About LIFT
The DigiSmart project is developed and managed by LIFT for Learning (LIFT). LIFT is a not for profit educational organisation working in partnership with schools, local authorities and other educational institutions and stakeholders.
The organisation is committed to developing and implementing practical working models which are capable of being widely replicated. We use technology as a motivational hook to encourage children to engage or re-engage with learning and to tap into their potential.
All those involved in LIFT believe that every child deserves an equal chance to succeed in education.
The organisation possesses a wide range of skills and experience. This includes:
- teaching in all phases of mainstream and special education
- ICT co-ordination in primary and secondary schools
- English teaching in primary and secondary schools
- advisory and inspection work
- research and development in curriculum and assessment
- project management including at national level
- initial and continuing teacher professional development
- educational resource development and publishing
- development of online safety materials and guidance
- evaluation of e-learning content
- adult basic skills training
- involvement in project work combating the digital divide
DigiSmart beginnings and growth to date
DigiSmart was conceived as an idea in 2001.
We recognised that, even with children’s enthusiasm for computers, many would be significantly held back by literacy difficulties and low self-esteem. The growth of the World Wide Web forced this issue into sharp relief. How would children who were struggling to read and already falling behind their peers going to be able to cope with the mass of textual information on the Web? How would children with limited reading strategies, children who had a resistance to reading for a variety of reasons, be able to apply literacy strategies in order to find, use and evaluate information online? How would these children, already struggling at school, become critical users and evaluators of information on the Internet and, at the same time, develop the skills to stay safe?
We researched UK and international developments as part of our investigations (and continue to do so). This, coupled with our experience and observations in schools, led us to decide to launch DigiSmart as a small pilot project in 2002, working in partnership with 3 schools.
Every year since then we have recruited more schools whilst also retaining the vast majority of existing partner schools.
To date, 3500 children have directly benefited. This represents our work over the years with nearly 300 separate school groups. We are currently working with a wide range of primary schools located in 12 local authorities. We plan to increase and extend our partnerships over the coming years.
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