What's screening on school white boards nationwide?

The popularity of the e-Learning Credits scheme is seeing schools invest in a vast array of software packages.

With less than four months to go before the deadline, the race by schools to spend their share of this year's £100m budget for computer software - via the scheme known as e-Learning Credits, or ELC's - is already well under way.

With less than four months to go before the deadline, the race by schools to spend their share of this year's £100m budget for computer software - via the scheme known as e-Learning Credits, or ELC's - is already well under way.

Top 10 software titles this month include some familiar names such as Wordshark 3, Numbershark 3, My World and Science Directions, says the UK's leading independent software supplier, R-E-M, but schools are also looking further afield for their purchases.

Ironically, says Ray Barker, director of the British Educational Software Association (BESA), the popularity of the ELC scheme - which, initially at least, failed to attract 100 per cent take-up - is such that schools are becoming more ambitious.

After the initial rush to buy strictly subject-specific computer software for the English department, say, or for science, there are signs that this year schools are using their money "more strategically", says Barker, who believes that many head teachers are now investing in sophisticated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools.

"A fair amount of money is being spent on legal necessities such as licences, which keep schools within the law and which can cost several hundred pounds to purchase," he says, "but a lot more is going on really large software products such as whole-school management systems."

"Rather than helping only one or two subject areas, these complex systems can be used to help run the entire school and cut down on paperwork," he says.

While individual departments continue to buy subject-related software and are likely to do so again in the coming 2005-6 handout period, Barker believes that the increased confidence of many schools in the use of ICT is leading directly to more orders for costly tools such as pupil assessment kits, pupil record software and end-of-year report-writing programmes.

For example, in order to help free up teacher time Granada Learning's Primary Complete product includes report writing, lesson planning and record keeping software in one package.

The advent of ELC's, says Barker, who is hoping that the scheme continues well after its initial three-year life ends in August 2006, has stimulated the entire educational software market. Critically for publishers, schools are not allowed to buy expensive pieces of hardware with the money; nor can they purchase items such as digital cameras, keyboards or Microsoft Office applications.

While individual firms were previously undecided about whether to invest in the development of more complex, expensive educational products, the knowledge that £300m has been ring-fenced for spending over three years on "content" - that's £1,000 for each maintained school in England - has encouraged more companies to experiment.

Among the key titles being marketed this year are the latest in the Track series of software support for children with special educational needs and, also for primary schools, Simulation Explorer, which is designed to introduce younger children to computer simulation techniques.

Publisher Softease has launched a triple software pack that comprises Softease Draw, a drawing and graphic modelling tool; IdeasMap, a visual thinking tool to collect and organise ideas; and Timeline, an events sequencing tool.

Charis Evans, head of schools marketing at Granada Learning, says: "Schools have really tuned into getting the best from their ELC funding. This year, we have found that ELCs have been spent earlier in the year and on a much wider range of resources. Previously, schools concentrated on curriculum software; now we are seeing unprecedented levels of interest in learning technologies that help to raise school standards, including digital assessment from nferNelson and lesson planning, record-keeping and report-writing tools from The Skills Factory. All of these can be purchased with ELCs."

While the level of ICT sophistication and in particular the number of computers in schools remains "patchy" across the country in the view of Barker, it appears that the ELC scheme has done much to counter the "luddite" tendencies of many in teaching.

"Training is still a huge issue for many schools, but the advent of laptops for teachers - which they can experiment with in their own time - has really helped break down barriers," he says.