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ICT


What we can learn from technology hype history Group strategy and marketing director Campbell Williams tells all…


That was perhaps the most public and ridiculous example of the hysterical levels of hype that have given technology a bad name over the last 20 years or so. The millennium bug was followed in short order by the ‘dot bomb’ that exploded the dot com bubble and left many teachers counting the losses to their pension funds.


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an you remember back to the turn of the Millennium? What were you doing? One thing we can be sure of is that you weren’t in a lift plunging 10 floors to the ground, in the middle of a traffic pile-up due to failed traffic lights or in a plane plunging 20,000 feet as all the onboard systems failed.


However, if the IT world were to be believed, you should have been. Fears over the millennium bug had been blasted all over the mainstream media for months (years in some cases) beforehand. Millions of pounds were wasted in a desperate bid to upgrade school systems before the end of the century. Universities and colleges were told their computer systems would grind to a halt. In the end, absolutely nothing happened, and the world didn’t end with a bang or a whimper.


At present, anyone responsible for an education IT budget is being buffeted by a virtual whirlwind of hype overdrive around the likes of social media, big data, bring your own device (BYOD) and the cloud. It’s no wonder they’re confused and uncertain about the benefits of these trends, especially when they are too often confronted not just by new technologies but new language and terminology to explain them. Yes, we’re talking about another elemental part of IT: jargon. Even if schools and colleges can navigate their way around the hype, they still have to try and decipher the jargon.


Results from a recent survey by Six Degrees Group demonstrate just how daft the situation has become. More than half of us believe tech companies are more guilty of using hype and jargon than bankers, lawyers and politicians combined! That’s a damning verdict on the


performance of the IT industry and it’s reflected in how people view hot new technology phenomena such as the cloud.


How else can we explain the fact that 22% believed Platform As A Service (PaaS) was a new philosophy in railway management, 16% thought Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) is a new road project and 15% identified cloud computing as a free WiFi service for Internet access in public places? Those findings should be a source of discomfort, if not shame, for IT companies whose job it is to evangelise and explain technologies like cloud computing to customers.


It’s no wonder hype and jargon continue to undermine the IT industry when so many of its constituent parts are guilty of stoking the fires rather than trying to bring them under control. It would take a seismic change to free current technology phenomena such as cloud computing, BYOD, social media and big data from the perils of hype. However, your technology providers should all be doing their bit. And if they don’t seem to be – ask them why and challenge them to demystify technology. For my part, I’ve just invested in a no-nonsense guide to the cloud that cuts the jargon and hype: www.uptothecloud.co.uk.


Can you afford not to use Vivo? P


romoting positive behaviour and motivation is an expensive business. When you add up the costs of reducing persistent absence, behaviour interventions, maintaining an in- house rewards system and incentivising students to use e-learning platforms, then Vivo offers very good value by comparison.


If you haven’t heard of Vivo by now, then it’s time to get out of the stationary cupboard. VivoMiles.com is a flexible recognition and rewards platform which can be tailored to match a school’s ethos and objectives. Here’s how Vivo can save schools money:


Reducing staff admin and expenses Vivo liberates teacher time spent on admin tasks like managing in-house rewards systems (from planning and shopping for prizes to dealing with P&P).


Pupil Premium (PP)


Vivo is a cost-effective way of meeting your PP objectives and provides simple tools for tracking and reporting. Out of 500 schools using Vivo 4/5 report improved attendance and 96% report improved academic performance.


Collaborative learning


Vivo promotes collaboration and trust between students, teachers and parents. 2 out of 3 schools say Vivo has improved feedback to parents and has stimulated Extended Learning.


Use of learning technologies Vivo can double usage of other e-learning platforms such as SAM Learning and Frog when integrated with login.


Data monitoring


Vivo’s reporting tools make it easy to implement improvement. Every activity (e.g. breakdown of rewards instances and results, segmentation by individual, house, class and group and when and how teachers are rewarding) can be reported on.


Positive Behaviour and SMSC Positive Behaviour programmes need to be implemented at every level from staff room to classroom, right through to home life. Vivo matches the ethos and reporting requirements for PB programmes and SMSC objectives.


June 2013


u0800 043 8486 ueducation@VivoMiles.com


www.education-today.co.uk 9


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