1	Virtual Transition 2003 Ruth Garner Learn Net Advisors & Research
2	Order of Presentation Introduction to Virtual Transition Peer tutor training Virtual delivery Evaluation Recommendations
3	Why Transition?
4	Transition……
5	Aim of Transition 2004 To provide year-6 pupils with the opportunity to meet learners from, and find out more about, their new secondary school. In addition to meet peers from other schools who will also be transferring to the school.
6	Development Pilot project in 2002 Very positive outcome! Refined and rolled out to 3 secondary schools and 19 feeder schools 2003 Phase 1 awareness raising – April/May Phase 2 resource development - May/June Phase 3 delivery to year-6 pupils-June/July Phase 4 evaluation – Autumn Term
7	Peer Tutor Training 26 year-8 pupils selected from 3 schools Selected by different criteria – determined by the school Range of reasons for taking part including Fun Was asked to All but one had access from home. What can you contribute? Good mentor skills Want to help year-6 Particular skills such as ICT
8	3-Week Peer Tutor Programme
9	Online Evaluation
10	Peer Tutor Evaluation Enjoyable Best part was chatting to each other (but 20% said is was the worst). Positive comments about Email. Didn’t like complex activities Too much to do initially Wanted – more colour, more games, more RTC Felt prepared or as prepared as they could be for working with year-6 pupils Tried to incorporate evaluation into main programme
11	Virtual Transition 308 year-6 pupils from 19 feeder schools. Between 2 – 46 pupils per feeder school Not all pupils had access at home Expectation that schools made access available Induction face-to-face Indications that this needed to be hands-on. 3 week programme online. Request made by pupils to keep this open until end of term
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13	Activities 2 blocks of activity Incl. research, multiple intelligences, email, off line activities, voting etc. Ask Peer Tutor Forum – asynchronous Sports and PE, general chat, school meals, teachers, school, classes, clubs etc. (only 1 bullying question) Social Real-time chat Open all day, record lost after 2 hours, good meeting place for year-6 pupils from different schools.
14	Evaluation Limited quantitative data available through the system. Data picked up through activities, including pupils issues / comments In October questionnaires sent to Year-7 pupils in new schools. 70% returned (17% incomplete). Data analysed.
15	Virtual Attendances Data shows evening and week end activity 25% users did not appear after induction. Accounted for in 3 schools – 2 large schools (access may have been a problem) and a school entering late in the process. Recording of actual activity difficult e.g. some activities did not require response, RTC cleared after 2 hours, no site stats because a central service. Hit counter used, but multiple hits, for example, from one school over lunch-time counted as only 1 hit!
16	"Questionnaires:" Questionnaires: How often visited? 17% reported visiting every day and 28% between 2 – 4 times a week. 51% had access / from home. Participation? 26% took part in everything, 74% in a selection. What did you enjoy most? RTC, email, talking to people, all of it! Party at the end (3%!) What did you not enjoy? Nothing (27%), hard work, logging on, peer tutors not answering. Was anything missing? More games, more information, nothing (74%)
17	What changes ?
18	What did year-6 pupils learn?
19	Did it Help! 66% enjoyed the programme a lot. 70% said it had helped them to settle into their new school.
20	Recommendations Induction needs to be hands-on. Clear communication channels between lead staff in secondary and feeder schools. Access to ICT made available in feeder schools – and encouraged to use this facility
21	"Rota of peer tutors needs..." Rota of peer tutors needs to be produced so that responses are forthcoming in a regular fashion. More guidelines need to be produced re peer-tutor responses (writing in sentences, depth and breadth). Un-moderated Real-time chats. Need rota of peer tutors / staff to moderate at peak times (comfort zone for schools?). Need more adults to appear as timetabled events – topic related. Consider role of interactive multimedia games in this programme.
22	Who made this possible?
23	Further Information This presentation can be viewed at: http://www.learn-net.co.uk/transition.htm Full report can be found at: http://www.bgfl.org/services/editedev/download.htm Email Contact: rgarner@learn-net.co.uk This years transition site: http://www.transition2004.bham.org.uk