I first wrote this back in March 2010 in response to a question from Prof. Stephen Heppell regarding using ICT to reduce costs. Stephen posed this question way before the present government’s ‘policy’ toward ICT in schools. Did he have some insight into the government’s intended approach? or was he simply using foresight to anticipate the current situation? My inclination would be toward the latter.
In any case, Stephen’s question remains very poignant today and is perhaps one we should re-address, which is why I have republished this article today.
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?
Putting the issues of developing countries aside (and I don’t like writing that), what about using ICT to reduce education costs in this country (England)? Well, okay, we’re not talking about using technology to replace teachers, there is no evidence of that happening and i don’t think there would be any appetite for that. Though, interestingly, there has been some evidence of lessons being taken by assistants rather than teachers.
There have been calls for schools to ‘invest’ more in open source solutions; that is to say free or ‘libre’ open source solutions. There is strong evidence that such solutions can reduce costs, particularly on licensing. However I don’t think we should select our software or solutions solely on the grounds of being ‘free’; I’d much prefer to have all such solutions presented alongside proprietary solutions and be allowed to select the best for the purpose. After all, we are judged by our results not by our cost cutting.
Could schools use ICT to cut down on costs for activities not at the ‘chalkface’? I’m thinking here of administration work. Do we need to employ so many people in administrative work for schools or could much of that work be farmed out to outside contractors or could processes be automated using technology? Of course, some of you will laugh when you read ‘so many people in administration’, when many schools have to get by with someone, just one, person coming in part time to do the administrative work. Nevertheless, this area is one that could be ripe for cost reduction, principally if the admin burden on schools were to be reduced.
I feel sure that schools could find ways in which ICT could be utilised to cut costs but, in doing so, would it adversely affect the bottom line – pupil learning?
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