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.

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.

Focus: ICT Co-ordinator

We have two articles for ICT Coordinators this week.

In the first, Alison Ball tells us about the websites that she finds most useful. The second piece is from regular contributor, Philip Griffin and narrates the next step in his school's progress towards the ICT Mark.

If you feel that you could make a contribution to Sharing Success please contact me at h.govier@btopenworld.com.

Philip continues his account of how his school made progress towards an ICT Mark.

Students who perform very well in some subjects can often, inexplicably it seems, do poorly in others. This is a common problem in almost every school in the UK. In fact, when compared to virtually every other developed nation, the UK performs very badly in terms of varying standards within schools. Tackling these differences has become a focus for many schools.

Regular contributor Philip Griffin narrates the next step in his school's progress towards the ICT Mark.

A fascinating question and one that teachers would probably answer with 'more knowledge than we have now!' That alone is reason to share this vast wealth of understanding in the world, and really begin to learn from each other. Knowledge and understanding are not learned in isolation for in collaboration we can achieve much more. Teachers cannot possibly know all the answers to the questions children ask but it is their responsibility to equip learners with the thirst, skills and opportunities to be able to find out - and not simply through a Google search either.

This article explores this approach with Key Stage 1 pupils in a Hampshire infant school.

Our first 'hot-seat' guest is Phia le Roux. She will be answering your questions from 9 January 2008. Phia has kindly agreed to share an hour per week 'live' at 4-5pm every Wednesday and will pick up and answer any other questions at 8.30am Mondays and Fridays. Please fire all your questions on what podacasting is about, why podcast, how to get started, what you need to get started, potential difficulties, problems encountered etc.

Jane Finch was awarded the Bill Tagg Bursary in 2001/2002.

The intention of this report is to outline the various influences on this process and to relate these to the effect on the development of ICT Capability of a targeted group of pupils.