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Alastair Wells
Personal Statement
Under the guidance of Alastair Wells, Information and Communication Technology Director, The Netherhall School in Cambridge specialises in the use of advanced technologies to develop new approaches to teaching and learning as well as involving the local community.
Although Netherhall is a local education authority comprehensive without any special advantages, the school is established internationally as a focus of good practice based on good in-service training for staff and a multimedia authoring team of 50 sixth form students who are supporting subject departments in their development of materials for the school web site. Alastair has established a reputation with companies for exploring the uses of new products for teaching and learning. As a result the school is particularly well resourced with Acorn, Macintosh and PC computers, including multimedia work stations, a weather station and satellite receiver, data loggers, scanners and Internet access via an ethernet, fibre optic, and ATM network to 250 workstations.
The school participated in the two year Cambridge Superhighway Trial with On-line Media and Acorn who made interactive television available over a broad band 'superhighway' cable which encircled the city and linked pupils homes with the school and community resources. The materials that were developed for the Cambridge Trial, and the expertise that developed within the school, are now being applied to the impressive school web site.
Netherhall is also funded by a European Union Socrates programme where on-line links with the primary school parents and pupils have been established to promote stronger community relationships. The project has firmly established a local 'wired community' of schools, pupils and parents. Alastair is currently co-ordinating an industry education partnership called "Making on-line learning a reality". The Netherhall Education On-Line (NEON) partnership includes Cambridge Cable, Education On line, NTL, Sun Microsystems. Oracle, UCLES and UUNet.
As a result of the excellence of his ICT developments at Netherhall, and his generosity in sharing ideas, Alastair has been awarded a MirandaNet Fellowship. This community of like-minded teachers, teacher educators, advisors, researchers and industrialists provides Alastair with professional development opportunities and a network of mentors and contacts. He has made a valuable contribution to publications on network computing for Oracle, the changing role of the teacher using advanced technologies for Xemplar and a study on the motivation of teachers using ICT for the Teacher Training Agency (TTA). He is also co-ordinating a school based project on the Impact of the Internet on Teaching for the TTA.
As a member of the British Computer Society Schools Committee, he contributes to the Internet Working Group publications. For more information on Alastair's work go to: www.netherhall.cambs.sch.uk
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