The Highland Council puts students and teachers at the heart of learning with Google for Education tools

When we introduced the new technologies, we knew we needed to show students that technology is truly about learning. Students’ learning suddenly flourished because they’re using the right tools.

Louise Jones, ICT in Learning Manager, The Highland Council.

Challenge

When Highland Council schools wanted to better meet the four focus areas of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence – to enable each student to be a successful learner, confident individual, responsible citizen and effective contributor – they realized they needed a new technology solution. The goal was and is to put students and teachers at the heart of the technology strategy. The schools wanted to provide more students with internet-enabled devices, so they could learn anytime, anywhere. Since the Highland Council serves a wide range of students and teachers, the region needed an affordable, flexible solution that would improve the learning experience for every student and teacher at every school. Sharing resources across the district is an important goal since schools are spread geographically across the region.

Solution

After talking with schools in East Lothian about their use of Chromebooks, The Highland Council considered Chromebooks to be the right choice since they provided students with the ability to guide their own learning and improve their communication and collaboration skills. The Highland Council launched a Chromebooks pilot in May 2015 with one primary and two secondary schools. The three schools introduced 250 devices total, using a 1:1 model. At the same time, schools introduced Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom.