XMA and Toshiba take Djanogly City Academy to the top of the class
At Djanogly City Academy, innovation is taught in every lesson.
Djanogly was one of the first schools in the country to achieve City Academy status in 2003. The new school's objective was to improve the educational standards for its pupils by using ICT to develop and enhance the teaching and learning experience.
To help it achieve this, Djanogly worked with XMA and Toshiba to pioneer the way technology is used in education. XMA were awarded the contract to design, supply, implement and support the ICT
infrastructure. As experts in wireless mobility solutions XMA successfully delivered the project, on time and to budget, over six months.
A fresh start
At the heart of the City Academy project is Djanogly's new £12 million school building, on the site of
the
former Forest Comprehensive. The new site gave the staff the
opportunity to rethink how technology is used by the pupils and
teachers on a daily basis, as Sanjesh Sharma, deputy principal at
Djanogly, explains; "Traditionally, ICT in schools has been taught in
isolation from other subjects, but that doesn't reflect how ICT is used
outside of school. At home and at work, computers are a normal part of
daily life. At Djanogly, we wanted to integrate technology into every
lesson, and make using a computer as everyday as pen and paper."To
achieve these aims, Djanogly decided to build technology into the
fabric of the new school building. The plan was to provide every pupil
and teacher with a laptop and each classroom with a wireless projector.
Every user would be connected to the school networkwirelessly, creating
a flexible, dynamic environment.
Djanogly
selected XMA, a specialist in public sector and educational ICT
implementations, to carry out the work. The attraction of XMA was the
strategic partnerships with guiding bodies in education such as Becta,
NAACE and the DfES and XMA's ability to demonstrate success in schools
with extensive contracts. As well as design, supply and implementation,
XMA will provide a pro active support function to resolve major technical issues, general manitenance and plan for future network enhancements.
From text book to ‘Tablet’
XMA and Toshiba have worked together on a number of educational projects in the past, and recognised that high performance products would be needed to meet the needs in what can be demanding environments.
Toshiba Tablet PCs were selected for their versatility. Pupils can read their lessons and enter their work directly onto the Tablet using all the usual Office applications. But by simply flipping the screen around, they can write directly onto any document, just as they would with pen and paper. Furthermore, the tablets can be used to record any oral work and replay it to the class, or whole school, through an audio system built into every classroom.
The benefits for the teaching experience itself are considerable. The teachers Tablet PCs are connected to the wireless projector in each room, enabling them to deliver lesson content to the class. Because all the content comes from the Tablet PC, a far greater mix of media can be used, including voice, video and the Internet. This helps make lessons a much more interactive experience for the pupils.
Djanogly also makes full use of the mobility provided by the wireless system.
Wireless access liberates teachers from their traditional place in front of the class. They can now sit anywhere in the room, for instance with a particular pupil, and still deliver information to the whole class from their Tablet PC via the projector.
One of the most successful results of the technology in use at Djanogly is its ability to break down barriers between subjects. As Sanjesh Sharma explains;
“Using the tablets, all our teaching staff can easily access information on lesson plans for other classes. This access provides lots of ideas for exploring a particular theme through a number of different subjects and with a mix of media, and give pupils a much broader and richer view of a particular topic.”
Innovation rewarded
The success of the Djanogly City Academy project has not gone unnoticed. In October 2005, Lord Andrew Adonis, the schools minister, presented Djanogly with the Futures Vision Award, which recognises schools for innovation
in information, communication and technology.
“We’re very proud to have been recognised for the work we’re doing here,”
concludes Sanjesh Sharma. “Working with our partners Toshiba and XMA has enabled us to create the most state-of-the-art teaching environment in the country. Everyday, we have visitors from all over the UK who come to learn about what we’ve established, and I hope many other schools will benefit from our experience.”