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Case Study

Cowes High School

With a vision to embed ICT across the curriculum, and use it as a tool for learning, rather than treating it as a subject to be taught in isolation, Cowes High School in the Isle of Wight has opted to stop offering GCSE IT.

The school aspires to achieve specialist status as a “Business and Enterprise College” and as such must develop innovative approaches to teaching and learning, be active partners in a learning society and provide young people with the skills needed to progress into employment, self employment, further training and higher education.

The issue of accredited recognition of the pupils’ ICT skills was researched.
With other qualifications judged to be either unsuitable or inappropriate, the school selected the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). Recognised in over 130 countries, the ECDL qualification is a benchmark standard of computer competence preferred by many employers including the NHS, the MoD, government, banks and other major organisations.

The next step in the process was to identify which of the accredited ECDL training programmes the school should buy into. They quickly disregarded all other generic ECDL courseware opting instead for a programme that used useful and relevant documents to cover the ECDL syllabus in an educational context that was wholly appropriate to their learners.
“We knew of the ECDL for Education courseware and didn’t look any further”

The ECDL for Education courseware comprises two programmes.

“ECDL for Educators” courseware is a Continuing Professional Development programme in context for teachers, complete with lesson plans and Pupil Projects.
A formative evaluation of the ECDL for Educators courseware by MirandaNet and supported by the British Computer Society is available by selecting the [Research] link at www.educatorsecdl.com
The dedicated “ECDL for Students” courseware covers the exact same ECDL syllabus but uses engaging contextual exemplars for students aged 14 to 19 years.

Russell Dale (ICT Co-ordinator) and Bruce Gray (ICT teacher) were asked about the ECDL for Students courseware after the programme was introduced into Cowes High School in September 2004

Click here to contact us for a copy of the video interview on CD, alternatively, a transcript of the interview is below and available here in PDF format

The value of the courseware
“How useful are the skills and knowledge acquired by the students through the ECDL for Students courseware?”

Russell Dale:
“There will not be a career that any of our students go into when they leave school that does not require them to use ICT in some form or other. Therefore, it is important that they leave us with a baseline of [ICT] skills.”
“Every subject within the school has a requirement to use ICT and we also want those subjects to use it as a teaching aid.”

Bruce Gray:
“[With] any ‘A’ level subject, regardless of its subject matter (English, Maths, Science etc), if you’ve got some skills on the computer then that’s fantastic. It’ll really help you out.
[For example] basic spreadsheet work you’ll use in most of the subject areas. Word processing is [also] essential. [There are] very few jobs that you can do without it these days.”

The delivery
“How is the ECDL for Students courseware delivered at Cowes High School?”

Bruce Gray:
“We found that we can break it down into quite small chunks; the delivery of the courseware is useful. The sequence of the units is basically up to us.”
“First we delivered the PowerPoint unit, the kids enjoy that. They’re confident with it and we can push their knowledge further. Then we went onto the Internet which they also enjoy. So we were able to start off with something that engages them quite quickly and then we’ll start getting into the more academic units like spreadsheets and database. “
“All those subjects will be useful as underpinning knowledge for later in their school life when they go onto higher level qualifications.”

What the students think
“What do the students think of the ECDL for Students courseware?”

Russell Dale:
“Students have been really motivated by it. They love the hands-on approach.”
“We use the courseware and the pupil resources as a resource rather than using it on its own.”

What the parents think
“What do the students’ parents think of the programme?”

Russell Dale:
“We’ve just had parents evening for the new intake for next year and they were asking what sort of courses we would offer in terms of ICT. We explained the programme of the ECDL course and parents were very positive in their approach to this type of course and saw the benefit of it.”

Comparison to GCSE IT
“How does the ECDL for Student courseware compare to the GCSE IT in terms of flexibility and delivery?”

Russell Dale:
“GCSE courses generally run over two years which does have some implications in terms of time available. Whereas, with ECDL we can actually programme it over a three year period and we can match it more to the ability of the students without worrying about the deadlines of GCSE courses.”

The workbook format
“How good is the workbook format compared to, say, courseware that is entirely computer based (CBT) and delivered from a CD?”

Russell Dale:
“I think that our students would find it difficult to use a CD for resource materials; having to switch between one screen and another all of the time. So the workbooks are useful.”

Bruce Gray:
“The students tend to respond more at the moment to reading out of a book. If they’re working on the screen, they don’t like to be ducking and diving between different screens looking at the help files and then going back to the application software.”
“They like to have it in a book so they can follow it and that works really well for us.”
“I find that really useful. I’d rather have something written down as my starting point and then adapt it to meet the needs of the students. Some students will be able to run with what’s written without a problem, others will need additional help or extended work. So if we have some sort of baseline to start with, fantastic.
Keep it coming!”

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