EducationGuardian.co.uk | News crumb | Software glitches hit hundreds of schools:

Oh dear, oh dear. Here's me plodding along, really thinking that the use of ICT for learning can be a tool for personal liberation and enrichment. And here is the UK ******* government, issuing edicts on the use of ICT to police students. ID numbers, checks on homework, up to the hour reports on punctuality and all the rest. And I thought it was about pedagogy and learning.

The Education Guardian report says:

"The strategy also says that every pupil should have their own webspace to publish examples of their work so that employers, universities and their parents can check on their progress. The "electronic portfolio" would document all their achievements at school or college and provide examples of their work.

An online portal will be created as a one-stop shop for information for pupils, their parents, and people working in schools to gain access to information about education and training.

Ministers are also considering how data on pupils could be streamlined so each has an identification number throughout their school, college and university career which would allow them to keep a record of their schooling, as they change institution or slip in and out of education.

The document tries to draw together what it says has been a "haphazard" growth of the use of "e-learning" in schools and to set new standards for schools to work towards.

While some schools are now ploughing ahead with online submissions of homework and up-to-the-hour reports on pupil attendance and punctuality for parents, others are still failing to provide good basic lessons in information communication technology."