How to empower students to take control of their online learning environment
Steve Aylin, Assistant Headteacher and science teacher at Ninestiles School, Birmingham, explains.
Empowering students to become more responsible for their own learning can boost their confidence and raise the morale of the whole school community with the sharing of new skills and resources. We are starting to see signs that indicate within five years students will expect as much control over their online learning environment as teachers. However, questions may be asked about whether students are being given too much control too soon. Whilst schools should be implementing initial plans now, a step-by-step approach is imperative to ensuring a successful cultural shift in the long-term. It is a journey that Ninestiles School, a secondary school in Birmingham with 1500 students on roll, has already embarked on with its learning platform.
First step: access rights for responsible students
Before schools can give students complete control over their learning platforms, they must address security issues concerning network abuse and data protection. It is important that schools continue to retain control over certain confidential data such as contact details and exam results. At Ninestiles, ten members of staff have full access rights to the learning platform, whereas all staff and teaching assistants can amend most pages. Access rights have also been granted to a small selection of trustworthy students as a first step towards making it the norm for all, which they should be encouraged to earn.
The school is currently holding interviews with students interested in becoming forum mediators or web designers with the aim of executing a successful roll-out of open access to forums.
Encouraging responsible behaviour
One way of encouraging positive behaviour is to reward responsible students with more freedom; the more they demonstrate responsible use of technology, the more games and web tools they can use. Some have been given access to write their own web pages and share their work with peers. Others have asked to substitute a written assignment with a movie, which encourages them to use their initiative.
Students training teachers 
