Case study by Gerard Pyburn, Dene Magna School, England

Dene Magna School is an 11-16 school situated in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. It has a strong history of student voice including a renowned student coaching programme in which students observe teachers and coach them to help them strengthen learning and teaching. It also has a strong history of exploiting the use of new technologies to enhance learning.

At Dene Magna School we wanted to forge links between student voice and new technologies. However the impetus for introducing new technologies was coming from staff when clearly it is the students who should be consulted about their learning tools.

As a result, in 2006 the Virtual Learning Forum (VLF) was established. This was a group of ten highly ICT literate students who experimented with new technologies and explored their potential for learning in the classroom and beyond.

Students as researchers
The VLF met on a regular basis to experiment with a range of new technologies including VLEs, webcams, mobile phones, 3D educational gaming software and MP3 players. They worked together to try out these technologies through hypothetical learning scenarios. For instance, they used webcams to create presentations for teaching French through spoken word and flashcards.

After each VLF meeting, they presented their findings to department meetings and engaged in dialogue with teachers about the learning potential of the technologies. As a result, some departments invested in these technologies to enhance learning:

• webcams and MP3 players helping students to learn foreign languages
• gaming software to raise motivation in lessons

The VLF has undoubtedly raised the profile of new technologies within the school. It has also encouraged dialogue about the potential of this technology to enhance the learning process. The profile of technology has been further enhanced by the use of our VLE to store examples of experiments and to record findings in discussion forums which can be seen by all staff.

Commercial opportunities for research
There have been issues over cost and access to the use of certain technologies such as mobile phones. These issues remain unresolved. However, the greatest difficulty has been engaging business with the work of the VLF. The VLF aims to forge links between companies creating software for education and the users  – the students. There is an ideal opportunity for companies to work more closely with students to help meet their needs through developing technology.

As new technologies are part of the everyday world of young people today, it is imperative that as educators, we harness our students’ technological expertise and exploit their potential to motivate and inspire.

More case studies about student leadership will be available in the September edition of Snapshots: the SSAT’s journal of innovation (published week commencing 15 September 2008).