MANAGING ICT


Schools today must perform a balancing act between tight budgets and effective ICT.Paul Donovan looks at the trends in technology use by schools and teachers and how industry must help


R


ECENT RESEARCH from the British Educational Suppliers Association has found that we are seeing a further decline in ICT budgets throughout 2011, whereby the average secondary school is expected to spend £56,200.


Despite these tightened budgets, however,


technology has become even more integral to the classroom than ever before with 58 per cent of teachers saying they use IT in every lesson. These figures neatly summarise the balancing act


which schools are trying to master: how do you create an innovative learning environment with limited funds?


Technology at the heart of the classroom


Netgear conducted a survey of teachers, IT managers in schools and local authorities recently which underlined the influence of IT in schools. The results highlighted how social media, remote learning and the latest generation of personal devices are being welcomed by teachers with open arms. For instance, 80 per cent of respondents said that


sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube play a role in the classroom, highlighting the spread of valuable information and the ability to interact with students from different backgrounds as positive educational factors. Also, 95 per cent of teachers and local authorities said that they would look to collaborate with schools in other countries if they had the technology to do so. This should come as no surprise. The generations of


children in schools today are remarkably comfortable with technology and 77 per cent of teachers say that they have seen a rise in classroom interaction as a result of students using technology, suggesting that there is


Get smart, not big


a clear opportunity for schools to harness this “tech- familiarity” to connect with children through new and creative channels.


A changing role for IT


The role of IT in a school has changed. As opposed to simply providing teachers and students with computers, schools must now think about how they can make the most of technology in the broadest sense. One example of this is how schools can interact


with the gadgets which their students are using outside of the classroom. As an increasing number of children own mobile phones, netbooks and iPads, our survey found that 77 per cent of teachers see an opportunity for children to be taught via their own devices. The trend for broader integration of technology


onto the school network is certainly ongoing – 37 per cent of respondents said that the new technology they would most like to see in their school is wireless and not limited to the IT suite. Nearly two thirds believe


that remote learning is just as beneficial as traditional, in-class schooling. So, if a teacher wants to spark some creativity


into lessons through social media, say, or if a student hopes to engage with the curriculum from home on their own laptop, then how does the school make this a possibility in a secure, reliable fashion? This is the notion of “unrestricted learning”: a school network which allows for a more imaginative approach to how students are taught.


Enabling unrestricted learning


The flipside of these new modes of technology entering the classroom is that the school network must be more resilient. If teachers are using the internet as a teaching aid, then wasted lesson time waiting for the web to load up is not acceptable. Similarly, welcoming more devices on the school


network means that it becomes a greater target for malicious activity and security threats; in fact, 57 per


cent of respondents to our survey said that they now consider security on the school network to be “critical”. These kinds of barriers are currently standing in


the way for some classes. Over a third of teachers, for example, report wasting more than five minutes of lesson time waiting to get online. We must remember that teachers’ skills are in interacting with their students, not in being computing boffins. They need to be able to turn their systems on and know they will be ready to go.


Making budgets stretch


In the current economic climate, no school can afford to invest unnecessarily in technology which will leave them hamstrung. With this in mind, we brought together a panel of education experts recently to consider how the IT industry can partner with schools to deliver solutions which are reliable, affordable and simple. As education consultant and former government


advisor Margaret Coleman explained, part of the problem is that schools are buying technology which they do not necessarily need. She said: “There certainly exists a trend of ‘keeping


up with the Joneses’, as schools strive to keep up with the IT offerings of their local rivals. What is most frequently absent is a bespoke strategy: schools need an advisory partner, not just a smart sales presentation.” Sadly, this is not always the case. Duncan Fitz-


Gibbons, chair of governors at a primary school and owner of an IT consultancy, agreed that many schools are wasting money. He said: “Too often it proves to be the case that the supplier with the shiniest sales brochure will secure the business. Schools become reliant on a single supplier and do not question what they are spending their money on. Recently we found that we could save £30,000 across just two transactions, simply by re-evaluating if the offerings we were being sold were really in line with what we needed.”


Smart IT, not big IT


The idea of “unrestricted learning” not only refers to technologically advanced classrooms, it also means providing kit which does not provide an unnecessary drain on resources for schools, both in terms of budget and of staff hours in managing the network. Therefore, I’m issuing a call to the IT industry:


stop attempting to over-sell “big IT” into schools. The industry should focus instead on “smart IT” – partnering with schools to deliver reliable, affordable and simple technology which meets their tight budgets.


SecEd


• Paul Donovan is UK country manager in Netgear’s Commercial Business Unit. Visit www.netgear.co.uk


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11


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