Schome Initiative strategy Oct-08

See the Schome Initiative strategy page for notes on our current thinking about our strategy (informed by the meeting below).

There is a meeting of folk interested in the Schome Initiative on Wednesday 22nd October at the Open University (Stuart Hall Building, Level 2 Room 3 - in Milton Keynes). If you would like to attend then please let me know [1].

The aim of this meeting is to discuss ways forward for the Schome Initiative as a whole - which will feed into the development of the Schome Initiative's strategy.

This page provides some info that should inform the meeting.

• Defining strategy - some notes on what strategy is and how to develop one (provided by Shri Footring)
• Schome - a reminder about what the Schome Initiative is all about!
• Schome projects - a summary of key activities/projects/programmes so far
• Current activities
  • Ongoing work linked with the Schome Park Programme (writing up with support from students)
  • Developing the use of SchomeBase (our island in Second Life virtual world)
  • Developing an 'open course' on web 2.0 and learning called Living and learning safely with the net
  • A bid for funding from the Digital Media and Learning competition for another Phase of the Schome Park Programme (from Sept 09 for 12 months) - focussed on:
    • Out of school clubs/groups (which might be after-school clubs)
    • Developing magnets and levels frameworks to support learners in engaging with the environment (knowing what to do and recognising 'progression')
    • Exploring in-school engagement (in contexts where students have a choice about participation and focus of activity) - including extending work from Phase 3 with spARTans.

Some thoughts about future directions

Some concerns re our focus

We have tended to be seen as being focussed on:

• school age learners
• virtual education systems

This is due to:

• our original tag line (not school - not home - schome) - which we have now dropped
• most of our recent work being in Schome Park (ie virtual worlds with 13 to 17 year olds)

We need to be seen as being interested in lifelong learning (cradle to grave) and in physical as well as virtual worlds.

Some ideas we have already been exploring

• Supporting Chronically ill children in Schome Park
• Developing the virtual Schome Environment (VSE) - links with the bid for funding from the Digital Media and Learning competition
• Collaborating with Skoolaborate - a consortium of schools led by Westley Field which is working in Teen Second Life virtual world (this link may be drying up if recent communications are anything to go by)Yes you have picked up on some concerns. Firstly it would need to involve the Lindens if we were to have the bridge concept also I need to clarify if your kids are actually school students, it is becoming a concern to many of the new partners (school based) that the students involved in the program need to be connected to a responsible adult in case behavioral issues arise. Having talked with Peter at length I am not sure that this would suit your aims. Happy to hear more. If they are school based groups then we can work together as our project is about Schools collaborating.

All of these include (to varying degrees) working with both in-school and out-of-school groups ...

Some other ideas

• Extending outreach activities in collaboration with other parts of the OU (eg Physics, Planetary Science) and/or external organisations
• Making explicit links between our work on ASPIRE SouthWest and the Schome Park Programme (issues re age of some participants)