straight_talk

Please view my coments in te Quote > Totally agree with the last point as well

I think this is part of the issue with BSF in that many people assume that the client has little or no say and that they are locked in to a poor service. It may be that the video only shows people from schools who have actively engaged with the Managed Service Provider and that this engagement is why they have got what they wanted and therefore they are so positive. In which case isn't this the model we need to encourage? I know of one BSF school where the Head told the managed service provider to remove their network management software and replace what was there before and they did it. On the cost side it is interesting to do the sums. I reckon that many schools pay between £150-200 per pupil to support their ICT needs. Indeed I worked with one school that was paying a great deal more.

My post was not supposed to be too negative but I wanted to instigate a more positive, constructive discussion on a forum of professionals whose voices should be heard. I think one of the key points of the video is that a least some of the people do actually know what is happening now. I have bee to at least one of the schools in question, where the managed service took over a year ago, and BSF has changed the climate within the school as far as ICT is concerned and as helped change the climate in te school overall. In this school the school and the managed service provider worked very much together (with some strong words said by each) to get things right and it has worked!. It is wrong for so many people on this forum to dismiss the video so easily as it does describe what IS happening. I know because I have talked to staff and students. So clearly BSF can work. Where it has not I suspect it is because there has not been as much constructive, open dialogue between the various people involved. So, especially for those people working in areas where the contract has not been awarded yet, it would be useful to kick start a debate on how an ICT managed service should work.

It really saddens me to see so much poor argument from the Edugeek community. Its as if you think that everyone on the video is lying! The fact is that in some, not all, but some BSF schools the BSF programme HAS made a significant difference to the lives of students and staff within the schools. Too often I have seen the use of ICT by schools 'controlled' by technicians who have been poorly supported with effective training and who stop innovation because they do not know how to implement it or who innovate in an ad-hoc way that causes them more problems down the line. There are usually many reasons for this - almost always not the fault of the technical staff - but whatever the reasons it has a negative impact on the learning outcomes of students. Having actually seen some of these new BSF schools before and after BSF I have been impressed with the way in which the programme has changed the attitudes of young people and staff alike. It may be that people on Edugeek are the exception to the vast majority and to that extent I would have liked to have seen some more reasoned argument about the BSF programme, especially about how the managed service model could be improved (BSF is far from perfect). Come on Edugeek community - help make BSF better, for students and staff - by developing a more reasoned set of arguments and discussions.