This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Green light for world's first schools intranet
21/09/2005
A national schools intranet digitally linking Scotland's 800,000 teachers and pupils came a step closer today.
Education Minister Peter Peacock awarded ICT specialists RM a five-year £37.5 million contract to develop the intranet, the first project of its type anywhere in the world.
When the intranet goes live in early 2007 it will:
- Offer pupils and teachers access to a range of learning and teaching resources from their computers at school or home
- Allow teachers to maximise the use of internet technology such as video clips and high-quality graphics, making lessons more exciting for their pupils
- Enable every pupil and teacher to communicate and collaborate electronically with one another, sharing ideas and resources
Mr Peacock said:
"In schools across Scotland I have seen at first-hand how technology is transforming learning and teaching. I am determined to see that continue which means we must maintain our investment in technology as it advances and presents new and exciting opportunities.
"The schools intranet is the final piece in the Scottish Schools Digital Network. Behind the scenes, we have quietly been putting in place the necessary infrastructure - a large-scale broadband network linking all 32 local councils and a content delivery network providing access to 'rich' media such as video and audio clips - and now we are ready to take the next step which will revolutionise the way teachers teach and learners learn.
"Linking every school, every teacher and every pupil via a single intranet accessible from any computer means learning will no longer end at the school gate. Pupils will be able to do more meaningful work at home and parents will be able to take a much more active role in their children's learning.
"Geographical barriers will become a thing of the past, allowing teachers to work with pupils wherever they are. This offers great potential for subjects such as Gaelic where distance learning is often a necessity.
"This project is a hugely exciting development for Scottish education and one which sees Scotland leading the world."
Bernard McLeary, Chief Executive of Learning and Teaching Scotland, said:
"Learning and Teaching Scotland is very proud to be leading the implementation of the Scottish Schools Digital Network on behalf of the Scottish Executive.
"We will be working in partnership with RM over the next five years at least to ensure that the whole of the Scottish s school system benefits from the huge potential presented by a secure national education intranet. This is a ground-breaking development which has not yet been tried in any other country."
Tim Pearson Chief Executive of RM, said:
"All of us at RM are really excited by this project and very proud to be selected as the education technology partner for the Scottish national intranet.
"This is an ambitious and unparalleled project which through the vision of the Scottish Executive and the management of Learning and Teaching Scotland will profoundly improve the educational and, therefore, life chances of all learners in Scotland. To be part of that process is a great honour for RM."
The Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN) is a ground-breaking initiative that will serve the ICT needs of schools for many years to come. It has three major components: the interconnect, the content delivery infrastructure (CDI) and the intranet.
The interconnect has been in place since November 2003 and is operating successfully and reliably across the country. The interconnect is a large-scale broadband network that connects all 32 local authorities together, and includes links to Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority. The interconnect is linked directly to the JANET network, the massive UK-wide broadband network that serves higher and further education across the country.
CDI is currently being implemented. This is a national network of specialised servers that, once fully implemented, will make it much easier for teachers and pupils to gain access to rich learning resources such as video and audio clips and graphics. A consortium of Bull, NTL and Serendipity installed the equipment in the first half of the year, and the system comprises a national network of Cisco content 'engines' that sees Scotland leading the world in the use of this technology (the previous biggest, in the USA, was only half the size of the Scottish system).
The interconnect and CDI will be largely invisible to teachers and students across the country, but working in the background to carry out highly important tasks for the overall system.
The national intranet will be the final piece of the initiative. Following many months of detailed negotiation, the Executive decided to award the contract for the delivery and operation of the intranet to RM. The intranet will establish a highly secure online environment that will offer a range of applications and tools for teaching and learning in Scotland.
Within the intranet there will be a virtual teaching and learning environment which will allow teachers to set up lessons that use the power of internet technology to make the work more interesting, in a way that is difficult to achieve at the moment. In addition, there will be a range of communication and collaboration tools that allow teachers, pupils and others across Scottish education to share ideas and resources, to build online communities and to set up video and audio conferences between teachers and learners in different parts of the country (or across the world).