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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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

'Moving ICT National Agendas Forward: Policy-makers and LAs working together'. The conference is organised by a partnerthip between The School House Partnership, Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Advisers, YHGfL and Naace. The target audience is LA ICT Strategic Leaders. The conference will be held at the Park Plaza Hotel Leeds, Boar Lane City Square, Leeds, LS1 5NS from 9.30 am Thursday to 1 pm Friday, 29 - 30 November 2007.

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.

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.

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.