ICT report to schools

[hullensians2]

Hi there.
I am a student at University, and have an assignment that i was hoping some of you experienced in this field could help me. I have got to prepare a report investigating a schools provision for ICT and advise this make believe school of its strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations for its improvement and development. What kind of things should I put in there? I have looked at many schools ICT policies, and OfSTED reports, but am still stuck!!!

Thanks

[sahmeepee]

It's a slightly baffling brief tbh. Surely if you're going into a school to investigate their provision (hypothetically speaking) you would use the information you had gathered to form the basis of your recommendations?! Are you supposed to be making up a set of fictional problems that the school has as well? Do a google search for the "BECTA Self Review Framework" if you want BECTA's advice on how a school should be focussing its efforts. It's done in a questionnaire format and gives you advice at the end.

If you are just supposed to be giving general guidance on how schools should deliver their ICT provision, the current govt view is that it should all be outsourced and schools shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about it.

[elsiegee40]

I'm not sure how you can do this without actually visiting one or more schools and talking to their NMs.. whereabouts in the country are you?

A few phone calls may be in order to schools local to you.

[leco]

Does your brief state what kind or type of school? There would perhaps be a marked difference between sectors i.e. between Primary and Secondary. Perhaps different again between Secondary and Tertiary.

Is your fictitious role to be an LEA School Improvement Officer, or a commercial consultant?

This may be a case where you select your own stance/role and research from that angle. As elsiegee40 suggests a visit to an actual school may help, but you would still need to have clarified your viewing point.

[dhicks]

I am a student at University, and have an assignment

How big is the assignment, i.e. how detailed do answers need to be?

I have got to prepare a report investigating a schools provision for ICT and advise this make believe school of its strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations for its improvement and development. What kind of things should I put in there?

You get the standard business-type problems in a school, as well as some extra ones related to having large numbers of grimy little children around the place. Just what I can think of:

- Backup, recovery and fail-over - what happens if a harddrive on a server fails (does the whole server fail, or is the drive part of a RAID array)? What happens if the power supply on a server fails (does the server stop, do you have redundant power supplies or another server standing by ready to take over)? What happens if a harddrive on a workstation fails (does a child loose their work, or is that stored and backed up on the network somewhere)? How long does it take to get a replacement/new workstation working (do you have spares standing by)?

- Power consumption - how much power do your computers take up? Can you think of ways to have them take less power (thin clients of some kind, power saving equipment of some kind)? Can you virtualise and consolidate servers to save power?

--
David Hicks

[garethedmondson]

It's a slightly baffling brief tbh. Surely if you're going into a school to investigate their provision (hypothetically speaking) you would use the information you had gathered to form the basis of your recommendations?! Are you supposed to be making up a set of fictional problems that the school has as well? Do a google search for the "BECTA Self Review Framework" if you want BECTA's advice on how a school should be focussing its efforts. It's done in a questionnaire format and gives you advice at the end.

If you are just supposed to be giving general guidance on how schools should deliver their ICT provision, the current govt view is that it should all be outsourced and schools shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about it.

As mentioned here, the BECTA SRF is an excellent starting point.

Are you meant to be looking at the provision of ICT as a technology in the school to be used as a tool - that is ratio of computers to pupils, availability of resources (such as digital cameras, IWB etc), or are you meant to be reporting on how the staff incorporate ICT into their lessons based on the requirements of the National Curriculum? YOu could also look at the opportunities presented to pupils outside of ICT lessons - are there extra curricular clubs for ICT? Do pupils get a say in how the school provides it's ICT?

It's a huge area to look at.

If you want a chat then please PM me and we can open up a dialogue and you can use my school as your fictional school in the report.

Gareth