Scan Of Digital Wonderworld Article

[russdev]

Thanks to Twitter and Josie Fraser for the scan.

http://www.russdev.com/guardian2.tif


Time for me to run and hide...

Russell

p.s

It is large file 3 meg

[GrumbleDook]

Ok ... so there is no chance of ambiguity. It was an attack on the standards of Educational IT Support, including those who provide it on an in-house basis.

I'll be back later tonight with a draft response.


Grrrrrrrr!!!!!

[Domino]

*restrains Tony from the guardian stand*

[russdev]

lol

On train on way home was talking to women who does market research for guardian some interesting facts no nuj journo can be fired and guardian is funded by a trust.

Russ

[Diello]

Let him go - they deserve it!

It's been a long time since I've read such a load of total drivel. It's horses for courses - There are good and bad in-house IT support teams, there are good and bad companies who provide managed services. The companies loose money if they foul-up? We loose our jobs if we foul up. Managed Services flexible? Since when? If it's not down on the original agreement, you're not getting it. No managed service is going to support ALL the software EVERY school would want, it's simply implausible.

"It has also meant that our technical staff spend no time fire-fighting in fixing machines, which allows them to do much more valuable work to devise learning materials and support teachers" - Umm... sorry... "technical staff"... "devise learning materials and support teachers"... did I really just read that? That's the job of a LEARNING SUPPORT ASSISTANT and TEACHERS... not "technical staff"... our jobs ARE to fix the machines... You'd think the word TECHNICAL was a give away, wouldn't you...?

Besides, who, exactly, do they think staff these Managed Services? Fairies? They're...umm... TECHNICAL STAFF funnily enough... it's people with our skills that could work for these companies... The only difference is, we're far more flexible being IN the school. These companies aren't some sort of saviour - they're just technical staff all boxed up together into one entity, trying to force all schools into a one-size-fits-all approach.

"A teacher with a defective laptop in the morning should receive a replacement with all the software on by the afternoon session" - Ours get one as soon as they bring the broken one too us - we have spares that we give them, then we fix their laptop, and that becomes a spare... so actually we're providing a better service then they harping on about!!

The short-sightedness of some people astounds me.

[SimpleSi]

Thats just someone writing something in order to get paid that week.

Sound bites or text bites mixed in with facts - did it mention that the sun rising in the morning each day aids learning? - I couldn't tell from the other "factoids" strewn about.

Bollocks Journalism.

(Mods can edit the above phrase if needed - I normally would but in this case - no )


The most annoying thing was the implication that if IT is managed properly - then it works!

If that were only true then we'd all be happy to go and work for the magic firm that achieves this

I look forward to the day when this happens

[beeswax]

This is my original post,

There's also an RM sponsored 8 page pull-out with Tuesday's Education Guardian called Digital Wonderworld, can't find it on the web, but there's an article inside called Call the Professionals by Jack Kenny. I'll quote the second para,
"Unreliable ICT in many schools is often given as the reason why teachers are reluctant to use technology. Filling the school with kit is the easy part and we pay the professionals to bring in the boxes, connect them and walk away. Getting it all to work properly to make life easier and lessons more interesting is the hard part and for that we use amateurs."
Jack Kenny, a former English teacher, now writes on educational technology and is chair of English examiners for Edexel, is not related to Bisley69.
Could this be the same Edexel responsible for this, or this?

It's no doubt intended to coincide with BETT and convince any waiverers of the benefits of having a managed service.

[Oops_my_bad]

I'm sure if Jack Kenny knew the *real* costs of outsourcing and the *real* level of service you get, he would eat the very paper his drivel is printed on.

[torledo]

Mr Kenny makes a pretty bold statement about the reasons teachers in general do not embrace new technology in the classroom, citing 'unreliableble' ICT in many schools. Unfortunately he does not have any figures to backup that assertion...not so much as the result of a straw poll amongst teachers to get their view. So I'm more angry with Mr Kenny than the teaching fraternity for this misconstrued argument. Never mind the fact the whole unreliable ICT argument is very vague and a sweeping generalisation - it's not a given that the majority of teachers actually hide behind this excuse or scapregoat ICT techs, as Mr Kenny appears to intimate. I'm sure there will be a lot of teachers who are as indignent about these claims as edugeek are.

As I'm sure most teachers who are less than enthusiastic about using ICT would be the first to admit the reasons are more varied and complex than that - and obviously blaming the ICT support departments is a cheap shot.

It's just lazy journalism, and no doubt he'll be penning an equally lazy article when teachers become underwhelmed and no doubt disaapointed by aspects of the managed service implementation. Then again, maybe not, is he not an RM employee or affiliate of some sort ?

[russdev]

As far as know he is not related to rm in anyway he is works for edexcel. You just have to look at moodle article to see he style if can call it that of writing.

[torledo]

As far as know he is not related to rm in anyway he is works for edexcel. You just have to look at moodle article to see he style if can call it that of writing.

thanks for that russ, go myself slightly confused there. I remeber beeswax saying in a previous thread he worked for edexcel and the actual pull-out section this article appears in was sponsored by RM.

Judging by the tone of the article he certainly doesn't give any obvious indication that he endorses the BSF managed service model, but it's just bad writing that he's trotting out the info on what other LA's have done and what people are saying about the advantages and reasoning behind managed services.

I'm awaiting for an expose or the potential flaws in the managed service model in another article from Mr Kenny to balance it up.