now is the best opportunity to push for an all digital workflow

[chazzy2501]

We're up to renew our photocopying lease, these machines cost £400 a quarter (I think all in), that's got me thinking.

 

Teachers and pupils have just had an extensive push at all digital learning, right now might be the best opportunity to push the school to an all digital workflow.

 

Without a push we'll fall back to paper printouts and marking.

 

I could use these funds for graphics tablets for teachers home and classrooms and still save money. buy a broadband upgrade, get some laptops with built in stylus. (maybe)

 

I'm going to broach this with SLT today if I can, anyone got some input?

[paulkerton]

I'm going to broach this with SLT today if I can, anyone got some input?

 

Are your quarterly costs complete? Device? Toner? Paper?

Show all costs for all printing and where that spend can be diverted to

[TechMonkey]

Do your pupils and staff have 1:1 devices? Or a plan to move to 1:1? No point pushing a digital agenda if there is no way to run a digital agenda.

[jmak]

Price sounds very low. From recollection, last time I looked for a school with 300 pupils and 30 staff, we had 1 multifunction and 2 desktop LaserJet printers and our costs were around £7.5k per year. That was a framework price and it was cheaper than the 3 quotes I got (no formal tender, as we used the framework contract). That included lease, toner, maintenance and paper (which was bought separately).

 

Maybe your team is already wrote restrained with printing

[paulkerton]

Do your pupils and staff have 1:1 devices? Or a plan to move to 1:1? No point pushing a digital agenda if there is no way to run a digital agenda.

This. If you have high printing costs, it's a great pot of spending to help your plans with 1:1. Use that reducing of printing costs to fund 1:1 rather than to make a saving!

[jthompson]

I wouldn't force it too much, and be prepared for it to be a longer term project that you'd like. There's likely to be a lot of change fatigue amongst your teaching staff, who will have a lot on their plate as it is. You'd want to be certain that the school has all of the tools and resources available to successfully make that transition and not set people against anything 'new fangled'. I'd have thought you'd need a well established and reliable 1:1 operation in place, with all the associated staff training, before you can start taking away the familiar and reliable paper options.

 

The tech isn't going anywhere: it's always going to be where schools ultimately end up. The pandemic has given everyone about a 3-year jump forwards in tech, so that will have made the job of going all digital that much easier. I'd say it's a longer term project though, to be sure to get it right and have everyone coming with you.

[chazzy2501]

Do your pupils and staff have 1:1 devices? Or a plan to move to 1:1? No point pushing a digital agenda if there is no way to run a digital agenda.

 

no, we are not 1:1 but I should restate that for us, where possible we don't revert. There are classes with traditional work but as during lockdown these can still be photographed and submitted. All print outs in I.T based lessons could be submitted instead of printed and homework possibly could go all digital. Handouts in PDF not paper, where possible.

 

This was a musing for all schools not just myself.

 

I didn't want to loose the efforts put forth in the lockdown merely to revert to paper printouts again! The teachers will fall back onto comfy habits and we'll be a decade away before we know it.

 

This is really an incomplete thought and argument for myself, I guess. I was looking to articulate / expand on the idea.

[Andrew_C]

Don't forget about exams/mocks/practice papers. They won't go digital anytime soon, if ever.

[chazzy2501]

Sorry more musings. I guess it was the printer fleet being replaced / renewed that sparked this idea. The printers are used to produce documents from computers, so really how to eliminate these classroom printers. (separate printer lease for reprographics)

 

is there a case for having pupils produce digital documents and print them for submission, rather than digital submission.

[2ilent8cho]

We have 1:1 for all 5 years with iPads, which meant we were in a lucky position to use remote online learning instantly last March. The lockdowns/remote working made them use digital exclusively and they now prefer it and have no intention of going back to how they use to work. Some departments like Science and Maths are using OneNote for Exam Papers and the teachers love it, it which means they don't have to carry piles and piles of heavy exam papers around to mark, spend hours photocopying , and they just mark stuff on OneNote electronically . We gave the kids those cheap stylus that work out at 8p each to help when having to draw a diagram on OneNote and the Teachers have the proper Apple Pencil for their iPads.

 

We are going to start reducing the amount of printers and photocopiers we lease now as they are just not being used anymore, our staff are very comfortable using electronic documents now.

[jthompson]

is there a case for having pupils produce digital documents and print them for submission, rather than digital submission.

 

If it's a printer in a classroom, in service of a room full of student computers, then I guess now that everyone has some experience of using Classroom/Teams for online submission, marking and feedback, then the burden of proof, so to speak, lies with anyone wanting to spend money to routinely print student work from those computers. That's your low hanging fruit if teachers have laptops to work from, since you already have everything in place to be able to remove that printer and save money right away.

[dhicks]

We gave the kids those cheap stylus that work out at 8p each to help when having to draw a diagram on OneNote and the Teachers have the proper Apple Pencil for their iPads.

 

Ah, good to know. We're trialing Kami school-wide, which allows for electronic annotation of "print" documents, and I've bought a tub of the cheapest styluses available to try out. I found them rather poor when trying to do handwriting, but I reckon you're right and they should be fine for diagrams.

 

We have similar issues to the original poster, which we're hoping Kami (or similar) will solve - teachers have resources in printable format (PDFs, etc) and are in the habit of setting those as work, even online for children working at home, which is an issue if home doesn't have a printer handy. Kami allows pupils to annotate PDFs and submit the results via Google Classroom - no printing needed, and teachers can use their existing resources.

[mikes]

Also I found the more the school goes digital, the more it falls back onto often one or two IT technicians to keep running. There was never a big disaster with pen and paper, the worst that could go wrong is that a pencil nib snaps. But when it's all online, and you need laptops - and you're beholden to your LEA for a shoddy Internet connection - half the lesson becomes about working round faults rather than actual learning.

 

I'd say we are not currently at the right technological level for full on 1:1 total digital learning yet. Even if they pour money into it, one poor network setup, one incompetent tech and the whole thing comes crashing down. I'd say we need another 10 - 20 years of ICT development before I'd confidently say to our head, that we should do it. Otherwise you are asking to look a slap fool the moment something goes wrong.

[paulkerton]

I'd say we are not currently at the right technological level for full on 1:1 total digital learning yet. Even if they pour money into it, one poor network setup, one incompetent tech and the whole thing comes crashing down. I'd say we need another 10 - 20 years of ICT development before I'd confidently say to our head, that we should do it. Otherwise you are asking to look a slap fool the moment something goes wrong.

Maybe in your school, but for most who have developed high quality wi-fi network and wired infrastructure with internet connectivity that isn't dependent on their LEA (like most schools aren't now) this is absolute bibble.

Now is absolutely the time.

[Andrew_C]

Now is absolutely the time.

Well, do it quickly before Micro$oft release another update that cripples your system for a day or so.

[paulkerton]

Well, do it quickly before Micro$oft release another update that cripples your system for a day or so.

 

Thank you for my first genuine LOL moment of the day. hahaha.

[jthompson]

We're at a stage where our network needs a lot of upgrading to make the quantum leap from supporting 1 wireless device per classroom to 30, 10Gb backbone, better redundancy, etc. After that massive lump of work, phasing 1:1 in and paper out looks simple!

 

I would say that the pandemic has really set minds here to the value of going 1:1. It's demonstrated how transformative it could be to all subjects, so I'm not so worried that we need to strike while the iron is hot lest people settle forever into the ways of the before times. I'm more concerned about making sure we absolutely nail it first time and not look back.

[mrstrong]

I don't think I've ever been as busy as in the last few months,

(this is the first time I've been on edugeek for a while )

I'm increasingly becoming a proponent of "pencil and paper"!

[free780]

Thank you for my first genuine LOL moment of the day. hahaha.

 

Break all the printing that will lead to 1:1 devices and COVID19 not spreading via MFDs.

[Brimstone]

Don't forget about exams/mocks/practice papers. They won't go digital anytime soon, if ever.

There are plenty of forward thinking schools who have been sending out mock and practice papers digitally for years.....

[Andrew_C]

There are plenty of forward thinking schools who have been sending out mock and practice papers digitally for years.....

Practice maybe (and we do), but a proper mock should be sat in as near "real life" conditions as possible. They are relied upon if a child can't sit the real thing.

[paulkerton]

Don't forget about exams/mocks/practice papers. They won't go digital anytime soon, if ever.

I'm not so sure about that. DfE are certainly looking at it and Wales and Scotland have already made a state. It might be a little while yet, but don't be surprised to see it happen sooner rather than later.

[Brimstone]

Both macOS and iPadOS already have a framework for developers writing test and assessment apps..

 

https://www.apple.com/education/docs/Assessment_Overview.pdf