Becta admit mistakes in schools IT

[Dos_Box]

From The Register :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/21/becta_bett_it_burden/

 

The man charged with helping deliver broadband to more than a million poor children has admitted that government school IT initiatives have been poorly run in the past.

 

At the BETT trade show earlier this month, Becta director of educational content Dave Hassell conceded that the education IT quango has been guilty of poor deployments. "What we've done in the past is keep throwing IT at people. It's become a burden for some," he said.

 

The comments came soon after Becta's chairman Andrew Pinder said teachers are unable to keep up with the pace of Westminster-driven IT rollout in schools.

 

Becta's current emphasis is on replacing "islands of good practice" in individual schools and authorities with a more integrated approach. "It's not a case of catching up, but we need senior managers thinking more strategically in terms of their staff's IT use," Hassell said.

 

Becta's "next generation learning" campaign, launched last week, is aimed at making better use of the technology already out there and convincing parents of its value to schools.

 

Despite the chequered recent history of education IT, a suite of new initiatives is being developed to extend access to school systems to parents via realtime reporting. Hassell said procurement of new realtime reporting IT systems will most likely be handled at local authority level.

 

Last week, a confidential draft of a parallel plan to provide broadband internet access and computers at home to every child in the country was circulated among members of the Home Access Task Force, a body convened by schools minister Jim Knight. Industry, Becta, charities, school representatives, and government will consider the scheme between now and April when final recommendations will be released.

 

April's report will focus on the "functional outcome" of Home Access - what it should achieve - rather than how to get there.

 

Knight recently began putting public pressure on the broadband industry to lower its prices to help get the project off the ground, however. It's thought the task force particularly wants to reduce the high cost of reconnecting a landline, which BT normally charges up to £125 for.

 

Proof of concept research has found that the hardware for home internet access for poor families could be rented at £3 per month. £60m is already earmarked by the Department for Children, Schools and Families to subsidise home computers for poor children.

 

"What we haven't seen is much progress yet on the broadband side," Hassell said. "Most people can afford something towards it... we want to know what broadband providers can offer to help the most deprived people."

 

Jim Knight has insisted that the home broadband scheme will be paid for by industry, government, and parents. Hassell said task force research and pilot projects show that the poorest families do want computers and broadband if it is offered at an affordable price.

[Geoff]

Proof of concept research has found that the hardware for home internet access for poor families could be rented at £3 per month.

 

Where can you get Internet for £3 a month?!?

[webman]

When it's subsidised by corporate sponsors?

 

Then again, it just says the hardware for accessing the internet can be rented for that and not the actual connection.

[wesleyw]

@Geoff it only states the hardware can be rented for £3 a month it doesn't say anything about the rental for the broadband service.

 

 

Wes

[wesleyw]

You beat me to it webman!

 

 

Wes

[GrumbleDook]

A scenario for you about the Computer for Pupils initiative.

 

Instead of handing out expensive (and easily flogable) laptops or desktops, you give the family a thin client device, a broadband router and pay for it to hook up to a server farm running a variety of flavours of Terminal Services.

 

Now wouldn't that be a lovely, cost effective solution?

 

I wonder if anyone has thought of it before?

 

/me goes to poke linescanner!

[webman]

GrumbleDook: That would be too easy.

[linescanner]

hehe.

 

That really does sound familiar.

 

I think by the end of next month I may have 2300 of them......

 

Good thinking Grumbledook

 

Credit to EE and Sun to for making it happen

Edited January 21, 2008 by linescanner

[beeswax]

A scenario for you about the Computer for Pupils initiative.

 

Instead of handing out expensive (and easily flogable) laptops or desktops, you give the family a thin client device, a broadband router and pay for it to hook up to a server farm running a variety of flavours of Terminal Services.

 

Now wouldn't that be a lovely, cost effective solution?

 

I wonder if anyone has thought of it before?

 

/me goes to poke linescanner!

 

Springhill High School, Rochdale is doing it AFAIK.

[sahmeepee]

Thin client solutions are definitely the way to go if you have a lot of pupils that would qualify for the money. If you only have a handful of "deprived" youngsters I'm not sure what the best way forward is - I can't see us setting up a terminal server (even virtualized) for the 1.5% of our pupils who are on free school meals.

 

Although it sounds like a nice situation to be in, you have to bear in mind that those 1.5% are just a badly off as the 25% in the school down the road. Possibly the money won't be purely per-capita and we'll be able to sort something more expensive out.

[localzuk]

A scenario for you about the Computer for Pupils initiative.

 

Instead of handing out expensive (and easily flogable) laptops or desktops, you give the family a thin client device, a broadband router and pay for it to hook up to a server farm running a variety of flavours of Terminal Services.

 

Now wouldn't that be a lovely, cost effective solution?

 

I wonder if anyone has thought of it before?

 

/me goes to poke linescanner!

 

From what I've heard, merseyside were looking at a sun global desktop based system.

[torledo]

Where can you get Internet for £3 a month?!?

 

I wonder if the subsidised broadband includes BT Line rental, now that would be a good deal for the 'poor'...

 

As for the BT reconnection charges, i have to say it's scandalous. Reactivation at a nominal or no charge should be forced on BT, not the cost of reinstalling from the street back to the exchange even when you've moved away from BT for less than a year.

 

I personally think the easiest way to provide cheap broadband projects is to wait for wimax. Eshew fixed line broadband in favour of a wireless triple-play solution with 802.16e mobility - no line rental, packet voice and true wireless roaming for use of these services. Best of all, it would end finally the BT last mile monopoly. Becta should look to work with the companies who are looking to roll out nationwide services after the forthcoming 2.6ghz auctions.

 

And with the current education favourite the eee due to include a wimax chip in the next release - we might see a truly integrated laptop/service project that's useable and cost effective. Thin clients my ass - the sensible money should be on the eee/wimax in 2009/2010 for the less priviledged.

[Grommit]

@Geoff it only states the hardware can be rented for £3 a month it doesn't say anything about the rental for the broadband service.

 

 

Wes

 

 

We are already giving all the poor "Parents on dole" kids brand new PCs or Laptops and free high speed broadband for as long as they are at the school...

 

Paid for by the government..

[broc]

We tried to hand out free laptops under the computers for pupils initiative. Many households already had them, and were signed up with ISPs that were not the LAs chosen supplier. In some cases the telecoms supplier refused to connect the households because of outstanding bad debts....

 

Some bright spark suggested we give those households with bad debts 3g modem cards & have the school pay the rental and data charges.....

 

Total nightmare!