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IMPROVE YOUR SCHOOL’S ICT
Tearing your hair out over ICT issues and interruptions to your teaching time? Paul Bruce, Services Architect at RM Education, provides his tips for having the right support in place
1
Vision and planning Imagine your teachers are confi dent
and motivated to use ICT, students are empowered and excited about learning, technology is improving learning and the right ICT tools support the pedagogy of your teachers. To achieve this, your ICT support team must have the expertise to translate your vision into an innovative ICT strategy; and deliver it.
2
Effi cient call logging and management How do you log a request for ICT support? If you use an online system to raise, track and close requests for help, then great. But if you have to step out of lessons to grab the technician, or ask one of your Year 7 students to ‘run to the network manager’s room’, then you should probably think again.
3
Defi ned processes for fault escalation
Imagine you’ve logged a call and it’s still unresolved. You check with the support team, who say they’re ‘investigating’, but it’s been a month and your software, laptop, register or printer still isn’t working. The problem might be escalation; there may be no one your techies can turn to when they get stuck – so consider who can provide technical support to your ICT support team.
4
Removing single points of failure
How many people really know how your ICT system works – in detail? Hopefully the network manager, but who else? Leaving one of the most impactful strategic areas of the school in the hands of one or two people is a massive risk. All schools need a back-up plan in place to mitigate these risks
Paul Bruce
and ensure that their network is well documented so that others can support it if necessary.
5
Access to wider skillsets Do you use Windows, iOS, Google
Chrome or Android? If your pedagogy demands something new but your support team lack the expertise to advise you, this could be a problem – your students should be equipped with an understanding of every type of technology to be fully prepared for their careers, and this shouldn’t be limited by the technical expertise of a small support team.
6 7
Out of hours support What time do your support team
clock off ? Probably not long after pupils go home. So what if your laptop stops working after school and the ICT team have gone home, but you have to fi nish that report tonight? This is where an extended team comes into its own again – not only in the breadth of skills, but also in availability.
Staff helpline The cost of allowing each staff
member access to an ICT support team member may seem unreasonable, but if technology is embedded in the pedagogy across your school, that’s exactly what you need. Consider a solution where all your staff can access a large technical team on the phone or online to resolve most issues; leaving your on-site team to fi x the physical problems that need at ending to.
8
Eff ective teacher training Every school has a mix of ‘tech-heads’
and ‘technophobes’ in its teaching staff . Exploring new technologies can be daunting, but to use ICT to best eff ect in the classroom, you’ll need to be fully up to speed and if you don’t know, your students probably will! Your ICT support team should recommend the right solutions for your school and show you how to get the best out of it. Each of these areas has the
potential to either add tremendous value or seriously hinder the eff ectiveness of teaching and learning. So how many of the above are in place at your school? ET
For more information on technology and device diagnostic help and support for your school’s ICT, visit
www.rm.com/ bestpracticeict
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