PLTS and Learning Platforms

Still searching for ways of measuring the impact on teaching and learning of using learning platforms. Our team has recently started to explore PLTS as a framework. It has 6 strands:

• independent enquirers

• creative thinkers

• reflective learners

• team workers

• self-managers

• effective participants

Some of these seem to naturally lend themselves toward a learning platform context. For example, team work becomes a broader and richer experience when it can mean working in teams across year groups in a school, across schools and even across the world. But these skills are very context dependant and assessing them appears to be notoriously difficult.

So our current thinking is that it can work two ways;

1. Learning platforms can be used (and we are working on good ways to this) to track changes in the PLTS of pupils, groups, classes, even of tasks themselves.

2. Changes in PLTS for learners can be used as indicators of the impact of a Learning Platform, if the necessary controls are in place (Baseline assessments, consistent monitoring etc)

What we do know definitely is that schools and teachers are looking for hard evidence of the improvements to learning that they can expect from their investment in learning platforms.