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Student Voice Latest News
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Student Voice Launches in Romania |
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Student Voice, the revolutionary project which invites students to discuss and influence education policy, has gone global following the launch by Intuitive Media and the British Council in Bucharest at the start of June. Student Voice Romania follows on from the achievements of the UK pilot project, working with 11 and 15 year old students, and encourages students aged 16-19 from schools in Romania to discuss issues that affect education via online forums.
As with the UK project, the government ask students for advice on what they really want from the education service, starting with a question posed by the Ministry of Education and Research.
"What do you want your school to look like in the future?" Students then discuss ideas amongst their peers, form opinions and make a valuable contribution to their government using Intuitive Media's specially created online community, exclusive to Student Voice participants.
The launch began with a meeting between the British Council, Intuitive Media and the Secretary of State for Pre-University Education where the initial focus question was unveiled. Students and teachers from the five schools in Bucharest, Timisoara, Cluj and Lasi then took part in a two-day consultation run by Intuitive Media, the British Council and participating NGOs to kick-start Student Voice Romania. Everyone involved has already proved committed to developing civil society, and the schools described the scheme as "one of the most promising projects we have ever been invited to attend". Gabriel Ivan, the Project Leader for the British Council Romania, gives the scheme full backing and hails the five pilot schools as 'the starting point of a huge success story':"I've been involved with several major reforms which were supposed to have a significant impact on students. These students have always lacked any chance to contribute to the policy-making process, which is why I was really excited to find out about Intuitive Media's Student Voice Romania project." Student Voice Romania will develop over the next two years from its starting point of five pioneer schools to include more Romanian schools. Two English schools will be invited to join the Romanian project as 'external consultants', to add an International element to the discussions. Intuitive Media's Project Director John Smith, now back in the UK after "an inspiring and highly motivating" launch, will return to Romania in September this year to visit participating schools. The first Student Voice conference is planned for November 2005, with more to come as Romania follows in the UK's groundbreaking footsteps.
Marian Stas, Chairman of CODECS Foundation for Leadership in Bucharest, Romania says of the project:"I think that Student Voice has a high potential to become an effective instrument to change the pre-university school system in Romania, and this was my biggest reason for joining the project. I strongly believe that the partnership established by the British Council Romania with Intuitive Media in the UK is truly inspirational as a model of good practice in the field of using ICT in education."
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UK Government Gives Students a Voice |
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The Government is inviting school students to participate in planning their education. Keen to ensure that students in the UK are given the opportunity to influence policy as customers of the education system, they have asked Becta and Intuitive Media to set up the ground-breaking Student Voice project.
The Secretary of State for Education and Skills, has asked students: "Give us advice on how you learn best with ICT at home and at school and how you think the government could make education better for you in the future."
The students from schools across the country benefit from Intuitive Media's "5 Steps to Influence" programme that helps them understand how democratic decision-making works at all levels from government to schools and how they can effectively take part. Primary and secondary students take part in classroom discussions, join dedicated online forums to discuss their views with other students and use digital video and other media to present their ideas to top decision makers.
John Kemp of Ian Ramsey School says, "Working on a project with the Government is an enormous boost to our students' self-esteem. Student voice is a unique opportunity to give our students a real voice, on real issues."
So what are the students saying? They've created a valuable archive of video foootage, Powerpoint presentations and forum entries. Here's just are a few of their comments:
"We had some big discussions together about how we use ICT in school and at home, and used our video booth to record what we thought. We found we use a wider range of ICT than we expected." - Melissa, primary student
"The Internet is useful because we can research our projects, find pictures and information. There is always something useful to find. BUT… whiteboards are only as good as the teacher’s skill with them. A few of our teachers are very good with them, some are quite good, but a lot of teachers need a lot of training if the whiteboards are actually going to help us learn." Lorna, secondary student
"We had pictures of Charles Clarke and then Ruth Kelly on the computer screen and talked to them as if we were with them, whilst another of us recorded this with the camcorder, which was great fun." - Ben, primary student.
The secondary students mediated their own forums, and the student mediators learned a great deal from the experience:
"It was hard to decide whether the discussion was relevant. As mediators you get to see the arguments develop so you understand where people are coming from. We had to consider everything that was said so we learned more about other people’s views. We had to read things carefully because we have to make decisions about what is useful and sensible and what isn’t." - Sophie, secondary student
The concept has been piloted across the UK and a representative group of students came to London and made a very impressive presentation to top education brass at BETT 2005. Now it's growing internationally with a new project starting in Romania in May and others to follow.
To find out more, visit:
Student Voice
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