I was really inspired by the concept of mixing sports and ICT. A match is a great self-contained production opportunity!

Mark Patrick (Smythe 1989-93), BBC World Service.

Some background to the project

ICT is so much more than a subject: it is a way of life. Already boys at Tonbridge are being inventive with technology - making their own films and documentaries; fun projects and work with a serious edge. We want to harness this enthusiasm and make it mainstream. The Tonbridge School Centre presents us with a wonderful opportunity to do just this.

Tonbridge Boys are already being creative with our technology, but the potential to do more is enormous.

In November 2005, Tim Haynes and Ian Lucas (Director of ICT) and Foundation Director, James Underhill, visited the States on an ICT fact-finding tour of schools and colleges. They were joined by current parent, Dr Hermann Hauser, who created the Acorn computer back in the '80s and is now a venture capitalist specialising in high technology investments.

The team visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to learn how this world-famous institute uses technology to enable its students and teachers. They then moved on to Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, a school which has imaginatively pushed the boundaries of using ICT in education, embedding technology completely in the whole education experience. At Brewster, every student is provided with a laptop and must bring it to every lesson. A teacher there showed with a few deft clicks of a mouse how a pupil's film of a colleague throwing a basketball could be linked to graph-making software to give a completely new dimension to a Physics lesson.

They finished the tour with a visit to Phillips Andover - a school which bears closer comparison with Tonbridge, but which is well ahead of us in terms of technology. Andover is a hugely respected institution with strong, traditional values, but ICT is now mainstream there. Interestingly, they have a media centre along the same lines as the one planned for Tonbridge and each student makes a documentary as a core activity within the curriculum.

Left: Hermann Hauser and Ian Lucas at MIT
Right: Technology facilities at Phillips Academy Andover

What's on offer?

The development of a building for indoor sports also presents an opportunity for the school to take a high profile step forward with technology. Essentially, the media centre will comprise a fully sound-proofed studio where boys can conduct filmed interviews in professional TV style. This facility will be enabled through a control room. Alongside the studio and control room there will be two editing suites where boys can use the latest software to turn rough cuts into polished productions.

We will provide the staff to open up this exciting area of learning to all boys - not just the technologically-minded.

Imagination is the only limit

The media centre is one visible part of a wider development of ICT at Tonbridge. With a faster network, the provision of video notice boards, wider use of portable PCs and radio connectivity, the media centre will serve as the essential, creative hub. Perhaps the best way to convey the potential is to use snapshot examples:

• Boys film a key match (such as the last one in an unbeaten season) and edit highlights; these are then shown on the video notice board the next day, spreading excitement and pride across the whole school.
• A teacher uses the media centre and our faster connectivity to communicate face to face with parents who are further afield.
• Boys develop a multi-media version of the Tonbridgian and put it on DVD. They splice interviews with concerts, matches and plays and make a multi-media record life during each term.
• Tonbridge develops its own web-based radio or TV station.
• Teachers edit film to re-play to a team, or single players, on how they can improve their performance.

The important point is that the potential is enormous and it is school-wide. Used imaginatively, the media centre will give the boys new skills, equipping them well for the massive changes ahead as technology development accelerates. It will also bring a new dose of fun to school life and will play a role in drawing the Tonbridge school community closer together.

We believe giving technology such a prominent place in the Tonbridge School Centre will encourage the sort of creativity with ICT which will be so important for the production of the fully rounded boys of tomorrow.

Mike Frayne, Parent, Foundation Member and Chairman of the ICT Development Task Force.

Above all, we should not underestimate the sheer creativity and ability of our boys. While many parents and OTs are undoubtedly able with new technology, it is the truly young who will take it forward in ways we cannot imagine. The creators of Google were 19 when they launched their world-beating search engine. Who is to say that a Tonbridgian will not create and market an equally successful idea?

The work place is changing fast. 15 years ago very few people had a PC on their desk, e-mail was virtually unheard of. Less than 25 years ago, the Internet was an obscure network of huge computers used only by a few researchers. Looking at how technology has developed, who can predict what the work place or wider life will look like for the current Tonbridgian twenty years or more into the future? Though we cannot prepare boys for the details of the future, we can equip them with a confident and creative approach to technology so they can adapt readily to the revolution ahead. It is this aim that lies at the heart of the Media Centre.

Last term, a group of us from School House shot our own film using mobile phones and editing it on a laptop. We wanted to prove we could do it. Students should be given the opportunity to learn how to participate in an increasingly media-centric world.

Jamie Gilchrist, Paul Lanigan, Tom Hendriks (School House Yr 2)