Award for hi-tech classroom resources

ICT advisers from Herefordshire Council's school improvement service have scooped an award for their groundbreaking work with new technology in primary classrooms.

Herefordshire was one of the first counties in England to install electronic interactive whiteboards in every primary school, now almost every classroom has one. The days of blackboards and chalk have been replaced with computerised whiteboards that can be used to display written text, access the internet, play sound, record data and share videos with the children.

Herefordshire's primary school ICT advisers Claire Crump and Mark Sanderson have worked closely with Promethean, the leading UK manufacturer of interactive whiteboards for more than eight years, helping install whiteboards in the county's primary schools and training teachers to use them.

Claire and Mark have also been working closely with schools to help them make the most of this powerful technology which has the capacity to revolutionise the classroom environment. For example the whiteboards can help a lesson about Egypt come to life: the teacher can use the whiteboard to show the children how their name would look in hieroglyphics, let them have a go at writing it themselves, then take a tour around Egypt today via the internet or capture their imagination by showing a film about the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb.

Currently, the national curriculum stipulates that teachers have to teach literacy in three or four week blocks within the themes of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. To help do this and maximise the potential of the whiteboard, Mark and Claire, with a small team of dedicated teachers around Herefordshire, have produced around 30 electronic flipcharts for teachers all over the country to use free of charge.

The flipcharts contain all that is needed for a teacher to deliver each three or four week unit of work to their children. Comprehensive notes are included in each flipchart explaining the learning and teaching activities and also providing guidance on how to use slightly more advanced features of the software using a mixture of written texts, pictures, sound files and video.

In recognition of the work they have done, Promethean issued them with an award at the prestigious BETT show in London. To help them with their training, Claire and Mark have been given a set of 32 voting devices which can be used by teachers to ask children multiple-choice questions. At the touch of a button the children's scores can be counted and interpreted into spreadsheets for the teacher. In addition, every primary school will receive a Promethean wand (worth around £40 each), which helps younger children to reach and control all parts of the whiteboard.

Councillor Jenny Hyde, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "I would like to thank Claire, Mark and their colleagues who have been part of a working party to push this project forward.

"They have helped teachers take on board new, innovative, interactive ways of teaching our children. The resources they have designed will help teachers across the country as well as Herefordshire, make the most of new technology, save on planning time and help our children understand the world we live in today."