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PR03568 11 January 2006
Microsoft Announce New Funding for Electronic Training and E-librarian Service for Teacher Trainers
Reading - UK - 11 January - New funding for two national projects designed to improve the ICT skills of initial teacher trainers (ITT) is announced today as the result of a partnership between Microsoft and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).
Microsoft is providing 1 million towards a number of joint education projects with the TDA including:
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The e-librarian project provides a personal interactive service to teacher trainers via the internet, helping them find and access online resources. The service, piloted last year, was developed by a consortium involving the British Education Index (www.bei.ac.uk) and the Institute of Education library. It is hosted by the Teacher Training Resource Bank (www.ttrb.ac.uk) which brings together for the first time a wealth of information and resources for teacher trainers. The e-librarian service is open to teacher trainers who have registered online, with the aim of extending its use to trainee teachers.
Eight-day electronics training courses and follow-up programmes for Design and Technology ITT tutors and teachers will also be funded. The courses aim to develop a group of experts who will have high level skills, knowledge and understanding of electronics and communications Technology and how it can be applied in schools.
Following this, a number of four day courses will take place across schools which offer trainee teachers placements, on 'starting out in electronics', and 'taking electronics further', for those who have some experience but wish to extend their knowledge and understanding in this area.
Participants will be accredited by DATA with a certificate of competence in ECT endorsed by the DfES, DTI, IEE and TEP. For further information on the courses please go to: www.electronicsinschools.org
The projects, which are a result of a partnership announced in June between Microsoft and the TDA, aim to:
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ICT Training Materials for the wider school workforce
In addition, Microsoft will be supporting the work of the TDA by releasing a range of training materials over the next few months designed to help train the wider school workforce. These resources include:
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Jacquie Nunn, Director of Initial Teacher Training Development at the TDA said: "Equipping teacher trainers with ICT expertise and access to high quality resources will help ensure that the teachers of the future are able to make best use of the exciting new technology available in schools to support children's learning.
"We look forward to working with Microsoft to provide new professional development opportunities for teacher trainers and extending access to the national e-librarian project."
David Burrows, Director of Education, Microsoft said: "These are important projects that will help teachers to feel more confident about using technology in teaching, and in their own development as professionals, as well as embed the effective use of technology in the education system.
"By working with the TDA and using their understanding of teacher's needs we believe we are able to develop resources that are really workable in practice."
The partnership between Microsoft and the TDA forms part of Microsofts Partners in Learning programme designed to improve access to, and better use of ICT in education. The programme already provides a wealth of resources and tools for teachers and schools via other elements of the Partners in Learning programme; the Microsoft IT Academy and Innovative Teachers Programme. Further information can be found at www.microsoft.com/uk/education/PartnersinLearning. The initiative forms part of a global programme which provides a total investment of more than USD250 million worldwide over five years to deliver ICT skills training to students and teachers and to assist in ICT integration into the curriculum.
Extending electronics in teacher training
Over the last few years the DfES and DTI have worked extensively with other partners on the Electronics in Schools Strategy (EISS) to train teachers in ECT. The project between the TDA and Microsoft working with the Design and Technology Association (DATA), aims to extend EISS between ITT tutors and to use this extension as a means to encourage more schools to introduce electronics into the D&T curriculum.
About the TDA
The Training and Development Agency for Schools was established under the Education Act 2005 and was formerly known as the Teacher Training Agency. Its purpose is to raise childrens standards of achievement and promote their well-being by improving the training and development of the whole school workforce.For more information about how to become a teacher, see www.teach.gov.uk. Personal advice is available from the Teaching Information Line on 0845 6000 991 992 for Welsh speakers (minicom 01245 45 43 43). For further information on the TDA visit www.tda.gov.uk
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