive of 937 students in Much Wenlock, near Telford, special educational needs co-ordinator Lesley Ravenscroft is always on the look-out for new teaching methods and tools to help her develop and motivate her students.

Lesley had a £1,000 grant from the Princes Trust, which she used to buy seven Neos from reseller Portable Technologies. The first children to use them were those who had been assessed by the LEA special needs team and recommended to use ICT in lessons - children with dyspraxia, dyslexia, Aspergers syndrome and moderate learning disabilities.

This has now been extended to children with other special needs, including ADHD and visual impairment.

When you ask Lesley about the results she's achieved since introducing the new equipment to her students, she doesn't hesitate. "They are the best piece of technology we've bought for years!" she says.

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GIVING ALL CHILDREN EQUAL ACCESS TO ICT
John Galloway

"Digital divide", "one to one access", "ubiquitous computing" are all heard often enough. Easy to say but seemingly difficult to do anything about. It is all about putting suitable technology into every child's hands.

One school where they have begun to find an answer is Hope Church of England Primary School, situated above a beautiful valley in rural Shropshire.

"There is a huge divide between those that have and those that haven’t," explains head teacher John Rowe. "Our agenda here is that if we are using ICT as a tool for learning then all children have to have equal opportunities to learn."

The solution he found was to buy a trolley loaded with 30 thin, tough, light Dana portables from AlphaSmart. These have a small screen and keyboard but offer “a flexibility we wouldn’t get with laptops.”

When you ask Lesley about the results she's achieved since introducing the new equipment to her students, she doesn't hesitate. "They are the best piece of technology we've bought for years!" she says.

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