Schools not computerised

[comedymikey]

For a while I did supply teaching between contracts and was shocked to find kids in classes still using exercise books and pens and pencils. Even up to year 10. in some schools! There were computers in some classes e.g. IT but the majority were not. I'm sure there are some schools embracing tech? I would have thought kids teaching and learning were computerised by age 11 or 12 but it seems most not?

[3s-gtech]

Ummm. No. Not even close. It’s not the norm yet, and some schools haven’t got any intention of going 1-1 in the short term.

[gaz350b]

Me personally I never want to see students using computers all the time.

 

It’s really not healthy and I don’t think outcomes will be better.

[elsiegee40]

For a while I did supply teaching between contracts and was shocked to find kids in classes still using exercise books and pens and pencils. Even up to year 10. in some schools! There were computers in some classes e.g. IT but the majority were not. I'm sure there are some schools embracing tech? I would have thought kids teaching and learning were computerised by age 11 or 12 but it seems most not?

 

Really shocked?! Seems a bit extreme!

 

I think there are definite advantages to not using technology all the time.

 

Learning to master things without a keyboard is a necessary skill and one that I think schools are right to embrace.

[FN-GM]

Really shocked?! Seems a bit extreme!

 

It depends on where the OP is from. Many other countries it is not the norm like it is in the UK.

[DalekSec]

As an avid user and lover of IT (shocking i know working in IT...)

 

I'd hate to have all my lessons Infront of a computer, i much prefer reading from a textbook over a screen!

[Rob_D]

It depends on where the OP is from. Many other countries it is not the norm like it is in the UK.

Logo under the username suggests UK so it's a reasonable assumption.

 

 

Even wen we were looking at going 1:1 (we're not anymore), the idea was that the computers (laptops/tablets whatever we would have ended up with) would supplement paper and pen learning rather than replacing it.

 

Although I do wonder if the kids of today will grow up into a world where they don't need to write anything down by hand.

[Simcfc73]

I'd hate to see everything computerised. I've got 2 daughters and its hard enough to keep them in the real world as it is.

[dmj]

You'd think that IT in schools would somewhat reflect the workforce or the future workforce.

Only 1% of UK secondary schools have a 1:1 program and only 70% have laptops for less than 25% of students. This sharply rises to near 100% at University.

I couldn't find stats on employment, but I would wager more than 1% have exclusive use of a company computer.

[DrCheese]

1:1 will not become the standard in the UK whilst education funding is in the toilet.

 

Even if we had our parents contribute, our infrastructure is just not up to the job of coping with it.

[PotNoodleTech]

You'd think that IT in schools would somewhat reflect the workforce or the future workforce.

Only 1% of UK secondary schools have a 1:1 program and only 70% have laptops for less than 25% of students. This sharply rises to near 100% at University.

I couldn't find stats on employment, but I would wager more than 1% have exclusive use of a company computer.

 

Wow is it really only 1% of schools? Do you have a link to the stats on that?

 

Cheers.

[Rob_D]

Wow is it really only 1% of schools? Do you have a link to the stats on that?

Cheers.

Pages 43-45 of the doc linked in DMJ's post (also below) cover student use devices.

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/655f8b823d7741000d420114/Technology_in_schools_survey__2022_to_2023.pdf

Edited March 11, 2024 by Rob_D

[dmj]

Wow is it really only 1% of schools? Do you have a link to the stats on that?

 

Cheers.

 

Yeah, the link is in the post.

 

I was also quite surprised at how low that was. We introduced a 1:1 scheme back in 2016? I think, and the school still runs it.

 

FWIW even 1:1 schools don't have 'all lessons' with a computer, but when they are there it is useful for staff and students to choose to use technology.

[PotNoodleTech]

Pages 43-45 of the doc linked in DMJ's post (also below) cover student use devices.

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/655f8b823d7741000d420114/Technology_in_schools_survey__2022_to_2023.pdf

 

Thanks! It's good to know we are top 1% at %something%

[psydii]

We have the capacity to have 20% of all students at a computer at any time (excluding the 4% coverage from SEN provision and the BYOD option in sixth form) Typically we have 10-17% utilization each period. Last week we had several periods where every IT Suite, every iPad, and every laptop was booked and in use. (which is actually 22% of all students).

 

We run many IT heavy courses, and several vocational courses where "word processed" work forms a considerable component of the assessment. Most of our Humanities courses make heavy use of them with work set and returned via Teams, though they are careful to ensure that handwritten work is produces with sufficient regularity to appropriately prepare the students for exams without devices.

 

FWIW (incoming anecdote, and opinion) I have observed the use of computers in education and management for over two decades (including close working with the SEN teams). There are two types of people: 1) those who with very little encouragement can organise themselves to get things done. 2) those who need scaffolding to organise themselves to get things done.

Of those who are highly successful the overwhelming majority use paper based systems for getting things done. Obviously they interface with online tools, and use computers to produce work and file work, but for note taking and task management paper based systems offer most people the best results.

Most people who try to use digital tools for organising themselves fail and those who learn from that move to paper based systems.

It is much easier to teach and monitor paper-based organisation and note taking systems than it is for computer based ones. Additionally quick visualisations (sketches, graphs, arrows etc) are much easier on paper than on any digital platform (and the experience on digital only becomes good on the more expensive digital platforms)

Therefor the teaching of paper based skills is foundational to a student's success. IT based work is important, but with limited resources students working primarily in excise books is probably the path to greatest success.*, **,***

 

 

* SEN support is a specific potential exception depending on the needs of the specific students being considered.

** If you've got the paper based methodology down, ramping up IT as a method for "doing the work" is absolutely a path that schools could/should take based on the skills/support/mindset/culture present in the school.

*** It's much like behaviour management being foundational to teaching and learning. There is a "correct" way that works in 90%+ of schools, but schools can vary, and for some apparently to be putting the cart before the horse can lead to success. But this success is because the local leadership actually know what they are doing and there is way more going on to make things improve than it might appear). For others who miss the nuances of the successful deviations from "one true the correct way" end up in a proper mess, and they should have in fact accepted the collective wisdom and focused themselves purely on the basics.

[IT_CoffeeNeeded]

1:1 will not become the standard in the UK whilst education funding is in the toilet.

 

Even if we had our parents contribute, our infrastructure is just not up to the job of coping with it.

 

Fully agree.

 

We looked into having a 1-2-1 solution a while ago but our our infrastructure needs updating to really effectively support this which is costly (New switches and WIFI points required)

Another sticking point is the funding aspect each year, do we get parents to contribute to the cost or fully fund this ourselves (Start up costs would also be high in the transitional period)

 

With the current cost of living crisis we decided it was unfair to add an extra bill onto parents, and with educational funding being 'tight' our 121 project is shelved.

[AlistairB1983]

For a while I did supply teaching between contracts and was shocked to find kids in classes still using exercise books and pens and pencils. Even up to year 10. in some schools! There were computers in some classes e.g. IT but the majority were not. I'm sure there are some schools embracing tech? I would have thought kids teaching and learning were computerised by age 11 or 12 but it seems most not?

Whilst trying very hard to avoid this going into parts unwelcome, this is a very obvious reason for this - funding (or lack thereof).

 

Almost every school is currently amidst an unprecedented funding crisis. Money for IT is just not there, and certainly not to the extent that would be necessary to enable 'fully computerised' learning.

 

(Plus, as others have mentioned, 'fully' computerised will almost never be a thing anyway. Even just considering something like Maths - no one uses a computer for Maths. Those students who have access arrangements to use computers in their exams, don't use it for Maths. Plus Art, Drama, PE etc. etc.)

[MartinT]

We have 1:1 student iPads and teacher iPads in a 365 eco-system. All notes are taken in OneNote and assignments provided in Teams. 'Textbooks' are provided electronically via Classoos.

 

We have no exercise books and no textbooks.

[Dos_Box]

We have 1:1 student iPads and teacher iPads in a 365 eco-system. All notes are taken in OneNote and assignments provided in Teams. 'Textbooks' are provided electronically via Classoos.

 

We have no exercise books and no textbooks.

 

Did your school burn down?

In all seriousness though, the level of investment for laptops and desktops for a fully 1-2-1 school would be huge (as others have mentioned, you'd have to really invest in the backend and infrastructure), not to mention the extra power useage the schoool would see, possibly increasing their power bill by a not insignificant amount.

Edited March 12, 2024 by Dos_Box

[dmj]

(Plus, as others have mentioned, 'fully' computerised will almost never be a thing anyway. Even just considering something like Maths - no one uses a computer for Maths.

 

Weird example, I've seen plenty of maths lessons using IT.

Never seen a swimming lesson using IT though.

[dmj]

In all seriosness though, the level of investment for laptops and desktops for a fully 1-2-1 school would be huge (as others have mentioned, you'd have to really invest in the backend and infrastructure), not to mention the extra power useage the schoool would see, possibly increasing their power bill by a not insignificant amount.

 

Interestingly, we measured this (it was 8 or 9 yrs ago, so I forget the details). We reduced the overall school power consumption because students were expected to charge their laptops at home in much the same way they were expected to bring in pencils etc. We reduced the number of IT suites from 8 to 4. Most of the servers moved offsite because we started using cloud based infra. The real expenditure was getting an access point in each room and a decent internet connection with redundancy.

[PotNoodleTech]

Did your school burn down?

not to mention the extra power useage the schoool would see, possibly increasing their power bill by a not insignificant amount.

 

I went on a measure fest a couple of years ago as I was fed up of being asked to save a few watts here and there when people had like 50 kettles in the wild.

 

Most people don't realise when you crunch the numbers you'll find IT power usage is generally less than 5% of the schools total Elec usage - lights kettles heating canteen cookery etc etc all use WAAAAAAY more.

 

So to summarise, big changes in IT suites/laptops/etc generally have a negligible effect on electricity bills.

Edited March 11, 2024 by PotNoodleTech

[mrbios]

We have 1:1 student iPads and teacher iPads in a 365 eco-system. All notes are taken in OneNote and assignments provided in Teams. 'Textbooks' are provided electronically via Classoos.

 

We have no exercise books and no textbooks.

 

Is that secondary or primary? and do you still have some traditional IT in place for student use or is education 100% tablet based?

 

Great for when exams go all online i guess, but personally thinking about that as a parent, I have some negative feelings towards it.

[MartinT]

Did your school burn down?

 

Don't know about the school, but since I detest the bloody things I do have to bite down hard sometimes.

 

Yes, we have a full 365 and Jamf landscape with lots of OneDrive storage and wi-fi like you wouldn't believe (and, trust me, whatever bandwidth you have iPads have a way of guzzling it all).

[MartinT]

So to summarise, big changes in IT suites/laptops/etc generally have a negligible effect on electricity bills.

 

Especially if you run a swimming pool. Energy costs elsewhere pale into insignificance.