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Celebrate putting technology at the heart of learning!

Naace has a key role in the development and delivery of the ICT Mark working with our partner, the awarding body, Becta. The ICT Mark is an accreditation for schools who have reached nationally agreed levels within the Becta self-review framework.

The Naace Annual Strategic Conference and Exhibition opened in Torquay in early March 2008. This is the definitive ICT Conference in the UK for all those involved in advancing education through the use of modern technologies in learning and teaching.

A collection of resources has been prepared to support ICT Mark Assessors in the assessment of schools for the ICT Mark Award. Schools may also find some of these materials useful in preparing for assessment. These cover guidance for assessors, details of the assessment process, assessment and reporting pro-formas. All ICT Mark Assessors need to keep up to date with this area, as only the current documents held here are valid.

The streamlined approach is designed for schools with ‘good’ ICT. In such a school, there is likely to be less need to use the self-review framework as a development tool so the focus for them might be to have their self-review validated by an external assessor through a more streamlined approach. The assessment process is exactly the same for all schools; it is simply the preparation/approach that is streamlined.

There do however still remain strong arguments for completing the full self-review framework and not taking advantage of the streamlined offer. The self-review framework is a powerful tool with a lot of support and this is set to get stronger and stronger as it is updated over time. All schools will want to continue to develop their ICT long after their ICT Mark assessment visit and the tool provides an excellent vehicle for this.

If you are working through the Becta self-review framework then you share our belief that ICT is a tool for school improvement. If you have reached the ICT Mark standard in all aspects of the framework then you have achieved a standard of e-maturity that is worth celebrating!

Naace has introduced a 'hot-seat' where invited colleagues field questions over a four week period. Our guest in the 'hot-seat' will either answer online at specific times, or at pre-arranged regular intervals. We look forward to hearing from you!

Naace were commissioned by Becta to undertake research during February and March 2007 into the key characteristics and the development of e-maturity in the school workforce. This report describes the outcomes of this work.

This agreement details the requirements for the Intermediary Model of Support and Assessment for the ICT Mark. It enables an organisation to provide support and assessment as part of a buy-back or service-level agreement, reducing the cost to its schools.

Welcome to the Spring 2008 issue of Computer Education. In this issue we bring you a further perspective on the use of data, this time from Mike Bostock, while Helen Boulton and Pete Bradshaw explore the use of weblogs in supporting student teachers' use of reflective journals, a technique that readily transfers to younger learners. Jason Ohler offers further reflections on the philosophy of ICT in the classroom while Alex Savage provides a personal insight into BETT’08 and Jim Merret updates us on funding sources. A report on MOSEP is given by Ray Tolley while a series of articles from Christina Preston explores braided learning and social networking between professionals. Your Editor meanwhile considers 'interesting times' and how we are so close to transformational change but might never get there.

In 2006 Naace and QCA held a joint Think tank to try to get to grips with what we really mean by the term 'e-learning'. Like quite a few other e-words that have sprung up in the last year or so, we cannot assume that everyone will use the term in the same way. Does the 'e' just mean electronic, as in 'email', or something more profound?