ICT Support And Management

Archive for the ‘ICT Support and Management’ Category

Cutting ICT Costs

Monday, October 10th, 2011

Quite understandably at this present time, there appear to be plenty of thought and initiatives going around as to how to reduce the cost of ICT provision in schools.

I am not surprised by this but I am concerned by it.

I am concerned that it is the perceived need to cut costs that is driving current thinking and, to my mind, this can be a dangerous route to take. Education is not a business, it is not an industry; for us, the bottom line is not our profit or our costs. A school will not be judged or praised on its ability to cut its costs, it will be judged and praised (or criticised) on the performance and attainment of its learners.

There is a very careful path that needs to be trod between cutting costs and maintaining/improving the performance of learners in a school.

It seems to my mind that rather than setting out simply to cut costs, schools need first to establish control of their costs. For this, I would recommend schools look at Becta’s investment planner tool, which I believe is still available online. This tool is not a full TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) tool but it was derived from Becta’s original TCO model. The original TCO tool was more encompassing in seeking to identify costs more accurately and relate them to usage and performance. There is not time or space to detail TCO fully in this article but I would be more than happy to talk to any school wishing to explore a fuller TCO in order to better understand and control its ICT costs.

With the improved knowledge and understanding that TCO brings, a school can identify which costs it can control and any that it cannot. The school is then better positioned not only to identify cost-savings but also to anticipate the effects of such measures. A classic example of cost saving comes from a school believing, rightly so, that it can reduce its costs by cutting back on printing, particularly inks and paper costs. While a school can make savings in this area, a full TCO generally reveals that this is only a very small cost and any reduction is almost insignificant.

Not only can current costs be revealed by TCO but a school will be better placed to explore potential costs/savings for future provision, even to the point of being able to compare different options for continuing or replacing software, hardware and services.

While it has to be acknowledged that there is pressure upon schools and headteachers to reduce costs, particularly of their ICT, I would maintain that it is important first for schools to resist the temptation to make cost cuts without first gaining a better understanding and control that could be brought about by TCO.

An unpopular blog post – 7 ways to cut ICT costs (mclear.co.uk)
The Big Issues for ICT Leaders (ictineducation.org)
Free Software for ICT teaching (edugeek.net)

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Tags: Becta, Business, Education, Energy, ICT, Information and communication technologies in education, Technology, Total Cost of Ownership
Posted in ICT Support and Management | 6 Comments »

ICT training sessions

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

Not too long ago I led two ICT training sessions which have been very similar in outcome even though the schools were very different.

One school was using Mac notebooks, whereas the other was using Windows machines. The Mac school had been unable to make best use of the software they were attempting to use because the software was essentially Html and flash based and they were trying to run the software on an old version of Internet Explorer. The second school had been unable to make best use of their software because it had not been installed properly on their network, so would not run properly (if at all) and they had not had effective training on it.

At the Mac school, I was able to demonstrate the software using Safari instead of Internet Explorer. Mac fans will say that this was a simple and obvious move to make and may be wondering why it had not already been done. What we have to keep in mind is that in a small school such as this, staff simply do not have the time to explore all ICT possibilities, especially when trying to solve technical issues. The software had previously run OK in IE but new developments and innovations in the software had left IE behind. The staff simply felt that the software was somehow incompatible with their system or required technical troubleshooting which they were unable to provide. The staff wanted to focus upon delivering teaching to their pupils rather than incur costs and time repairing the software. Consequently, they either ignored the software or only made use of those parts that did still seem to work.
This school is very far from being unique in seeing staff become frustrated or jaded by ICT technical issues. It would be true to say that there should be a technician on hand to prevent or sort out such technical issues so that teachers can continue to deliver education to the pupils. However, it it very much the case that primary schools have very inadequate technical support. Having a technician visit half a day each fortnight is quite a common pattern and it is certainly far from adequate in maintaining modern educational systems. Often, problems have to be reported in incident books, which will be read by the technician upon arival, he then has to decide a priority for the problems and try to implement a fix in the short time available. Sometimes telephone support is also available but this may sometimes mean a staff member taking the time to make the call and implement a fix (where possible)by sacrificing time which may better be spent elsewhere.

By showing this school how the software worked effectively on Safari, the school felt the software had been given a ‘new lease of life’ and that they were able to make much more use of it in their teaching. I was also able to show them many aspects of the software which they were unaware existed, simply because they had not been able to use the software.

In the second school, there was an element of frustration because the software had not initially been installed correctly on their network. This sort of problem should be entirely unnecessary but does still occur more often than it should. The problem had been rectified (almost) but the school staff had missed out on being able to use the software to support a number of teaching opportunities. They had also missed out on an effective training session because the system was not working properly.

I say the installation had been ‘almost’ rectified because we discovered that one staff member login did not allow proper access to the software. This was due to incorrect addressing of the program. Once I had spotted this, a quick and easy fix allowed the whole software to work effectively for this member of staff.

With the fix in place, I was able to train the staff on the software and was able to cover much of the ground that should have been covered in the original training session. Again, in this school, the staff felt that the software had been given a new ‘lease of life’ and that they were now better able to make use of it in their teaching.

I guess, in a small way, I may be blowing my own trumpet here in saying that I was able to renew these schools interest and usage of the software on their system. Yet, I feel that this is one of the most rewarding aspects of my training role; seeing staff enthused (or re-enthused) about using ICT or a particular piece of software or hardware.

Infographics and my future. (dougbelshaw.com)
Vokis, Voicethreads and Blogs (andrewrhodes.edublogs.org)
Whiteboard Debate Online (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
2Assess from 2Simple first look update (redbridgeprimaryit.blogspot.com)

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Tags: Computer software, Education, Macintosh, Technology/Internet
Posted in Classroom Technology, ICT Support and Management | 1 Comment »

Three Sides of E-Safety

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

: Image via Wikipedia

There is a lot of talk and discussion regarding e-safety, and rightly so. It is, however, an area that is more complex than you might imagine. There are many sides to the debate and your approach to it would, I guess, vary according to your role or position within education. To my mind, e-safety is about three things in particular;

1. protecting the user

2. protecting data

3. protecting the system

Protecting the user. I think many of us would say that this would be the most important of the 3 items on the list, especially where the user is a child. To my mind, though, e-safety is not just about protecting the child; e-safety is about safe and effective use by all users. While I can accept that technical methods, such as monitoring and filtering, may have a role to play in this, I am not convinced that the right approach is to rely upon technological devices to ensure safety. It does seem to me that e-safety for the user lies more in understanding the issues involved and adopting practices to avoid or prevent such issues. It is primarily an education issue rather than a technical one. We always have to remember that each user does not have access to technology in school but also in the home and in the workplace after school; safe practice taught in school can be carried across into home, work and mobile environments. The danger is that in school we could rely too heavily upon technical defences which are not present elsewhere and, thereby, ironically put vulnerable users at greater risk.

Protecting the data. School systems, nowadays, contain a lot of data regarding learners (and staff) much of which could be regarded as ‘sensitive’. This data can be important to each school and needs to be kept secure from prying eyes and unauthorised manipulation or corruption. As the data is stored electronically, there is a legal requirment to conform to data protection legislation.I’m sure we would all object if the data were to be lost, stolen or misused in any way, we therefore accept the need for security in this area. There should be no reason, however, for the security measures implemented in this area to inhibit the normal educational use of the technologies.

Protecting the system. The cynic inside me says that all too often this aspect of e-safety tends to dominate all others. Pupils and users are often prevented from using computers in various ways not because of their own safety but because of the need to protect the network. I once saw an article on a company website that claimed it had installed a network in a school with sufficient protection to guard against malicious pupils or enthusiastic teachers; the sad thing is, they were not joking!

Of course there needs to be protection for the system against viruses, trojans and other malware but this shouldn’t mean preventing the user from accessing websites and services for educational uses. I also think we should question whether sites or services should be blocked ‘en masse’ where only a portion of their content could be regarded as ‘undesireable’.

Basically, all-in-all, it comes down to a question of for whom and for what purpose is the technology to be used. Is it to be used for education, in which case the educational needs of the learners and staff should take priority? If it is not being used for education, … well, then I think it would have a hard job justifying its existence in a scho0l. For each of us involved in ICT, the challenge of e-safety is to enable the effective use of technology for the benefit of education while maintaining and respecting the security of the systems we use. Let me rephrase that, the challenge for each of us in a school is to enable the effective use of technology for education while respecting the security of the systems we use; I do not believe e-safety is the sole preserve of the ICT department or the network team.

Own Your Space – Internet Safety and Security eBook from Microsoft (olliebray.typepad.com)
Do we do, or do we don’t? (digital-teacher.co.uk)

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Tags: esafety
Posted in Classroom Technology, ICT Support and Management | 2 Comments »

Primary School Technical Support

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

I visited two schools the other week, each of which illustrated a separate problem with technology in primary schools. Both schools were by all accounts very good schools but each had problems with their ICT facilities.

The first school was a large primary school with a ICT The problem here was that the computers in the suite were running Windows 98 from an NT server. In its time this would have been a very reasonable set up but it is simply not acceptable nowadays to present pupils with an operating system that is so out of date, especially as the operating system is no longer updated and maintained by the manufacturer. I shudder to think what applications or uses of technology the pupils may be denied simply because their computers are unable to run them. If I were an inspector, a governor or a parent at the school, I would be seriously concerned about this. As it is, I am none of these and can only use this as an example of how difficult it can be for a school to maintain and update its technology if either the finance, the understanding or the willingness is not present.

This must surely lead us to ask how much awareness raising needs to take place if we are to ensure that school technology is kept at under 3 years old.

The second school had a different issue. It had a lot of modern equipment, some of it only a few months old. Yet, ironically, its equipment worked less well than the older equipment in the previous school. The problems arose because it appears a lot of the equipment had not been installed properly and some of the new hardware was not well built and were suffering component failure. the school’s problem is that it’s level of technical support was simply not up to the mark. This is a problem which seems to affect almost all primary schools. This school had a technician who visited once a fortnight to solve all technical problems. The technician seemed to be fixing the most pressing issues only as this was all he had time for. Consequently, many issues were lining up and not being fixed for a long time.

I have witnessed this type of arrangement in many other primary schools. I have also seen worse arrangements. In some primary schools, the technical work is carried out by a well-meaning parent, other schools have a technician visit for just half a day a week. Some primaries have a full time technician, though this seems to be a minority of schools and some primaries share support provided by the local High school. In some schools, it may still be the ICT co-ordinator or other staff member who takes on responsibility for maintaining the equipment.

If we want our primary schools to make effective use of technology then we have to find ways of ensuring effective and appropriate levels of technical support.

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Tags: ICT Support, primary school
Posted in ICT Support and Management | 1 Comment »

Three Thoughts on ICT CPD for Teachers

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

Currently there appears to be a great deal of work behind the scenes preparing for an initiative to promote the use of ICT by teachers. This has prompted me to quickly put together a few thoughts about training teachers in the use of ICT.

Some of these thoughts are clearly born from my own experiences training staff in using ICT, whereas other thoughts are perhaps a bit more forward looking and maybe a little bit more “off the wall.” I have had years of experience in training staff to use computers and other technologies to support their teaching.

Having been a teacher myself for many years, I hold teachers in high regard and am always willing to encourage them to make use of technology in their work. Up to recently, though, most of this training has focussed upon enabling staff to use the tech within their own teaching and curriculum delivery. Increasingly, however, I feel the technology requires and promotes new approaches to learning and that possibly it is these new approaches which could be the focus of new ICT CPD initiatives.

1) Thought 1 – It is my belief that if you give teachers the equipment and the time, then the ideas will follow. Indeed, it has been my experience that the ideas are often already there, it is the time and the equipment that is often missing. However, too much equipment at once is rarely a good idea especially if that equipment is provided without the time and training necessary. Sadly, that has very often been the case as training is seen as expensive and undervalued. Even if done correctly, however, this approach might only generate new ways of using the technology to support current practices; it may increase teacher confidence and skill but it is unlikely to be transformational.

2) Thought 2 – I feel it is the role of the teacher to allow and enable learners to make use of the technologies. Therefore, ICT CPD should focus upon getting teachers to allow or enable learners to use technologies in new and innovative ways. The emphasis is upon learner use rather than teacher use. Increasingly, I feel, that it is the way in which learners are able to use ICT which is more important in learning rather than the way in which teachers use it. The teacher, however, still has a need to be made aware of new possibilities and opportunities afforded by technology and be allowed the time and training to explore ways in which the learners can use it.

3) Thought 3 – It is important to improve a teacher’s confidence and skills in using ICT but also it is important to give them the confidence and skills to support the learners’ use of ICT. I make the latter point because it is likely that not all learners will take to technology as easily and readily as others. Many learners may need support and encouragement to learn using technology and many of these learners may turn to the teacher for support and guidance. I therefore feel it is important that ICT CPD for teachers is designed in part to give teachers the skills and confidence to provide the support and guidance for their learners.

What can you do with IT? (deangroom.wordpress.com)
ICT CPD 4 Free from NAACE (warringtonict.wordpress.com)
A Tick List of 21st Century Digital Skills for Teachers (nikpeachey.blogspot.com)

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Tags: Education, Educational technology, ICT CPD, ICT in Schools, ICT Teacher, Information and communication technologies in education, Information technology, Teacher, Technology/Internet
Posted in Classroom Technology, Handheld Learning, ICT Support and Management, Training INSET and CPD | No Comments »

ICT : Education on the cheap?

Monday, March 1st, 2010

A few weeks ago I took part in an online discussion led by Stephen Heppell on the Vital website. Stephen Heppell is a very highkly regarded figure in the world of education and if you ever have a chance to listen to him speak or present, then I’d certainly suggest you do so. He is a speaker who inspires and provokes thought.

In the online discussion, Stephen asked why was it that ICT had not reduced the costs of education? Apart from Health and Education, ICT had been deployed and used to reduce the overhead costs or running costs of their users. I cannot speak for Health but I can for Education and I felt at first that this was an unfair question. After all, we started introducing technology into the classroom we did so not to reduce costs but to expand and improve the resources and experiences offered to learners. So to criticise us for not using ICT to reduce costs when that had never been our aim, did seem unfair.

Was it unfair, though?

A few days after the online discussion, I received in my inbox an email linking to this article about ICT for students with disabilities in developing countries . In this article it suggests that students need ICT partly because it is cheaper than training and paying for a teacher. The inference being that ICT is a cheaper resource than a teacher and one which, possibly, better addresses the need of the students.

This would be quite a contentious argument here in the UK. How many people, schools or local authorities would welcome replacing teachers with computers, even if it reduces the bill?

Schools must embrace technology (news.bbc.co.uk)
Managing Change: Engaging The Teachers (ictineducation.org)
#BETT2010 – Playful Learning (olliebray.typepad.com)

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Tags: Educational technology, Information and communication technologies in education, Stephen Heppell
Posted in BSF, ICT Support and Management | No Comments »

Archive for the ‘ICT Support and Management’ Category

Cutting ICT Costs

ICT training sessions

Three Sides of E-Safety

Primary School Technical Support

Three Thoughts on ICT CPD for Teachers

ICT : Education on the cheap?

Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods

Archive for the ‘ICT Support and Management’ Category

Cutting ICT Costs

Related articles by Zemanta

ICT training sessions

Related articles by Zemanta

Three Sides of E-Safety

Related articles by Zemanta

Primary School Technical Support

Three Thoughts on ICT CPD for Teachers

Related articles by Zemanta

ICT : Education on the cheap?

Related articles by Zemanta

Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods