Longman anticipates findings of BECTa's final report on Integrated Learning Systems

Longman - the latest major entrant to the Integrated Learning Systems (ILS) market - is forging ahead with Tomorrow's Promise, its highly flexible new multimedia Curriculum, having anticipated and resolved many of the initial shortcomings of existing ILS systems highlighted by Professor Wood in The UK ILS Evaluations Final Report published recently by The British Educational Communications and Technology agency (BECTa).

Gerry Daish, Marketing Director, Longman, believes that his company - one of the UK's foremost educational publishers - has applied its in-depth knowledge of the National Curriculum and educational publishing to Tomorrow's Promise, so meeting Professor Wood's call for the development of an ILS 'better geared to the UK education system, its curriculum and its assessment'.

Two of the key issues raised in the report were (a) the so-called 'gap' between the learning of core skills and the wider knowledge tested in exams and (b) the failure of ILS to promote in students a conceptual understanding of subjects, because they focus too tightly on learning well-defined procedures, so obscuring the bigger picture. Tomorrow's Promise has addressed these issues directly with its rich multimedia content and the highly contextualised nature of each lesson. Learning is offered in simulated 'real' situations.

Mr Daish believes that Longman has also successfully pre-empted the need outlined by Professor Wood for an 'improved management system' with Compass, Longman's versatile management tool featured within Tomorrow's Promise, which offers automatically assigned or teacher-assigned lesson plans to pupils. This particular tool works concurrently with the package's National Curriculum Assessment Test (NCAT) facility to determine the needs of each individual pupil.

As one of the UK's foremost educational publishers, Longman is proud of the way in which its system features content and functions both carefully aligned to the National Curriculum - a criticism levelled at existing ILS systems by the Report. Tomorrow's Promise Mathematics Curriculum Key Stage 1-3, for example, helps students to realise their full potential as effective problem solvers. Tomorrow's Promise Spelling Key Stage 1 (or KS 2 & 3 for special needs) is scheduled for release later this year. Longman is currently one sixth of the way through the localisation of the original US material, developed by Jostens, one of the largest and most highly-acclaimed educational publishers in the US. Considerable financial resources have been allocated to the development of the UK version of Tomorrow's Promise, which is scheduled for completion at the end of 1999.

In conclusion, Gerry Daish had this reassuring message for teachers 'requiring advice on how to exploit ILS'. He said, 'Tomorrow's Promise is positioned as a professional system to help professionals do their job - it is a product designed to help teachers to teach. It not only offers baseline assessment; automatic or teacher intervention in learning paths; and technical implementation and integration training based on Josten's award-winning package; but it also offers an on-going partnership designed to help schools achieve their own specific objectives.'

For further information please contact Denise Lyne, Longman, 124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 4ZS. Tel: 01223 425558 Ex 725, Fax: 01223 425349, Email: dlyne@logo.com.

Tomorrow's Promise and Compass Management Systems are registered trademarks of the Jostens Learning Corporation.

Journalists wishing to discuss BECTa's Final ILS Report in greater depth should email their questions to Chris Gallant of Livewire Public Relations.

Press contact: Chris Gallant and Richenda Wood, Livewire Public Relations, 13 Uxbridge Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT1 2LH, UK. Tel: +44 (0)181 547 3418, Fax: +44 (0)181 547 3419, Email: chris@live.demon.co.uk

This press release is also available in other electronic formats. Please email Joanne Leslie at Livewire Public Relations, quoting the press release Ref No. and the format you require (Word 6 Win 3.11 or Text Only).

17th October 1998