Schome

Schome will be an education system that meets the needs of society and individuals in the 21st century [http://www.schome.ac.uk/] . The term schome was coined by Peter Twining [http://www.open.ac.uk/education-and-languages/people/people-profile.php?staff_id=925293] in early 2005 (or possibly late 2004?) and is a synthesis of the words school and home - which explains the byline "not school - not home - schome".

Schome will value and support people in learning throughout their lives (cradle to grave). It will include flexible use of both physical and virtual spaces to support learning processes and enhance community.

Read Futurelab's description of schome [http://www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/teachers_as_innovators/stories_of_practice/schome] based on an interview with Peter Twining.

Current state of play

The main focus of work on schome is currently on the use of a virtual world environment to give people 'a lived experience' of radically different models of education.

Schome Park, an island in the Teen Grid of Second Life® world, is being used to collect evidence about approaches to supporting learners.

The educational models being used on Schome Park fit within the scope of the eSIR Reference Statement (Twining et al. 2006 Appendix 1) and draw upon a wide range of approaches to education [http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/Educational_approaches ] evident in the educational systems in use in different countries [http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/Education_systems_by_country] and informed by prominent educational thinkers [http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/Educational_thinkers] . Find out more about Schome Park [http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/Schome_Park] .

Why do we need schome?

There is a growing consensus of evidence from a range of different sources that suggests that our current compulsory education system needs to change in order to meet the needs of society (e.g. Beare 2001; Hargreaves 2004). This is reflected in growing rates of disaffection in schools (Webb & Vulliamy 2004) as evidenced by: growing teenage truancy rates in schools e.g. see BBC News [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4265536.stm] and the growing migration of parents away from school and towards homeschooling (Curtis 2004).

Recognition of problems with the current school system underpins initiatives such as Building Schools for the Future, which aims to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a 10 to 15 year period (BSF 2006). However, it is clear that many of the fundamental assumptions upon which schools are based are the very factors that render schools ineffective in the Information Age (Cuban 2001). In addition, because of the constraints under which they have to operate, it is “very difficult for school communities to collectively analyse and redesign their practice” (Engeström et al 2002 p.211).

What is different about schome?

The schome community believe that trying to adapt our existing system is a flawed approach, which cannot deliver the optimum education system for the 21st Century. Our approach is radically different, and involves four steps:

# Establish aims: we need to develop shared understandings of what we want our education system to provide for individuals and society within the 21st Century.
# Build a shared vision: we need to develop a shared vision of the ideal system to deliver the aims identified in Step 1, unconstrained by the existing education system, and taking into account our understandings of changes in society, how people learn, and evolving approaches, tools and techniques for supporting learners.
# Devise a strategy: we need to work out how to move from our current education system to the vision of schome created in Step 2.
# Implement schome.

Schome acknowledges the problems inherent in our current education system and aims to overcome them by building upon evidence from a range of sources: learning theory (particularly socio-cultural theory); socio-cultural activity theory (CHAT); evidence from educational research (including practitioner and action research) in areas such as motivation, leadership, and the management of change.

Who is involved in developing schome?

Underpinning the Schome approach is recognition of the importance of shared understandings. The schome community is developed through face to face meetings, publications, presentations, projects and a range of other media. The schome community is the powerhouse that will bring schome into existence. Schome is being created by children, parents, policy makers, academics, students, home educators, employers, teachers and other practitioners from around the world. There are a couple of hundred registered users of the schome community wiki [http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/Main_Page] and a growing number of members of the schome community forum [http://www.schome.ac.uk/forum] .

One can join the schome community by registering for the schome community forum [http://www.schome.ac.uk/forum] and/or the schome community wiki [http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/Main_Page] . N.B. these two parts of the site [http://www.schome.ac.uk] have separate registration and logins - it is recommended that you use the same username and password for both.

References

Twining, P; Broadie, R; Cook, D; Ford, K; Morris, D; Twiner, A. & Underwood, J. (2006) Educational Change and ICT: an exploration of Priorities 2 and 3 of the DfES e-strategy in schools and colleges, Coventry: Becta.http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/document.cfm?docid=10101

Beare, Hedley (2001) Creating the Future School, London: RoutledgeFalmer.

BSF (2006) The Building Schools for the Future website, London: DfES. http://www.bsf.gov.uk/ (viewed 18-Jan-07)

Cuban, Larry (2001) Oversold and Underused: Computers in the classroom, Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Curtis, Polly (2004) More parents choose to educate children at home, The Guardian, 30th July 2004.

DfES (2003) Towards a Unified e-Learning Strategy: Consultation Document, July 2003, London: DfES. (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/elearningstrategy/downloads/e-learning%20strategy%20pdf%20final.pdf viewed 5/11/04)

Engeström, Yrjö ; Engeström, Ritva & Suntio, Arja (2002) Can a school community learn to master its own future? An activity-theoretical study of expansive learning among middle school teachers, in Wells, Gordon & Claxton, Guy (eds) Learning for life in the 21st century, pp211-224, Oxford: Blackwell.

Hargreaves, David H. (2004) Learning for Life: The foundations for lifelong learning, Bristol: The Policy Press.

Webb, Rosemary & Vulliamy, Graham (2004) A Multi-Agency Approach to Reducing Disaffection and Exclusions from School, London: DfES. (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR568.pdf viewed 5/11/04)

Working Group on 14-19 Reform (2004) 14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform: Final Report of the Working Group on 14-19 Reform, Report No: DfE-0976-2004, October 2004, London: DfES. (http://www.14-19reform.gov.uk/download.cfm?id=52 viewed 5/11/04)