Edugeek/Microsoft Webinar Reminder

Was a great webcast, can it be made available for download?

I found it very interesting. Esp like the fact that we (britain) have the best IT in schools. Would be nice to see a downloadable version made available

Esp like the fact that we (britain) have the best IT in schools.

Not saying it's false but sez who? Based on what? And has it been formally verified by the Guinness World Records?

Originally Posted by PiqueABoo

Not saying it's false but sez who? Based on what? And has it been formally verified by the Guinness World Records?

The work that many countries have done on integrating technology into education has been based on research, case studies and real world implementations in UK schools. These countries range from US (who have now set up a group with a striking similarity of targets to those of Becta), Australia (who have been part of the INET program for many years, working with SSAT on many aspects of education, including the use of and innovation through technology), a variety of Middle East countries (you think it is a surprise that so many countries come over to London for conferences just before BETT?) and the list goes on ... Canada, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Israel ....

I am not saying that every school is at that standard, but a lot of people don't know how lucky they are.Those who met Art on the EG stand at BETT in the first year can testify how a renowned educator and moodler was astounded by how the UK has so much technology in schools.

Originally Posted by PiqueABoo

Not saying it's false but sez who? Based on what? And has it been formally verified by the Guinness World Records?

Actually I said we have the best IT equipped schools in the world, and we, in the UK do. The official ratio of pupils-to-computers is 5-1, ut according to Ray Fleming at Microsoft it is in fact closer to 3-1. The country with the next largest pupil to computer ratio is the US with 12-1. Its jst a shame the education secretary wants to stuff it up. In the UK we are in the best position globally to produce a generation that can not only support, but advance this increasingy IT centric world, but instead we are to regress to the kind of education system my parents had. What's the point of educating kids in the mid 20th century for them to have to live and work in the 21st century?

/rant off

The last set of figures I can get to quickly (2009 Harnessing Technology Review) has the ratio as 6.6 in Primary and 4.2 in Secondary but that does not take into account handheld devices or games based devices, so it is closer to Ray's figures (he was talking about Secondary at the time).

We are likely to see those figures drop officially as schools will not be able to include student owned devices in there, but in some places, if you include student owned devices, you will start getting 2:1 ... or even better.

What's the point of educating kids in the mid 20th century for them to have to live and work in the 21st century?

Thing is, it was only last year that we had Current ICT and Computer Science in schools - damaging to UK’s future economic prospects (doubtless discussed here somewhere), bemoaning how profligate and usually adept use of IT, gadgets etc.. is not translating into kids studying computing, which is apparently necessary if you have ambitions to advance that IT centric world.

The last set of figures

I'm happy to accept ratios of 5:1 or higher because that's what I see. But there is a serious quantity vs. quality aspect.

Originally Posted by PiqueABoo

Thing is, it was only last year that we had Current ICT and Computer Science in schools - damaging to UK’s future economic prospects (doubtless discussed here somewhere), bemoaning how profligate and usually adept use of IT, gadgets etc.. is not translating into kids studying computing, which is apparently necessary if you have ambitions to advance that IT centric world.

You might find the following video interesting as to why there is this disjointed view about technology is good/bad in education. The paper should be interesting when it is published.
Learning Without Frontiers - Our Blog - Keri Facer, MMU, LWF Talk, London2011

Good work guys, really enjoyed it. Some very useful information that's given us food for thought.

Any chance of getting a copy of the presentation?

Originally Posted by GrumbleDook

You might find the following video interesting as to why there is this disjointed view about technology is good/bad in education. The paper should be interesting when it is published.
Learning Without Frontiers - Our Blog - Keri Facer, MMU, LWF Talk, London*2011

Our MSP initially blocked the video feed to the site, now the whole thing's blocked!

Would appreciate notification when the webinar becomes available.

Very frustrated that I didn't get the link - when will it be available for general viewing

Thanks for doing the Webcast, I watched it and learnt from it... I think it would have been good directed at headteachers & management teams as well as network managers & technicians...
I'd heard that there was a new MS Schools solution in the pipeline, and that explained a lot, I was straight on to my MS Reseller for info!

Thanks again!

Rick

Just a heads up all, I will be posting an official link to use to watch the video on demand soon. The links you were emailed should not be posted here please.

Originally Posted by elsiegee40

Like others I didn't receive the email, spam filter checked

Got an email to watch the webinar "On Demand" this morning. Shame I didn' tget the live one yesterday, but at least I can now watch it.

My link was caught by the council filters but watched it through another route. For those who are interested there is a session at Alan's school which will also cover cost saving amongst other things ... details are on the MS Education blog (available on the EG home page).

Does anyone know who counts in Microsoft's FTE calculations?

If we had to include all the cleaners, dinners ladies, school crossing patrol that never get anywhere near the computers, but are still employed directly by us, it would make a large difference to the FTE headcount!

Originally Posted by elsiegee40

Does anyone know who counts in Microsoft's FTE calculations?

If we had to include all the cleaners, dinners ladies, school crossing patrol that never get anywhere near the computers, but are still employed directly by us, it would make a large difference to the FTE headcount!

It does not count 'non-computer' using staff IIRC. Just teachers, admin and IT people, and possibly the site supervisor if they have one.

Well done all - much useful information and I now have a list of bullet points to research

We've used much of our specialist college funding to up our PC numbers and are now better than 2:1, but we're a small school with a School Agreement so the news from Microsoft was VERY welcome

Am I at liberty to forward my "now available on demand" email to my line manager and SLT? I'd like them to see the webcast too - or is there going to be another link for unrestricted access?

I spoke to someone this afternoon about MSs FTE meaning. What MS think of FTE is anyone member of staff that works 200 hours a year or more (or 5 hours a week or more) and has access to a computer. In our case the catering staff and cleaning staff dont have access.