EduGeek in the TES With Your Comments.

[Mr.Ben]

Hmmm ... not really ... I think it should be "how to plan when to replace things." It might sound like I am being picky but it really does vary from school to school. One school might choose to replace hardware which is out of warranty and running an 'old' OS, but another school might use the old boxes as thin clients or stick linux on it. Some schools might not want to do this as they have an existing scheme of work that works very well and moving to different OS and apps could actually be more costly on teacher time than to just cough up for fresher kit. It has to be planned around the curriculum and not the kit.

 

That is a better use of English than me GrumbleDook and I agree.....

 

Hang on, that sounds like FITS, which having done the course (and excellent it was too!) covered a lot of this, and as the article says, is getting very little attention from those who have the ultimate responsibility.

 

Sometimes I feel like I'm the tail wagging the dog rather than how it should be, the dog (SMT :-)) wagging the tail (Me!)

 

To play devils advocate though here are a few statements:

 

Why not have reasonable timeframes to replace equipment? I produce plans to replace all of our kit over 6 years and pass them onto the Bursar so we can plan ahead. We have also agreed the maximum amount of connected devices that we can afford (this is reviewed annually)

 

Re-using old equipment once it has been replaced can be dangerous, especially in schools who pay for support, the support cost will eventually exceed the cost of replacement, I do work for a support company from time to time and we charge £35 - £40 an hour.

 

And what about when it does die? - How critical has it become - Have you then ended up with an unrealistic amount of machines to replace?

 

Schools/LA's should be investing in training Teachers to use more Modern/Different Applications/OSes when required. 'Teacher Time' won't be affected then. As for the compatibility issue, virtulisation can fix this but you can always use newer versions of the software.

 

How about Student time? - In a couple of years time most students will be using newer versions of OSes and Apps than we have in our Schools (Vista/7) are we expecting them to learn the nuances of XP/ Office 2003, will they be using it when they leave into the world of work in 7 years time?

 

Shouldn't basic IT literacy be transferable between applications and OS'es?

 

Primaries all have a paid position called the ICT Co-ordinator who from experience has very little training in how to manage the admin/purchasing side of a network. Should we be training them?

 

It really annoys me how slow Qualification boards are on updating qualifications - the WJEC exam this year still referenced Floppy disks. Most of the Students taking the exam had never used one!

 

Why don't LA's buy machines/licences for their Schools in bulk, therefore decreasing cost and the amount of paperwork everyone has to do?

Edited May 5, 2010 by Mr.Ben
Typos and Grammer Errors - You should judge me.

[PiqueABoo]

Primaries all have a paid position called the ICT Co-ordinator

 

You think? I live with someone who is paid to be a Primary teacher. They recently got tagged with that co-ord role (can't think why!) in addition to another they got earlier, and they're not paid anything more or given any extra time for either of them.

 

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Third time lucky: This thread remains stubbornly Secondary-centric whereas the report wasn't. I'm beginning to doubt whether Edugeek-as-a-whole can help the sector that apparently needs it most.

[GrumbleDook]

Yes ... it is an issue that the a lot of what is needed in primary schools is not the same as secondary, nor is it that it can be managed exactly the same way, however there are some good common practices about how IT and IT facilities can be managed in a school. A lot of these are in FITS but with everything that goes on with running a school it is hard to get in-roads with Heads sometimes, even at LA level.

 

At least this report gives me some leverage to ask the question of schools about addressing it.

[Mr.Ben]

You think? I live with someone who is paid to be a Primary teacher. They recently got tagged with that co-ord role (can't think why!) in addition to another they got earlier, and they're not paid anything more or given any extra time for either of them.

 

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Third time lucky: This thread remains stubbornly Secondary-centric whereas the report wasn't. I'm beginning to doubt whether Edugeek-as-a-whole can help the sector that apparently needs it most.

 

Apologies Pique-A-Boo, it's a paid position here (I'm a large Special School with Students from Reception to Post 16).

 

Perhaps that's where some of the problems lie in Primaries, it's just not taken seriously enough in smaller organisations, and Edugeekers can help - we have the experience and as far as security, change management, licencing and all the other things that go with FITS they should be no different.

 

My previous employment seemed to have it sorted, we were a secondary that supported the surrounding primaries (10 of them), but change management and organisation of the ICT co-ordinators was non existant, so we were making the changes for them, which is the wrong way to do it, but they did not engage with us unless necessary!