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eLearning and Traveller Education Scotland (eLATES)
 Welcome to eLearning and Traveller Education Scotland (eLATES), an e-learning community for Scottish Travellers. eLATES provides distance learning with ‘anytime, anywhere’ access via the Internet. The pilot is managed centrally by the Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP), and coordinated, facilitated, supported and evaluated by Tess Watson. Tess’s post is funded by the Scottish Government and designed to improve access to Curriculum for Excellence for secondary-aged Gypsy/Travellers; those who are mobile and those being educated in out of school settings. As it develops eLATES hopes to support distance learning for travelling show and fairground young people.
In raising awareness Teachers TV published this small documentary clip on distance learning for Travellers in England. It provides an insight into the challenges faced by mobile learners and their teachers. Though geographical locations and the English school curriculum are different, Scottish Travellers’ cultures and values raise similar challenges to their accessing learning.
The Internet is providing exciting opportunities for finding and sharing information through Web 2.0 Internet tools. Scottish education is using search engines, podcasting, blogging, micro-blogging and social networks to encourage learners and learning. These tools have become very popular ways of sharing information beyond the classroom walls.
Scottish Gypsy/Traveller children and young people are using the Internet:
"I like pens and paper better for writing stories, but with the Internet you can look up sites, share your stories and read others” (11year old girl).
"I used Google to research the age of the girl in a book I am reading” (10 year old boy).
Gypsy/Traveller children and young people and their teachers are benefiting from such technologies by using them to communicate and store information.
"It makes work more interesting and develops IT skills” Gypsy/Traveller teacher.
"We wouldn’t have been able to research our projects without the computers here” Gypsy/Traveller teacher.
Glow supporting Travelling children and young people
Glow, Scotland’s online education community provides a virtual learning environment (VLE) for Scotland’s schools. Glow hosts the VLE at the heart of eLATES, and ensures that Gypsy/Traveller learners and their teachers have a secure safe online space where learning and teaching can take place ‘anywhere, anytime’ regardless of location. By enabling ‘anytime,anywhere’ access for learners and teachers, eLATES helps bridge learning gaps for a young person when travelling or accessing their learning at home or on the road.
All users of Glow need a Glow Account, and a username and password. Contact your education authority’s Glow Key Contact for more information. He or she will provide the username and password to enable learners’ and teachers’ access to Glow’s many exciting tools. These include a search facility, chat and discussion boards and will allow learners to complete schoolwork and keep in touch with their teachers and peers.
Travelling children and young people in Scotland use popular Internet sites.
"I use Twitter to talk to my friends and cousins and look up Justin Bieber” (10year old girl)
Twitter http://www.twitter.com
A number of Scottish Gypsy/Travellers are using Savvy Chavvy, a social network used by Travelling young people across the UK.
‘Travellers' Times’ is a free magazine that is popular with Scottish Gypsy/Travellers. It is now online and provides a wide range of information and discussion on topics relevant to Travelling families.
Although the Internet provides exciting new opportunities, it is very important to remember how to keep safe online. Recommended by eLATES, the ‘Travellers' Times’ has developed a very useful guide about how to stay safe online called "The Internet for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers” (PDF).
 Scottish Learning Festival 2010
Tess Watson and Pauline Padfield were very pleased to be invited to deliver a seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival 2010 - 'eLearning and Traveller Education Scotland (eLATES): Enabling Citizenship'. This seminar was designed to disseminate information about the eLATES project and its progress. eLATES demonstrates good practice in delivering access to Curriculum for Excellence for mobile Gypsy/Traveller young people. Colleagues from around Scotland attending this seminar were joined by others from as far afield as Northern Ireland. Meeting the needs of Travelling children and families and the technical aspects of the project were of specific interest. The PowerPoint presentation is available for download.
Information for families, teachers and education authorities
In 2008 a Scottish Government award enabled STEP to appoint Tess as an e-Learning Community Facilitator. Tess’s combined experience of classroom practice, project management and developing educational technology is enabling her new role as facilitator. She is supporting education authorities in their delivery and piloting of the e-learning community for secondary-aged Gypsy/Travellers, with plans to include travelling show and fairground children and young people. eLATES has benefited from Glasgow City Council’s Interrupted Learning Service’s considerable experience in providing ICT supported distance learning for mobile Showmen’s children and young people.
Research
The eLATES model also draws on existing research and practice, from England’s eLearning and Mobility Project (eLAMP) http://www.natt.org.uk/elamp/index.html as seen above in the small documentary by Teacher’s TV on distance learning.
The award, which runs for twenty-four months, reflects the Scottish Government’s commitment to equality and inclusion for the diverse groups of Travelling families living in Scotland. Supported by Learning and Teaching Scotland, and Glow, this pilot will open up a whole new world of highly motivating learning and teaching opportunities for Travelling children, and help reduce the negative impact of interruptions to learning due to mobility or not attending school.
Gypsy/Traveller children and young people learn a lot from their families, but in changing times, Gypsy/Traveller families recognise a need for a broader range of knowledge and skills albeit tailored to the their children’s and young people’s learning needs. Gypsy/Traveller families value good numeracy, literacy and ICT skills and are keen to gain formal accreditation of learning for their children and young people.
eLATES is designed to provide equality of opportunity by increasing equality of access for:
Gypsy/Traveller young people: boys aged 12-14 and girls aged 12-15; ‘mobile’ young people or those ‘educated outwith school’ by an Education Authority.
Supported by their families: wanting formal education for their children; willing to support their young people’s learning; and encouraged to agree to enrolling their young person’s name on a school roll.
Building on research that has shown that Travelling children prefer a blended learning approach; this approach includes paper-based resources, face-to-face contact and access to ICT supported resources, learning and teaching.
eLATES aims to:
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support Scotland’s Gypsy/Traveller young people’s entitlement to a school education
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increase their access to a relevant, appropriate and continuous Curriculum for Excellence
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raise achievement levels among Scotland’s Gypsy/Traveller young people
eLATES will:
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support Gypsy/Traveller families’ time on the project e.g. training in use of ICT
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enhance young people’s limited face-to-face contact with their teachers
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provide ICT supported distance learning
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support communications between learners and their teachers
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facilitate submission of learning to accreditation processes
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enable Travelling children and their peers to stay in social contact via email while travelling.
eLATES progress
Education Authorities participating in the pilot so far include:
Other Education Authorities have expressed interest in eLATES including Aberdeenshire, Angus, Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow, Moray, Midlothian and North Lanarkshire. Delegates from these Education Authorities attended an eLATES seminar in June 2010.
Hosted by STEP, the seminar provided relevant information and an opportunity to share and discuss the pilot’s developments – its benefits and challenges. Delegates from a wide range of backgrounds e.g. educators including an HMI and site managers, contributed to the views gathered during the seminar.
Analysis of delegates’ views and of the facilitator’s experiences since the start of the pilot, helped identify key areas for taking eLATES forward:
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Glow’s deployment throughout an Education Authority and the availability of a Glow key contact underpins Glow’s provision of the necessary technological conditions for development of eLATES at local authority level
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Glow’s procedures ensure that in its everyday use child protection remains paramount and that teacher accountability is safeguarded
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eLATES requires that a pilot team be appointed - with allocated time and resources - to deliver the training and support for participants in the pilot e.g. teachers and families
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Hardware and connectivity should be bought through the Education Authority’s procurement processes. An Education Authority will own the equipment and families will sign a responsible use agreement
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Funding- discussions around estimated costs for staffing; resources; hardware and connectivity showed that Education Authorities varied in how they funded their pilot. Leadership in this regard emerged as important in ensuring that non-registered young people’s entitlement was funded from a range of sources (e.g. More Choices, More Chances, Fairer Scotland and Additional Support for Learning).
These are the main points for consideration for education authorities currently participating in the pilot and for those interested in joining in the future.
A full report of the seminar and its findings, and an eLATES information leaflet, are downloadable from the STEP website. Or contact Tess Watson who’ll be happy to explain progress. You can also follow eLATES on Twitter http://twitter.com/elates.
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