What's in it for me?
Primary education - personalised learning and social networks.
Contributing authors : Miles Berry and Mike Partridge

Whilst the deployment of learning platforms in schools can do much to improve school effectiveness and extend learning opportunities, they also have the potential genuinely to transform the learning and teaching experiences. For this to happen, teachers will need an understanding not only of what the technology is, but how it can be used to support personalised and collaborative learning. More practically, engagement in this CPD will enable teachers and school leaders to plan, develop, implement and use an effective learning platform. The key principle underpinning the CPD is that teachers will learn about aspects of learning platform use through direct experience. Thus the CPD will:

Be presented through an exemplar learning platform;
Provide opportunities for meaningful, social and collaborative learning, particularly through the development of online resources;
Providing opportunities for participants to exercise both choice and voice; thus encouraging good practice in personalised learning; and
Place emphasis on participation in a community of practice.

To promote teachers' ongoing development as reflective practitioners, this experiential learning will be placed in the broader context of policy, research and practice. Similarly there would be opportunity to explore the issues of choosing, implementing and embedding a learning platform. The model here is not one of a sequenced learning journey, but rather of a learning landscape that teachers explore as members of an online community of practice, with benefits such as

Provision of opportunities for on-line real time discussion and a sharing of similar interests;
Opportunities to learn from others’ expertise, skills and competence;
A wide range of professional relationships can become established within the learning community; and
Opportunities for a good mixture of experienced and inexperienced people to share their experience.

Whilst membership of a national community of practice focused on learning platform use, as well as access to a single location pulling together key resources, will be a sufficient incentive for many to participate in such a community, we are eager to explore accreditation on the basis of participation in forum discussions and the contribution of example materials, with higher levels of accreditation, possibly in association with an HE institution being offered for those who contribute more detailed case studies, or write up more formal action research in this area.

A more detailed discussion of the aims and focus of the CPD is given in paragraphs 2-9 of our report "Effective Learning Platforms - Primary education, personalised learning and social networks".