1. The city as the
learning environment
making change happen in Leicester's schools
Josie Fraser
ICT Strategy Lead (Children’s Capital)
Leicester City Council
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

2. Leicester!

3. BSF in Leicester
• Approximately £340 million capital build
programme
• 23 secondary schools - including Secondary
Behavioural Support Service, SEN schools,
Children’s Hospital School
• 20,000 Learner places – building works
completed by 2015

4. Some broader contexts
• Mainstreaming of internet connected device
ownership & social networking services
• e-Government agenda
• e-Safety & cyberbullying
• Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy
Efficiency Scheme
• ‘The Importance of Teaching’ Nov 2010

5. Where are we heading?
The question is not:
Do we need to think about
addressing digital literacy in
schools?

6. The question is:
How do we make sure that the
ways we address digital literacy
in schools doesn’t further
disadvantage already vulnerable
children & young people?

7. Children & young people’s priorities
– the school environment
We asked 400 young people from
across the City about their school
environment priorities.
These are their top 15 concerns.

8. Children & young people’s priorities – the school environment
1. More indoor social spaces
2. Better, extended library spaces
3. Comfy chairs
4. Attractive modern design, better
use of colour
5. Vegetable gardens

9. Children & young people’s priorities – the school environment
6. Sustainable buildings, design & practice
7. Nicer toilets
8. Bigger dining spaces with more food
choice
9. Flexible classroom spaces & furniture
10. More variety in teaching methods

10. Children & young people’s priorities – the school environment
11. More student input into everything
12. More flexible use of technology
13. Greater choice & variety of
subjects, more information about
subjects
14. Outdoor shelters & classrooms
15. Better careers information

11. Children & young people’s priorities
-school technology
We asked 400 young people from
across the City about their school
technology priorities.
These are their top 10 concerns.

12. Children & young people’s priorities – school technology
1. Faster computers
2. More creative, student-centred and student-
led use of technology
3. Less use of technology for it’s own sake
4. More flexible use/internet access –
school, city centre, community
5. Laptop borrowing/home use

13. Children & young people’s priorities – school technology
6. Collaboration with young people in other
schools & countries
7. Access to local & national decision makers via
social media
8. Young people only access/space in the city
centre
9. Teachers who can help them use social media
– better privacy & e-safety advice
10. A say in school filtering & blocking

14. Where are we heading?
• Increasing critical infrastructure, network &
connectivity
• Into the cloud – services and storage
• Learner Owned devices
• Use of technology to support energy reduction
• Increasingly school-centred decision making and
budgets
• Current flux regarding curriculum & indicators
• Lack of national commitment to technology for
education

15. Strategic priorities
• space & place
• workforce development & innovation
• networked learning & communities
• information management
• green ICT
• e-safety & e-citizenship

16. The city as the learning environment
Networked communities - If we want the
schools to be at the heart of their communities
we need to re-imagine what a learning space is.
Positioning the city as the learning environment
turns the role of the school inside out, opens up
the promise of digital to augment and reinforce
psychical learning environments
We need to start taking localism seriously

18. Thank you!
@josiefraser