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Written Parliamentary Question: 9th June 2006

Personalised Learning
Q:To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what pilot studies involving personal digital assistants and other mobile technology are being conducted to help enhance personalised learning in the education system; and if he will make a statement.(John Hemming)

A:The Department is currently supporting an innovative project in Wolverhampton called Learning2Go, involving provision of hand held devices to 1,100 students and their teachers across a range of institutions. This exercise is seeking to understand the impact:

(a) on learner achievement when individual and personal access to a device enables learning to continue beyond the school day;

(b) on individual and family learning when enabling access to school related digital content beyond school hours;

(c) on teacher planning and preparation time in line with the aspiration for saving teacher time.

The Department provided funding to Wolverhampton local authority to enable them to fund the conversion of existing educational software for use on the devices. Becta (British Educational Communications Technology Agency) will be conducting a full and detailed evaluation of the project and we will share what we learn to inform future investment/approaches. (Phil Hope, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Education and Skills)

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