Ready made Intranets for schools

By Roger Frost for The Guardian January 2001 

Schools looking for safe, reliable places to be online are finding hope in new breeds of ‘intranet’ services expressly aimed at education. Rather surf the Internet’s choppy seas; the services offer schools directions to not just best places, but interesting, innovative places too.

In Croydon, for example, schools have taken the LEA’s lead in signing up to www.schoolmaster.net, a UK based web site that is a haven for staff, parents and children alike. Here in calmer waters, they can use email, surf the good and create web magazines. Come the end of the day at St Andrew’s High, children stay back to use it. They’ve found themselves in a ‘community’ where they can work on projects and meet with pals abroad. And it’s responsible practice that pupils are left to interact in the chat rooms and discussion groups – their dialogue is monitored centrally and who does what is tightly controlled. A school typically signs up through their ICT coordinator who then meters access to the system. It’s that tight.

The move to Schoolmaster.net is also expedient: their staff and pupil lists can be used to create e-mail addresses for all at a stroke. From here the community magic can start to work – helped by e-mail, course work and discussion all happening in the same space. For example, it’s all the more easy to respond to today’s request for staff to get your reports in, or for a project partner from a schools in Iceland. 

If offsite email brings time and money gains to system management and relentless software upgrades, broader gains hover around the idea of information sharing. For example, the software lets a school publish a calendar showing the term’s meetings, while they’ll have separate calendars for booking the school hall, minibus and PC projector. And putting up class web pages? Well you just make them.

The Schoolmaster.net software feels unique: their online tools won a BETT 2000 award and may well be best of breed. A new pay-to-use feature, making its first appearance this year allows you to manage projects online. It merits seeing at BETT - there’s no casual way in to the area for strangers. 

With 300,000 members and 3800 schools worldwide, BiblioTech’s Schoolmaster grows 500 members each day on the basis of good measures of safe, fun and free. Like other examples that follow, here’s not just a sheltered port to make sense of a stormy online world but also a framework that schools can adapt.

Digitalbrain - www.digitalbrain.com

Another sophisticated gateway to the Internet, Digitalbrain is already in use in 15 LEAs. On one level it is a very practical way to store files, Internet links and lesson materials so that you have everything in one place. As it takes a minute or so to sign in, you can quickly see this in practice.

At another level, children’s and colleagues’ work can build into an intranet, which in a sense is a ‘digital brain’. Already a heap of ready-made online learning material, reaching up to college level, is here ready for that. At the wider level come even bigger benefits, Nottingham City LEA for example will use it in their Anytime, Anywhere Learning project. They aim to provide every child with a laptop and use Digitalbrain for sharing the material that such wholesale use of ICT is set to generate. 

Schoolzone - Schoolzone.co.uk

If you’re ever unsure what there is to find on the Internet, www.schoolzone.co.uk is a place to look. With entry points for teachers, parents and governors, Schoolzone is a gateway to revision sites, learning materials, exam boards, fundraising ideas, self-help and many in-and-around school needs. It’s a great mine of links - the one-stop-shop idea but without the logins and passwords. There’s even a place to post your CV and be head hunted.

Primary Zone - www.primary-zone.com

New for 2001, is a rare find of primary material for ages 4 to 11, Primary Zone will fit the bill for homework, lunchtime clubs and lesson support. Software developer Granada Learning’s penchant for clean graphics and on-target activity is here put to use to support literacy, numeracy and science. To keep pupils on task you can pre-select the work each pupil can access. A 30-day free trial is available as this service for schools and parents launches this week. (Cost of £75 approx p.a. for schools; £10 for home)

Learnall - www.Learnall.net

Learnall’s enhanced online service offers access to a lot of commercial content for all school ages. You can search it in fine detail to find teaching materials and homework ideas from better-known names in ICT software like AVP, Storm Software and the award-winning Expresso Productions. And there’s no need to carry it around on CDROMs & floppies, they’re so nineties anyway, because you store the elements you need in your own area. Learnall‘s wide range of material has been brought together and made easy to access by DIALnet, who have a pedigree in building LEA-wide networks for electronic information exchange. A one month free trial can be joined at the BETT show. 

Einsteinonline - Einsteinonline.co.uk

The first ‘online primary school’ arrives with tables, spellings, mental maths and more for ages 4 to 11. Like the ‘private tutor’ you might suggest to a concerned parent, Einsteinonline offers a day-by-day learning programme where you can pop behind the work to check a child’s progress. A one-week free trial shows a spread of graded, interactive, and unusually attractive exercises. (Cost of £5.99/month to parents)