Innovating with iPods - An Introduction

About time too! It's taken me ages to get round to blogging properly about this, but with the summer holidays finally underway, I have now set aside some time to update my blog with detailed accounts of the exciting iPod Touch project my school has been running over the Summer Term.

For those of you who have been enquiring about our progress, I would like to thank you for your patience. I will endeavour to keep this blog up to date from now on.

Please feel free to leave comments with your thoughts, ideas and questions. I will read and respond to everything that I can. If you prefer, you can contact me via my Twitter page.

Background Info

I am the ICT Development Manager at Bowling Park Primary School, a split-site three-form entry primary school in Bradford. I have been at the school since September 2008. The main focus of my job is to manage the process of embedding ICT across the creative curriculum in school: planning, teaching, providing relevant staff training, etc. It's a diverse, interesting and challenging role.

Over the last two years, with the support of the school governors and SLT, Education Bradford's Curriculum ICT team and technical support provider Datacable, we have installed a wireless network across both sites, updated servers, implemented effective E-safety and Acceptable Use policies and invested heavily into new hardware (64 new laptops and 120 new netbooks) and software (such as the 2Simple Collection).

The Offer of a Lifetime

In January 2010, James Langley, Education Bradford Teaching and Learning Consultant (ICT), and I were approached to run an exciting and innovative project at school, using new technologies to engage learners and raise attainment.

Our school was selected for two main reasons:

1. After 18 months of hard work we had the infrastructure to cope with the demands that an influx of new technology would place on our servers (not to mention staff and pupils!)
2. We ticked the boxes. School had been achieving results below floor targets for a number of years and would, therefore, benefit from some additional, targeted support.

It will come as no surprise that, after a conversation with the Principal, we decided to accept the offer of this support. We were excited about the possibilities that were potentially being opened up to us and quickly arranged a meeting to discuss our ideas.

And so the journey began.