Comments on: Primary School Technical Support http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/primary-school-technical-support/ ICT in Education Consultant and Trainer Thu, 03 May 2012 09:00:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Tony Sheppard http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/primary-school-technical-support/comment-page-1/#comment-48536 Tony Sheppard Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:04:01 +0000 http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/?p=9#comment-48536 In these times of worrying finances we see schools only spending money where they think it is needed and, in spite of a valiant effort by Becta, many schools never understood that your ICT equipment and support of it is a revenue cost and not capital. Part of the problem was how the funds came in and, for once, I agree with Mr Gove that the continued funding of capital had to stop. However, it was not clearly identified with an increase in revenue monies at the same time! There are good standards for tech support out there, and whilst some might need tweaking, we should not forget FITS ... Becta's Framework for ICT Technical Support ... We just need to do more work with senior leaders to help them understand the benefits. In these times of worrying finances we see schools only spending money where they think it is needed and, in spite of a valiant effort by Becta, many schools never understood that your ICT equipment and support of it is a revenue cost and not capital. Part of the problem was how the funds came in and, for once, I agree with Mr Gove that the continued funding of capital had to stop. However, it was not clearly identified with an increase in revenue monies at the same time!
There are good standards for tech support out there, and whilst some might need tweaking, we should not forget FITS … Becta’s Framework for ICT Technical Support … We just need to do more work with senior leaders to help them understand the benefits.

]]> By: Chris Scarth http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/primary-school-technical-support/comment-page-1/#comment-26408 Chris Scarth Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:19:50 +0000 http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/?p=9#comment-26408 Doug, I believe I have now visited over 1500 primary schools in the last decade and the problems you outline above I have seen more times that I care to remember. In fact, there are times when I think it is the norm rather than the exception! At Classroom Monitor, we've moved the vast majority of our internla infrastructure onto the cloud and are planning on moving the rest over the summer. Our cloud partner is beginning to approach primary (and secondary) schools now, this isn't really in my field of teacher MIS/ assessment/ management tools, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts (or others) on the 'cloud' in education. Chris @chrisscarth PS - I wonder if the phrase 'cloud' will soon become as annoying as '21st century learning' which I completely agree makes my skin crawl! Doug,

I believe I have now visited over 1500 primary schools in the last decade and the problems you outline above I have seen more times that I care to remember. In fact, there are times when I think it is the norm rather than the exception!

At Classroom Monitor, we’ve moved the vast majority of our internla infrastructure onto the cloud and are planning on moving the rest over the summer. Our cloud partner is beginning to approach primary (and secondary) schools now, this isn’t really in my field of teacher MIS/ assessment/ management tools, but I’d be interested to hear your thoughts (or others) on the ‘cloud’ in education.
Chris
@chrisscarth
PS – I wonder if the phrase ‘cloud’ will soon become as annoying as ’21st century learning’ which I completely agree makes my skin crawl!

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