Ten years later, a new edu tech strategy is announced.

[psydii]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/edtech-strategy-marks-new-era-for-schools

[dcwhitworth]

Sounds like the same old waffle as usual, what's actually different ?

[FishCustard]

Intrigued by the "LendED" scheme through which you can apparently try-before-you-buy software...

[strawberry]

Intrigued by the "LendED" scheme through which you can apparently try-before-you-buy software...

Isn't that what happens to any software once a teacher gets their hands on it?

 

Upgraious floppy disk to network license a spellyarmous!

[Kitkatninja]

"This will be supported by free online training courses for teachers and school leaders, produced by the Chartered College of Teaching, which will provide access to high-quality continued professional development and equip them with the knowledge required to make the best use of technology."

 

Yeah, support staff (inc IT Professionals in education) are again being left out... Sorry starting to sound bitter...

[strawberry]

So teachers attend training, half listen, come back to school to show off their new skills, can't do it, call upto support who havent been trained in the dark arts of teaching, nor have they attended said training, nor are they given a decent explanation and somehow it's our fault the teachers can't deliever on their own misguided expectations.

[jthompson]

A tech product that needs teachers to go on a training course? Sounds like it's going to save teachers lots of time. Not.

[FishCustard]

A tech product that needs teachers to go on a training course? Sounds like it's going to save teachers lots of time. Not.

 

That greatly depends on what it is to be honest - if after the training+implementation it can save (e.g.) ten minutes per day of paper admin, that will in the long-term save time.

[psydii]

I once sent a couple of SLT on a two day excel training course. It saved them each 1 day a month of admin work.

 

I've got an excel guy and a web guy to build us some forms, a few macros and an xml export, and saved eight weeks of man hours. Two weeks of which were SLT time. Only took a year for the time saving delivered to cover the cost.

 

Training and the right products can have dramatic effects.

 

Having resources (rooms, bookable devices etc) in Outlook along with the calendar saves lots of little trips round the building to confirm availability.

 

eliminating logons entirely - gets the staff up and running in 0 seconds from entering the room.

 

Resrouces pre-prepared, re-usable and editable saves (funnily enough) preparation time.

 

Have a UI optimised for the specific classroom use case (e.g. some online registers etc) again saves valuable seconds/minutes.

 

It all adds up.

[DJ-1701]

Did anyone else read this

 

Unveiling the Education Technology strategy at the Schools and Academies Show in London, the Education Secretary will set out plans – backed by £10

 

and think 'that's about right' before noticing the 'million' on the next line?

[jthompson]

That greatly depends on what it is to be honest - if after the training+implementation it can save (e.g.) ten minutes per day of paper admin, that will in the long-term save time.

 

Fair enough. I was being unduly glib. I'm one of those people who quietly wishes other people would just learn to press the right buttons.

[steve]

Sounds a bit like Curriculum Online / e-learning credits from 2003, this time for admin software.

[dcwhitworth]

Sounds a bit like Curriculum Online / e-learning credits from 2003, this time for admin software.

 

Yeah, same old, same old. The blurb around it sounds depressingly familiar, the first sentence sums it up for me.

 

It's not that I don't believe the technology can do this, it's more that I don't believe it will be done the right way to enable this to happen on a useful scale. I'm sure we've all seen it time and time again, someone comes along banner waving for the next 'new thing' that will transform lives, outcomes, workload, save money, you name it. The technology gets implemented, staff get a presentation and then that's it. You then have another semi-adopted system increasing the complexity of your environment. Of course there will be those who love it but most will be indifferent.

 

To make it work I think you need to -

 

1. Properly fund it.

2. Train staff prior to implementation

3. Appoint people who's job it is to promote the system and help staff

4. Implement the system

5. Make people use it and withdraw competing systems

6. Continually review use and retrain staff

 

I doubt whether the government or most schools have the will or resources to do this.

[unixman_again]

The Register take on it

[GrumbleDook]

It does include a lot of soundbites, and some of it is high level ... but a lot of the aims look to build on (or rather pick up again) some of the previous successes ... but on a more ... erm ... stringent ... budget than the amount previously thrown at EdTech.

 

I have some concerns around reinventing the wheel ... the lack of engagement with the professional IT Support sector ... management of tech still ending up being centrally dictated rather than based on real needs of educators and based on the experience of staff delivering day in, day out.

 

LendEd is a good proposition though and I think it is worth getting involved.

 

There are various suppliers in here who are BESA members or who have links with organisations such as the Education Endowment Foundation.

 

If you have strong views and can be constructive about particular aspects of the strategy then raise them in here.

[PotNoodleTech]

Every school I know, including my own, is desperately trying to become a leading edge 21st century school, the only thing really holding back most of us from achieving it is lack of funding, and lack of training (which is a direct result of lack of funding).

 

So basically lack of funding is the only thing holding most schools back.

 

The above article addresses nothing that we need, here, right now.

Edited April 5, 2019 by PotNoodleTech

[DrCheese]

I agree. There's loads I wish we could do but budget stops us every. single. time.

 

i.e "Oh, why do you still only have projectors? has lovely interactive TV screens that look amazing and work with + they never go dim "

 

Sorry, but I can barely afford the £500 to replace a failed projector, let alone the £2000+ for a decent sized screen

[localzuk]

I still feel that a lot of schools treat IT as a reluctant "must have" instead of a positive thing that can improve things. So, budget-wise, it gets the bare minimum - and that just reinforces the original view as things barely work because of it.

 

Your projector/screen one being an example - a projector/IWB/install vs new touchscreen works out as being about equal when you take into account TCO now. The quality of the image is much higher as well, and every class I've put them in loves them much more than their old projectors - they stay bright! They are an install and forget item. But, like you @DrCheese, you are stuck putting in replacement projectors, because you don't get given the budget to think longer term about things.

 

That attitude applies throughout school IT - IT suites, wireless, network switches, how we deploy servers, everything. A lot of schools end up stuck with the same old tech forever because they never spend more than a bare minimum on IT, so they can never consider the big picture.

 

New schemes from the DfE don't really help either - because they focus on a mix of "ooh shiny" and "you can do this without spending any more, or even make savings!", so the old legacy stuff schools have still sits their languishing, but with the occasional shiny thing added at the edge.

[DrCheese]

Yup - Display screens are much much better long term & will run for years at the same brightness - As you say the TCO is about the same too. It's the upfront cost that hurts & when you only have a few grand in capital you have to think "Is it better to change 5 classrooms or just the one?"

 

I still have LCD projectors from 2005 in production so getting rid of those in favour of LED ones is a key priority right now.

 

Very right about the backend stuff too - My switches are all reaching 10 years old & all of our (4) core switches have thrown up errors this year. It's not the end of the world as we're on a lifetime warranty with Dell, but it's still not great. I can't run 10gb with them either. They all need replacing but then that's money I can't spend on the front end kit that the students/staff use.

[Ditto]

I'm all too aware of the funding challenge, but with the right governing body and leadership teams, there are ways to tackle the big hit upfront costs. In my governance school, we have just installed IWBs in every classroom and given staff training and it's proved to be well received and had a positive impact. The school is planning to put aside a sum every year for future replacement, assuming a 5 year lifetime. We are helped enormously as a big chunk of the expense is being footed but the "Friends' of School" over a 3 year period. At another school, all their portable devices were leased - probably more expensive in the long run, but removed a lot of worry about breakages but also was more compatible with their annual expenditure plans.

[mavhc]

£10 million is about £1/pupil.

 

If any of my GCSE CS science pupils even knew what a spreadsheet was that would be a start.

 

The lesson after how to write with a pencil needs to be how to touch type.

 

The lesson after how to use a calculator needs to be how to use a spreadsheet.

 

The lesson after how to make a poster needs to be how to make a website.

 

So first thing is send every teacher to school to learn those things themselves. Starting with how to use the shift key, sigh.

 

If they don't want branded Google/MS free software then invest in open source, only way to compete is to get everyone to help worldwide. How many millions are we paying microsoft every year to rent their software?