Focus on Scotland
The Isle of Barra is in the Outer Hebrides and has the only beach runway in the world. It is famous for its history and has won several Best Community awards. It is however rural and remote and, while many schools struggle with recruitment and retention, Barra comes with extra issues.
People on the mainland see the islands as being on the periphery but, in an online environment, the periphery can be at the centre. In 2015, on the island of Barra, the school had just 150 learners aged 5 to 18. They had a group studying higher maths but no maths teacher. We looked around and found some 'teaching capacity'. The problem was that the teacher was 150 miles away, four islands to the north. Necessity being the mother of invention, we decided to give video conferencing a go, just as a stop gap measure, until a longer term solution could be found. But against all the odds, it worked. The learners responded to the challenge and did well in their final exams.
Although we eventually found a replacement teacher, we had seen the potential of online learning. The traditional curriculum was not serving the needs of young people and their communities. There was a brain drain towards the mainland. There was a clear and urgent need to repurpose what the schools and partner agencies provided to make the educational offer more relevant and equitable. We started to look more strategically and realised we could make up for some of the imbalances in teacher availability and at the same time widen the choice of subjects our learners could study.
e-Sgoil was born
The project started in August 2016 with two members of staff, a computer and a blank canvas. We recruit registered teachers and use technology to deliver real-time, interactive lessons in a wider range of subjects and provide IT back-up and training for schools
- Broadband links into every LA Authority connected to the fast, global internet backbone
- Superfast broadband links to the majority of schools via the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN)
- GLOW – a secure Intranet for Scottish Schools
- Microsoft Office 365 for all classrooms, staff and pupils 24/7 every day of the year
- Programs include: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, calendar, email, OneNote, and Teams
- 1Gb of email web storage per user.
- 1Tb of OneDrive cloud file storage per user
- Video conferencing bridge as part of the Joint Academic Network (JANet) infrastructure