Dos_Box Posted February 19, 2016 Posted February 19, 2016 This is a bit of a big question. At BETT last month I was collared for a sudden interview by Daley Robinson at Stone Computers and was asked what is the current Big Thing for schools IT. After a bit of thought I had to come to the conclusion it was The Cloud. This includes things like Office 365, Chromebooks, online services such as ParentPay, Room Booking Systems and VLE's it seems that lots of us now are buying in services that take previously local services and obtaining them from the cloud. The only probelm with this is (and no offcence to the companies invloved) is it's not very glamerous and you can't have a stand with lots of shiny things on when your product is virtual. In all the years we've een doing BETT we have seen the introduction of and widespread uptake of whiteboards and projectors, handheld computing (tablets, netbooks etc.), wireless networks, BYOD and several other technologies which have made our jobs 'interesting'. Now, it seems that the cloud is the current major leap to become involved with. But what after this? What major leap do you think will be making it's way to the classroom in the next 5 years? Sensible answers please, it would be nice to know what we should be looking out for.
3s-gtech Posted February 19, 2016 Posted February 19, 2016 Won't be particularly pervasive, but I'd like to see VR make a presence in education. The immersion could be very powerful in Science, Technology, History etc. Perhaps also distance learning, to be 'in' a remote classroom. Perhaps limited in availability in schools, but a tool that can be shared and used across classes.
Dos_Box Posted February 19, 2016 Author Posted February 19, 2016 Won't be particularly pervasive, but I'd like to see VR make a presence in education. The immersion could be very powerful in Science, Technology, History etc. Perhaps also distance learning, to be 'in' a remote classroom. Perhaps limited in availability in schools, but a tool that can be shared and used across classes. I remembers seeing a guy (a member I think) on the @ict-direct stand and he was asking whether there was anyone at BETT with the Oculus Rift and software. I replied that as it had just been 'properly' launched there probably wasn't enough time for people to develop products yet. Next year we may see quite a few stands with VR based products. That I'd like to see. What the educational application of VR would be however, would be anyones guess.
CyberNerd Posted February 19, 2016 Posted February 19, 2016 This is a bit of a big question. At BETT last month I was collared for a sudden interview by Daley Robinson at Stone Computers and was asked what is the current Big Thing for schools IT. After a bit of thought I had to come to the conclusion it was The Cloud. This includes things like Office 365, Chromebooks, online services such as ParentPay, Room Booking Systems and VLE's it seems that lots of us now are buying in services that take previously local services and obtaining them from the cloud. I think you'll find that was seven or eight years ago. If something comes my way that has an .exe .msi or .dmg I won't sign it off unless I can get it running in a browser. The next "big thing" will be "Big data" in education. It's hit pretty much every other IT sector, but nobody is yet doing anything like this in education because schools are too far behind the cloud curve. What I mean is mapping MIS data against firewall logs, document access, time spend doing X or Y and presenting trends in an easily identifiable way. If all the products have open API's (and most do) then the next big company in education will be the one that can tie it all together. 1
rich_tech Posted February 19, 2016 Posted February 19, 2016 Infrastructure, investment and internet access have been the most major sticking points in schools I think in recent years and preventing taking up of cloud services, our internet access here has improved, but it still has some way to go to be properly fit for purpose based on my calculations against it. You can't really consider cloud when you don't have the infrastructure or internet access in place as its much more reliant on those two items, given that their services are easily accessed through browser technologies. 1
Meldrew Posted February 19, 2016 Posted February 19, 2016 Personally I think Veritasium got it right with this video: Meldrew.
rad Posted February 19, 2016 Posted February 19, 2016 So we have Smartboards, laptops, ipads, visualisers etc, The cloud is next, but it is already here. So is a universal One time sign on. What about a biometric system for logging onto any device, whether it is an ipad, pc, canteen system or admission door system.
witch Posted February 19, 2016 Posted February 19, 2016 More use of the Cloud Do you think some people will ever understand that it isn't really floating about somewhere but is on a server - just not their server? 2
Edu-IT Posted February 19, 2016 Posted February 19, 2016 There were some very good products at BETT for the Cloud, and Office 365 integrations, and I think they had just as much value to add as big stands showcasing physical products. I think going forward these sorts of stands will get bigger. I see "integration" as the key going forward in cloud products. Systems need to be able to talk to each other. Aside from that, I'm not too sure. There was nothing at BETT this year that was groundbreaking I don't think.
twin--turbo Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 Another idea that SMT want to jump on the bandwagon and waste £50K of taxpayers money. 1
JonThompson Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 Another idea that SMT want to jump on the bandwagon and waste £50K of taxpayers money. Especially if it's shiny, shiny…
elsiegee40 Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 Especially if it's shiny, shiny… Nah. Matt black will be the next big thing.... 3
twin--turbo Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 Nah. Matt black will be the next big thing.... Who? Matt LeBlank? 2
DJ-1701 Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 Nah. Matt black will be the next big thing.... Isn't that the colour of the screen when it's switched off? Actually maybe that will be the next thing, the great switch off of 2017... Or did you mean Matt Smith? *Fixes imaginary bow-tie*. Back on topic, I always imagined a future where educators teach remotely across quite a few classes, interclass working and collaboration... Still would need people to keep the pupils in order though in the classrooms and SEN staff for some pupils.
X-13 Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 Back on topic, I always imagined a future where educators teach remotely across quite a few classes, interclass working and collaboration... Still would need people to keep the pupils in order though in the classrooms and SEN staff for some pupils. Tele-presence? I think they messed around with that in Japan... Got good results IIRC. 1
CyberNerd Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 More use of the Cloud Do you think some people will ever understand that it isn't really floating about somewhere but is on a server - just not their server? 'server rooms' will be a relic of history. It will be 3-5 yrs and it will be cost effective to run offsite. If server/electricity costs come down dramatically it will be sooner. Why did IBM want to exit the server market and MS/Google/Amazon enter it ? Failure to see that the internet/infrastructure is the way forward is a huge failure of Senior teams (and network mangers for not pressing the point). Example: how much do pay HLTA's, your MS agreement, Capita etc. vs the internet/infrastructure. I'd go for the latter.
Popular Post synaesthesia Posted February 21, 2016 Popular Post Posted February 21, 2016 Personally I'm hoping the next big thing in schools will be a mixture of education and discipline, but both appear to be disappearing into history. As for IT though, if I was given the choice I'd hand over half of my budget (although probably thankfully I don't control that!) to get a bloody decent teacher or two in the door rather than spend it on some faddy waste of time. That's a mixture of getting extremely cynical and sitting on the sidelines watching the difficulties involved in teaching these days. 7
Andrew_C Posted February 21, 2016 Posted February 21, 2016 I remain to be convinced that IT in and of itself is much use at all for teaching. Most use it as a replacement for VCRs. They all use Excel a bit, but only really for drawing graphs, which can be done by hand. Our newest physics teacher seems to be using quite a bit, but he is in the minority. 2
3s-gtech Posted February 21, 2016 Posted February 21, 2016 I agree. I provide many tools and services to teachers, their impact on teaching and learning is fairly minimal - they mainly help with administration, marking, tracking etc. The most highly used feature is the humble projector, but too often that's just used to shove a video on. Teachers and a good learning environment are better places to spend money. My budget is being slashed this year, if it helps to protect teaching jobs it's more than worth it.
robjduk Posted February 21, 2016 Posted February 21, 2016 Personally I see home learning creeping into schools. I think in 50 years we will wonder why we used to bus so many students across towns on mass every day.
DJ-1701 Posted February 21, 2016 Posted February 21, 2016 Personally I see home learning creeping into schools. I think in 50 years we will wonder why we used to bus so many students across towns on mass every day. The only issue with that is in this day and age both parents are usually working. Maybe if one of the parents were working from home.
CAM Posted February 23, 2016 Posted February 23, 2016 I don't think anything big is coming this year for the front-end of IT. The back-end I predict more cloud (especially with MIS providers) and a transition to more Multi-Academy Trusts using one IT team to support multiple schools, seeing techies shift from a school cupboard to a dedicated helpdesk office. We might see the start of this for data managers as well but on a significantly smaller scale.
PotNoodleTech Posted February 23, 2016 Posted February 23, 2016 (edited) A computer based white board and projector system where you can use a special magnetic pen to write and annotate to create ICT resources or annotate over existing resources in real time. It's going to make education paperless and enable collaborative sharing of best practice on an international scale. I've got all of my money tied up in a startup in this sector as I can see it will be the future, no more Powerpoint! Amazing! I re-mortgaged. I hope it goes well. Edited February 23, 2016 by PotNoodleTech 3
zag Posted February 23, 2016 Posted February 23, 2016 (edited) Gotta be servers moving to the cloud. I'm surprised Microsoft has been so slow in getting people onto a subscription login model. Works perfectly for email so far. Google also seem to have done it with no issues. Edited February 23, 2016 by zag
hardtailstar Posted February 23, 2016 Posted February 23, 2016 A computer based white board and projector system where you can use a special magnetic pen to write and annotate to create ICT resources or annotate over existing resources in real time. It's going to make education paperless and enable collaborative sharing of best practice on an international scale. I've got all of my money tied up in a startup in this sector as I can see it will be the future, no more Powerpoint! Amazing! I re-mortgaged. I hope it goes well. @AButters I take it that it is more in depth than the Promethean whiteboards?
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