Primary School EduGeekers - what are the most common challenges you face with IT?

[Stone_Charli]

Hi,

 

I'm putting together a blog post on common problems primary schools experience with technology - and I was hoping to get your thoughts.

 

So - EduGeekers that currently work in or have worked in a primary school, what would you say the biggest challenges you have faced when it comes to IT are?

 

I appreciate that this is quite broad - I just don't want to lead you down a specific path by mentioning potential problems. Just anything that springs to mind!

 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Charli

 

 

Edit: sorted out some of my grammar

Edited October 3, 2016 by Stone_Charli

[FN-GM]

I work for a MAT that includes primaries. The biggest issue I have had is bad advise from outside parties that have lead to purchasing kit / services they don't needed or are not appropriate. The lack of investment in replacing current equipment has also been an issue, they tend to keep buy more and more new stuff and leave the existing stuff to get old.

[LeMarchand]

1. Teachers
   
2. Teachers
   
3. Teachers
   

 

 

Sensible answer to follow (probably another day).

[sparkeh]

I've worked in a few primaries and the biggest challenges are:

• Budget and staffing: Luckily I work in a big school now and have the budget and willingness to invest in IT and employ me full time to help provide a decent service but its very difficult in small schools. I guess most small primaries struggle to employ technical staff and I know a lot use a TA to run the network. I know a few who do a cracking job but don't have the time, knowledge and experience to be able to do the job they want to do. I helped out a school where the network was setup by a teacher's husband who was 'good with computers' and I nearly cried when I saw the mess I had to unpick.
  
• Bad advice. There are a lot of good companies out there that will help schools make good decisions but there are also a lot of companies that prey on schools with slick presentations on the latest expensive shiney shiney.
  

[elsiegee40]

1. Limited budget

2. Limited understanding / unrealistic expectations

3. Part time hours as school can't afford full time but full time support expected.

4. String and chewing gum solutions (see 1 & 2)

[jdoldridge]

iPads! All ours seem to want to purchase is iPads... You're server has fallen over and needs replacing "but we have no money to do that, oh but can you order 10 more iPads for us please"

[FN-GM]

I don't really understand the budget issues for purchasing kit. Surely it would be relative to a secondary school and have a similar £x per head IT budget? Edited October 3, 2016 by FN-GM

[DJ-1701]

Really this affects any company, but, purchasing equipment and failing to engage or notify IT before hand. This can lead to knock on effects for the product not working in the environment, wasted time trying to get something to work, or both.

 

Other than that, lack of investment in IT infrastructure (and I am not talking iPads! 'Shiney thing' that Pupils and Parents get to see does not make it all better! ). Lack of care taken over handling technology causing damage. Getting people to realise possible data protection issues with some of the ideas they propose (i.e. 'Let's use free online storage with a company in the US that doesn't comply with EU safe guards'). Staff not realising that sticking items in or around a SmartBoard can cause problems when using it.

[mikkydoos]

1. Teachers
   
2. Teachers
   
3. Teachers
   

 

Sensible answer to follow (probably another day).

 

 

Erm.... its the teachers.

 

Invent an android that responds only to...

 

"Will you do it for me"

"This is rubbish"

"It'll work now you're standing there"

 

 

You'll sell millions m8.

 

 

Seriously... Its levels of skill and an unwillingness to learn how to do it yourself.

 

Technical issues only exist if

 

a) There's no IT staff

b) Management don't want to invest.

c) There is a crummy local authority service providing bad infrastructure / support.

 

 

I'm very lucky because I get listened to, get a decent budget and more if I need it, access to governing body and am trusted and praised by the school.

 

End result.... Rock solid network, good kit and NEVER goes down.

 

 

Oh, and some Ipads :)

 

 

Edited October 3, 2016 by mikkydoos

[sparkeh]

I don't really understand the budget issues. Surely it would be relative to a secondary school and have a similar £x per head IT budget?

Can't speak for your area but I just compared per pupil funding for us and the local secondaries and they get at least 1/3 more per pupil than we do. If we received the same funding we would have an extra £300k in funding!

[mikkydoos]

iPads! All ours seem to want to purchase is iPads... You're server has fallen over and needs replacing "but we have no money to do that, oh but can you order 10 more iPads for us please"

 

Turn it off and leave it off for a few days. You'll soon get a new one

[mikkydoos]

Can't speak for your area but I just compared per pupil funding for us and the local secondaries and they get at least 1/3 more per pupil than we do. If we received the same funding we would have an extra £300k in funding!

@sparkeh

 

Primaries get ****loads of money, its just that a lot of it gets flushed down the bog, wasted on stupid salaries or other wasteful cr@p.

Edited October 3, 2016 by mikkydoos

[sted]

I don't really understand the budget issues for purchasing kit. Surely it would be relative to a secondary school and have a similar £x per head IT budget?

its area dependent i work mainly in Leeds schools but as a company we support Bradford schools and Leeds schools spend considerably less on ict than Bradford schools (yes this is an exaggeration but it seems true) it also depends on the head/governors/business managers. Also Bradford lea buys in all sorts of software/services (even if they are poor about telling schools not on their isp about them) that ive never seen Leeds do

[mikeprice]

Main problem when I got here - temp solutions that had been there for ages

e.g. network (including the main backbone) was a proper network rack able to hole 2 switches - with 3 more piled on top

wi-fi - various home quality APs scattered around the school

projectors so old and filled with carp that they needed replacing but no-one had said anything

Sound not working due to

a) kids fiddleing with the knobs on the amp and no-one knowing where it is supposed to point

b) books/files being pushed against the amp thus pressing a button in

both fixed with sticky paper and training

 

 

Main problem now - staff refuse to use email to contact me - help desk system is based on calling "Mike while you're here" and then assuming I will remember what they say

 

Oh - and also the LEA web filtering system - if want a report of potential misuse they 'may be able to produce a report in a few days or a week"

 

rest of it - general stuff that has stopped working

[FN-GM]

Can't speak for your area but I just compared per pupil funding for us and the local secondaries and they get at least 1/3 more per pupil than we do. If we received the same funding we would have an extra £300k in funding!

 

its area dependent i work mainly in Leeds schools but as a company we support Bradford schools and Leeds schools spend considerably less on ict than Bradford schools (yes this is an exaggeration but it seems true) it also depends on the head/governors/business managers. Also Bradford lea buys in all sorts of software/services (even if they are poor about telling schools not on their isp about them) that ive never seen Leeds do

 

Sounds like its the LA's creaming the money off the top as our Academies get roughly the same for both Secondary and Primary.

[elsiegee40]

My experience of limited budgets, string and chewing gum is from the independent sector.

 

Primaries are trying to cover the whole thing on a much smaller budget.

 

Even if you get the same amount per pupil, the number of pupils is much smaller - probably 25 to 33% the size of your average secondary or less. Many primaries have a couple of hundred pupils at most.

 

The costs of the infrastructure do not decrease in strict proportion to the number of pupils.

 

For example paying say 25% of an experienced IT Tech's salary (because what you actually need is a qualified NM) doesn't buy enough tech hours to provide the service required, so more hours are required.

[LeMarchand]

OK, what I hope will be some sensible answers.

 

In no particular order:

 

Budget/lack of/what's a budget?

I'veworked at 5 different primaries. None of them has had a budget plan for IT in place, preferring to buy on an ad hoc basis.

 

Staff who've been in education their whole lives

Too many staff haven't had a job outside of education and think that the "special" status conferred on students and teachers means that everything is going to be highly discounted and that licensing does not apply to them.

 

Reception Teachers

Some of the lady geeks disagree with me, but reception year teachers seem to sink to the level of their charges in terms of "I want" and "I dunno how - you do it".

 

No idea of what our job entails

e.g. If a new batch of laptops turn up, they are expected to be ready for use in slightly less than the time takes to unpack them. They don't even stop to think that software needs installing etc etc

 

Very easily swayed by The Shiney

Is anyone still using Nintendo DSes? They were going to "transform maths lessons"...

 

...and everything above, plus probably more but I'm investigating an annoying printer problem.

[HBPS]

Change..... staff don't like it. so i do it anyway.....

[mikkydoos]

Hhhhm. An interesting theme developing here.

 

I think everyone has mentioned that in fact the main problem is the flippin' teachers.

 

To think... some of the dummies taught us !!

 

Lol. So true

[broomop]

expectation especially when working by yourself to set up for example 60 Laptops in a couple of days.

[mikeprice]

TBF we have some good teachers here - especially the younger ones

 

and many older ones (shhhhh - don't say I said that) that are rubbish with computers but have the sence to ask and try to learn for next time

 

I think I have got most of them trained - it may help that I am older than most of them so excuses like "we didn't have computers when I was at school' doesn't really work with me

[mikkydoos]

TBF we have some good teachers here - especially the younger ones

 

and many older ones (shhhhh - don't say I said that) that are rubbish with computers but have the sence to ask and try to learn for next time

 

I think I have got most of them trained - it may help that I am older than most of them so excuses like "we didn't have computers when I was at school' doesn't really work with me

 

I work with some good'uns too TBF.

 

But.... God! there are some that are too pathetic for me to even try to comprehend.

[LeMarchand]

Whilst waiting for a reboot...

 

Lack of planning/Being Underpants Gnomes

Following on from "The Shiney", I can believe that DSes/iPads/Visualisers/Chromebooks may well have transformed learning in the "Super School" that was singing their praises. But these schools thought about how they were going to be used and integrated them fully into the school's teaching and ethos. All too often the thinking seems to be:

 

1. Get new device/software
   
2. ???
   
3. Teaching transformed!
   

[dry]

- Restricted budgets

- Impatient staff with no understanding of the difference between home and corporate networks

- School focus being on things not related to IT

- Unwillingness to adopt latest technological trends (in my head I'm thinking an IT helpdesk as opposed to post-it notes on desks, but by no stretch of the imagination is a helpdesk a 'latest technological trend' )

 

I could go on...

[Brimstone]

LA's

LA's

oh and....LA's