a strategy for spending eLCs

Curriculum Online - All about eLCs

1. Start with your School Improvement Plan, Ofsted Action Plan, Department Development Plan or other strategy document.

2. Identify areas for development which could be supported with ICT - OFSTED recommends that primary schools embed ICT within normal subject teaching, rather than treating it as a separate subject.
3. Carry out an audit of your existing hardware and current plans for purchasing.

4. Consult the school ICT policy, especially for aims such as increasing whiteboard allocations or mobile computing (laptops, wireless connections etc).

5. Consult the ICT coordinator to discuss any recent plans which may not appear in writing yet.

6. Identify any further hardware or software requirements in the light of the above and ensure that these correlate: some software may require particular hardware and vice versa.

7. Look for titles which meet your exact curriculum requirements: it can be tempting to buy a title which seems to do a lot more, but remember that you get what you pay for.

8. Think about differentiation and assessment: these are crucial aspects of teaching and learning, and one which digital resources can be particularly effective in helping with. Schoolzone evaluations focus on this aspect of all resources.

9. Choose your resources carefully: ask colleagues, perhaps in other schools; read evaluations and follow the links to publishers sites for more detailed information; look to see what are the most popular titles at present; search for titles using www.curriculumonline.gov.uk and to check whether they are eLC eligible.

10. Make sure that you involve colleagues who will be expected to use the titles in the classroom: order demo versions and try using them together before you buy. If they are enthusiastic at this stage they will be more successful in practice.

11. Think carefully about what type of licence you will require: do you need it on a network or can you get away with a licence for your interactive whiteboard, for example. It is usually cheaper to allow for as many users as required in the first place, rather than topping up later.

12. Check for upgrades. There may be a more recent version available on the publisher's own site. Some titles come with free upgrades for a period of time.

13. Check the support offered by the publisher, particularly for new, expensive or sophisticated titles. Schoolzone evaluators also comment on ease of installation and support materials, including handbooks, worksheets and so on.

14. Look for the COL logo to identify titles which you can buy using your eLC allocation

15. Order the title in the normal way: through suppliers, publishers, catalogues etc - just remember to tell them that you wish to pay using your eLCs and if possible quote the titles COL code. Those can be found on our evaluation site.