Are teaching staff scared or confident in their use of IT in the Classroom?

[rom1984]

Lax Safeguarding does not equal Outstanding. There have been several examples of shock demotions from Outstanding to RI recently. The goalposts have moved... I hope things are brought up to the correct levels quickly.

 

They were judged as Outstanding in 2011. One of the main reasons I was brought on board was to look at safeguarding in IT which is one of the jobs I've been doing so there defiantly at the correct levels (hopefully outstanding!), although there is still work to be done. Anyway enough about the school that's not really relevant to the post. I was pointing out that the difference I noticed between primary & secondary was that at secondary the teachers seemed to understand the rational behind a secure network with little training. At primary (or atleast the one's I'm at) they needed a lot more training, explaining and reinforcing of why things are done in a certain way. I imagine the reason was that previously IT security was lacking.

[Bankesy]

I agree with the point regarding more experienced teachers being replaced with younger members of staff.

 

I think the younger members of staff expect to be able to do more from the start, maybe because it's the way they were trained.

 

I see it as a good thing though, the more people there are demanding a certain system the more ammunition I have to demand the funding to implement. I think the rise in expectation level is part of what keeps a network moving forward.

 

As for the original question I would say yes here staff are confident in the use of IT or they are at least confident (sometimes overly) in my ability to fix it should it go wrong. I do see some instances though of departments trying to keep up or move forward just because another department did the same without having the same genuinely good ideas for using something new, iPads were a classic example of that here as departments looked to use up left over money without really considering how they would use them to any great benefit.

 

For training purposes I try to produce written step by step guides to things on a regular basis, just finished a Basic\Intermediate and Advanced Guide to Excel 2010

[Oaktech]

 

I now have a poster in my office (I think I got it off a thread on here) that says "Technology is so ingrained in our lives that saying I don't do computers is akin to saying I can't read". I tend to point at it when someone says anything along those lines.

 

And I made a poster...

[Oaktech]

My experience has been varied. I've run trainings and been completely ignored - smart board use was one of them. I ran the training everyone seemed enthusiastic so I enabled usage logging in the smart board drivers... About 2 out of 30 people started using boards. I ran an impero twighlight and the use of the more advanced features happened across the entire staff!

 

I'm also seeing that the middle aged staff - probably 35-50 seem to be the most competent overall. I would hazard a guess that this is because they are fully up to speed on their teaching skillset they have time and headspace to devote to being ICT literate. The NQT's are technically literate, but they often shy away from integrating that knowledge into their lessons because their headspace is taken up with just managing to teach. Our over 50's are not that technically literate, they are the slowest to learn, the last to ask for help, and require the most investment of my time.

[LeMarchand]

My experiences (KS1/2) echo most of the above.

 

I find that the teachers in Reception tend to expect everything done for them; maybe all that time with the rugrats affects their skills?

 

Only a handle of staff will use email or (heaven forbid!) the actual fault reporting system to report faults.

 

Most staff are OK with tech, but cannot cope with change and are sorely lacking in logical thought. Many "problems" can be solved by turning things on/plugging them in and it would be better for their class if they checked the basics rather than waiting for me to arrive.

 

However, I'm going to go with "not confident" as come inspection time it's usually very quiet for me as they avoid using tech!

[sonofsanta]

I know I'm lucky in the school I'm at, but I've gotta say: they're pretty good here.

 

I mean, there's still a huge range of users from those nearing retirement who are content with email and registers and not much more up to the Head of IT who was a data warehousing consultant in a previous life, but our baseline here is pretty solid, and we don't have any out and out refuseniks.

 

I've spent my entire 5+ years here just doing the basics right, though--make it simple, make it reliable, make it predictable. No fancy-pants iPads or Smartboards or software has even been prescribed, only ever made available and as non-threatening as possible.

in their own time. We answer stupid questions with a smile and try and show people how to help themselves and occasionally send out tips on the basics and, bit by bit, left to their own devices... everyone has gotten on with it.

 

Favourite quote from a teacher: "I never wanted to use IT, but you've just made it so useful."

 

Most are confident enough in the day to day basics of Office, email, register, internet, but more importantly they seem confident in asking us about things.

[mthomas08]

Think this is very School based - something I say often.

 

At my last job:

 

Staff were confident they could be independent

Staff were confident that IT worked

 

At my current job in the first 6 months:

 

Staff were not confident that they could be independent or that IT worked.

 

Now this has greatly improved, Staff feel some what confident and that IT works. They still require us to do the occasional checks but this is more the "Old Fashioned" Staff who don't actually use IT often.

 

I personally feel that confidence in IT reliability will always be based on how good the IT system is. It's also going to take time for Staff to improve their feeling.

[oddgical]

A huge thanks for all the input, I did not expect such a response and having only become a member five minutes before setting the thread.

Don't stop..

Neil

[timbo343]

However, I'm going to go with "not confident" as come inspection time it's usually very quiet for me as they avoid using tech!

 

I would say that about most schools during inspections i guess thry want to use as little things that could go wrong, even if they do use IT rooms during inspections, its still very quiet.

[mikkydoos]

Here's a theory then....

 

 

The longer adults work with children their roles reverse. Children become more adult. Teachers become more infantile.

 

You all know what I mean !

[halbaradkenafin]

Here's a theory then....

 

 

The longer adults work with children their roles reverse. Children become more adult. Teachers become more infantile.

 

You all know what I mean !

 

"NO I DON'T! YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT I KNOW YOU MEAN!"