2nd ISANet newsletter to ISA Heads and Schools

1. ISA eLearning Community t Newsletter 2 January 2009

2. ISA eLearning Community t Newsletter 2 January 2009
Dear Heads of ISA Schools,
Welcome back to the new term, and I hope this second newsletter about the ISANet helps remind you of
the exciting new initiative taking place within the association. ISA Executive Council have endorsed this
effort to build as rapidly as we can a community of ISA Heads and teachers to provide support for ICT use
with pupils in our schools.
How do we join the ISA Learning Community known as the ?
FOUNDER MEMBERSHIP – closing date: 1 February 2009. Applications to Taecanet made before this
date will cover the extended period January 2009 to September 2010, providing 5 terms of service
instead of just 3. Application forms are to be found overleaf, and further support/help can be found by
ringing Chris Davison on 0871 288 4580.
How will help the ISA?
It is assisting ISA school teachers to regain the ‘thought leadership’ in how traditional approaches to
personalised learning can be best blended with new Internet enabled technologies. For example, Ian Nairn
from T-Learning has now built the ISANet social networking site for Heads and Teachers within ISA – in
short Facebook for ISA. Any Head or Teacher within ISA can join the ISANetwork and in case the email
invitation hasn’t got through, please email James Wilding on jtw@clairescourt.com to get invited.
As the platform is already built with over 5,000 learning resources, we only need to point our pupils at
www.taecanet.com, and they are one log-in away from learning on-line! Teachers involved will be invited
to join the ISA eLearning forum and work together identifying how best to develop materials for the
future. By co-operating with T-Learning, we will be able to shape the next phase of development of
Taecanet Springboard to better meet the needs of Independent schools. For example, the majority of the
Science KS4 course was rendered for use via Springboard by teachers working in an ISA school!
What is the ?
A collaboration between ISA and T-Learning, the developers of ‘Taecanet Springboard’, which is a “not
for profit” web based e-learning schools service. Taecanet Springboard provides a fun, curriculum based
e-learning service which uniquely harnesses the richness of the Internet & user generated content in a
uniquely safe and controlled way. The ISANet is expected to gather a range of resources and utilities over
the next few months; in addition to Taecanet content and the ISANetwork
The next Steps… announcing the WEB 2.0 Bootcamp conference, to be held at the
Marriot Hotel, Huntingdon on Friday 27 February 2009.
The purpose of this new ISA event is to provide simple and cost-effective advice and training to heads,
teachers and ICT co-ordinators within ISA schools. Full details of the event will be available within the
next two weeks, but the core themes are:
1. ISA ICT collaboration – the way forward, not just with educational content, but with advice for
Heads and Teachers, on collective purchasing, sharing resources and teaching materials.
2. Many of the best resources from the WEB 2.0 developers are free, but which ones can/should we
use in schools. As well as lecture information, a hands-on afternoon to try some, from google
tools, wordle, text2mindmap, flickr, scratch and even perhaps storytellingalice.
3. Teaching using On-line learning, from whole courses such as the ECDL to supplementing existing
subjects, from using IQ assessments to whole school markbooks.
JamesWilding
Claires Court Schools
Working solely for and on behalf of ISA schools