tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18586790131726512122024-03-04T21:45:46.336-08:00edu-IT Thinking about the Technology of EducationMy thoughts on IT use in Education from a Technical (not teachers) point of viewAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-61091190991238724632017-04-20T22:02:00.000-07:002017-04-20T22:02:09.172-07:00NAPLAN online - where to now?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TUUzPVeSi2mLjN2s13fDBrzDTLrOB28LkDX-RTgnBoU0VFK581-TMUoG3Lp_3K0uPtB98xG-71tmB0mhc3hw27axLsDJ91r8wef6it4a4I8phWWsoaucJSHLt_9H0cQ3vekUNSTEG2NE/s1600/NAPLAN.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TUUzPVeSi2mLjN2s13fDBrzDTLrOB28LkDX-RTgnBoU0VFK581-TMUoG3Lp_3K0uPtB98xG-71tmB0mhc3hw27axLsDJ91r8wef6it4a4I8phWWsoaucJSHLt_9H0cQ3vekUNSTEG2NE/s320/NAPLAN.png" width="320" /></a></div>
It is concerning that in 2017 it is still not possible for NAPLAN online to be trialed due to technology issues. In the IT industry, on line testing has been a normal activity for more than 20 years. As far as I can recall I sat my first pro-metric on line exam in 1995, it may have been even earlier.<br />
<br />
I know Perth schools have been using online testing software for student bench-marking for at least the last 10 years. I was part of the first trials of on-line WACE exams in 2012 and technology has surely moved significantly since then.<br />
<br />
It seems to me the real challenge for NAPLAN online is not the technology but the whole idea. We are using 21st century tech to replicate 19th century philosophy (everyone sits the same test the same day with exactly the same questions) to solve a 20th century problem (we need to benchmark in a single pass the entire education system from a single student to the nation as a whole).<br />
<br />
What we need to do is use the 21st century technology and answer the 21st century questions with a 21st century philosophy. <br />
<br />
NAPLAN should indeed be a bench-marking system and it should enable instant feedback to students, teachers, school leadership, parents, and governments. It should also do that constantly and in ways that are adding value to the education system. Indeed if NAPLAN was a testing platform able to deliver from a bank of thousands of questions in web based tests on an as needed basis the picture of how our education sector is performing would be far more accurate. As Facebook, Twitter, and every other Social Media platform knows regular contact builds a far more accurate picture of the user.<br />
<br />
Teachers should be able to use a NAPLAN system to quickly benchmark students as often as they please. They should have to use the platform at least once a term for testing Math and English.<br />
<br />
Until that is the case NAPLAN online will continue to be a huge technical challenge. The need to use the same questions on the same day to the entire cohort on a technology platform which doesn't favour one school over another is in my view an impossible dream.<br />
<br />
NAPLAN online risks having further negative implications on the education sector. Teachers training students for the test instead of using valuable class time to develop skills will remain <br />
the most significant criticism of that system. The impact will be multiplied as NAPLAN online encourages teachers to teach typing skills to improve performance on the test instead of teaching the curriculum. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-20529463357091699222017-03-20T20:16:00.001-07:002017-03-20T20:16:06.332-07:00Is Tech a 'Toy' or a 'Tool'?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJVvURBg2gbEOL5-r5FXTiwd1sQB6jvwtsTDs6d5Vg5f5wqLqWdIZbdWhFUsp9lF0YwFFA-e9bsv6gJtXymt8GxNzb-qAKI9qssl0rKpu2yIhYYExQLzGOrHvSrRw1pU5IakC4_qw4Bocb/s1600/Biggles.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJVvURBg2gbEOL5-r5FXTiwd1sQB6jvwtsTDs6d5Vg5f5wqLqWdIZbdWhFUsp9lF0YwFFA-e9bsv6gJtXymt8GxNzb-qAKI9qssl0rKpu2yIhYYExQLzGOrHvSrRw1pU5IakC4_qw4Bocb/s1600/Biggles.png" /></a></div>
I started thinking on this topic from one side and finished up on the other side. I was looking at how if not engaged with properly, Technology in the classroom could easily become a distracting 'toy' as opposed to being an engaging 'tool'. This seems like a statement of the obvious, when a piece of technology is used for entertainment how can it become a serious teaching and learning tool?<br />
<br />
I think back to our first years of running a 1:1 Notebook program when we banned teachers from allowing Notebooks to be used to play games in classrooms. The assumption was that a game would always be distracting from good teaching and learning. Could we have been more wrong! The engagement from educational 'games' has been widely documented. A blanket statement about the good or bad for any particular part of the technology picture is very much like any generalisation and shouldn't be used to rule out anything. <br />
<br />
As I thought through the best way to describe my thoughts about the 'toys' versus 'tools' arguments I was planning an argument around books and how they're used. I then realised as I reflected upon my own school life and how I was learning with books as I grew up, I could easily make a good argument that even when used for non educational / recreational purposes learning is often enhanced. The reading of non-educational material was key to my reading skills developing. I was hardly ever engaged by the text books we had to read as part of the curriculum. However, when I was reading 'Biggles' (Note 1)for days at a time over the holidays I was more engaged with reading than I would have been otherwise. I wan't reading with a vision to become a pilot or aeronautical engineer it was purely enjoyment of the story.<br />
<br />
Is there a similar effect from entertainment or even social networking on technology? When students take home their particular piece of technology and then engage with the technology to meet their entertainment needs they are still learning something.<br />
<br />
Can non educational use of technology be seen as enhancing the skills needed by students in the 21st century? Of course it can, the non classroom use of technology which will allow our students to better engage with the opportunities and benefits delivered by technology. The responsibility for making sure the classroom use of technology is su<br />
pporting teaching and learning remains with the teacher, the same way teachers would have to ensure I was reading supplied texts and not my Biggles books whilst in the classroom. <br />
<br />
Technology doesn't cause problems and can't fix them. When engagement with technology is well designed, classrooms are transformed and that will deliver amazing experiences for students.<br />
<br />
(Note 1) - http://www.biggles.info/<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-85535017844770165052017-03-13T23:14:00.001-07:002017-03-13T23:14:22.168-07:00Technology may be too good to be true!<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJEWAuvVtqmPhlTgPOX59uPg5EAbyYOeVjLVWoaTyK7BxqIobHgnDgFEK0p7k-NMO4r1R5yz_oX6rQSyf2fzAwE6Zy1kLmwoB0RllM8dAsY8NBkUIY8dh5nppoF48eDH7xvSzii8H0bQVz/s1600/Technology-Good-Bad-Ugly.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJEWAuvVtqmPhlTgPOX59uPg5EAbyYOeVjLVWoaTyK7BxqIobHgnDgFEK0p7k-NMO4r1R5yz_oX6rQSyf2fzAwE6Zy1kLmwoB0RllM8dAsY8NBkUIY8dh5nppoF48eDH7xvSzii8H0bQVz/s320/Technology-Good-Bad-Ugly.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I have been concerned about the degree of 'Due Diligence' being
carried out by schools since teachers started developing their own programs
using amazing online resources such as Google classroom, Edmodo and OneNote
Classroom. I worry that much of the fine print on educational sites and
in apps is ignored as they are such fantastic resources. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Is the
responsibility for ensuring the suitability of sites and apps </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">is purely left at the
teachers discretion? There is a huge potential for problems with inappropriate
management of student information and activity if that’s the approach schools
are taking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I’ve worked with a
school Integration Team to create a process ensuring the School approves of
the educational resources for teachers to use. This should be seen as
vital in all schools to ensure acknowledgment of the risk web and app based
activities could present for teachers and students in particular. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The process decided
on means the school, through the Integration Team, takes responsibility for
assessing and documenting appropriate education resources for teachers to use
in their classrooms. The first stage is making sure any teaching resource
provides an educational value which is not being met by other systems already
in use. The system is then assessed to ensure the technical, legal and
ethical values of the School are met before any educational resource can be
used in the classroom. This standard is then applied to any service or
system which requires a student identifies themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When we started
developing the standard it quickly became apparent this was going to be a
significant undertaking. As soon as we started looking at the fine print
in those user agreements, which sometimes were very long and not necessarily
written in easy to understand English, it became obvious that this was
something which was badly needed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The most important
part of this procedure was defining responsibility for assessing all of the
important decisions ensured teachers didn't have to assume someone else had
looked at it. I feel sometimes the assumption that all apps and web sites
are compliant with Australian privacy legislation is a very dangerous starting
point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">It seems to me
that all schools and governing bodies need to take far more responsibility for
the implications of technology programs. The online services and apps
deemed as appropriate for teaching and learning need to be better understood
before schools push them to student devices or send student there as part of
their learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-90200434849320669472017-02-26T22:28:00.000-08:002017-02-28T19:47:08.763-08:00The Rise of the Four Letter Acronym<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfUSOWujn38LHZZowURRWGOrJWorhUgjv8Bg8KJzIL_i0vWamXoLOVN1BC5ZZa6r2REym50PY1LY1pKC6I8Y2ipZr-Zlz0oRS_muwTocVOy5iIpptvLSc1u9HOfSOr-jdN4o2d0U6b_Dpb/s1600/acronymthebacksofmyeyelidsblogspot.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfUSOWujn38LHZZowURRWGOrJWorhUgjv8Bg8KJzIL_i0vWamXoLOVN1BC5ZZa6r2REym50PY1LY1pKC6I8Y2ipZr-Zlz0oRS_muwTocVOy5iIpptvLSc1u9HOfSOr-jdN4o2d0U6b_Dpb/s1600/acronymthebacksofmyeyelidsblogspot.gif" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I remember in the later part of the 20th century when everyone in IT was searching for new Three Letter Acronyms (TLA). Every project need to be reduced to a new TLA, IT became ICT, DR became BCP and we used to have challenges in meetings to see who would use the most meaningless TLAs.<br />
<br />
To prove it is 25% better than ICT, the education sector seems to be caught up in a spiral of Four Letter Acronyms (for simplicity I will reduce that to a TLA of FLA). The rise of BYOD and STEM in the language of education has emphasised the influence ICT is increasingly having in this area.<br />
<br />
To quote Pauline Hansen "I don't like it". The use of catch phrases is incongruous with these terms being adopted to suit a message and that has a huge influence of the meaning of these terms.<br />
<br />
For instance the much maligned (by me) BYOD, has attempted to be morphed into BYOT, BYOX, and just about every other BYO? possible. All of these are trying to express something which would be far clearer in plain English. I believe calling a 'parent supplied iPad program' just that, to be much clearer than 'BYO?'. Is there a problem with calling a schools Notebook program "Parent Owned Notebook program" rather than a 'BYO? program'. Those terms will both explain and differentiate the concept correctly. If you are implementing a true platform agnostic device program there would be far less confusion if the terminology for the program reflected your educational expectations not use a trendy FLA. If you really need a FLA for your bring any device program I suggest you call it a Device Agnostic Learning Environment (DALE) and then the acronym will mean something. By the way one of the problems I have with the term BYOD in education is that not many students want to use their own device for learning it is far more useful for socialising and gaming.<br />
<br />
So on to STEM, or if you are really smart STEAM, once again these terms seem to simplify the complex but in reality confuse the masses. What does STEM really mean? It means we need to make some of the dryer (Math and Science) subjects seem to be important above the humanities and creative subjects. This seems obvious, as technology advances these subjects should be where we need to concentrate the 21st Century learning. Unfortunately, from my experience and following on from some significant reading and listening, this is not the case. It seems the only jobs we are going to do better than machines in the mid term view are based around humanities and creativity.<br />
<br />
Admittedly a lot of that creativity is going to be in the Scientific and Engineering areas but the key differentiation is still human imagination.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-42547216678149847752016-06-05T21:05:00.000-07:002016-06-05T21:05:14.563-07:00The Greatest Challenge – Improving Teacher ICT Awareness and Skills!<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6hqm9rvKnJ2LNDMqCOLns9Gzbmi085odqTDdbSJ1ZPzxXnIY4Xgm17_o55-oXIx7mzjx1EsjNpoULwaqEN4SrDiFELAt3wBNn6IVzVqdDBG5TWQgKvo57mANLlM4Z0KWDOtXMqTpAWqs/s1600/Words.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6hqm9rvKnJ2LNDMqCOLns9Gzbmi085odqTDdbSJ1ZPzxXnIY4Xgm17_o55-oXIx7mzjx1EsjNpoULwaqEN4SrDiFELAt3wBNn6IVzVqdDBG5TWQgKvo57mANLlM4Z0KWDOtXMqTpAWqs/s320/Words.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Since the first focus on using ICT in classrooms the need to
increase the awareness of and improve skills in the use of technology for all staff, particularly teachers, has been of universal concern. In fact
this has probably been of concern forever, it’s just the change driven by
technology and the increasing rate of that change has highlighted deficiencies in
these areas.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve been attending ICT focused Conferences for more than 10 years and
this topic has been of interest to all attendees. My discussions with many schools from all
types of demographics and budgets has highlighted a few methods to deliver
Professional Development to staff. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Method 1 – On site training delivered by an ICT specialist
during teacher down time (Lunch time or after school). This is almost certainly the cheapest form of
PD for the school to produce. The ICT
specialist can either be from within staff or arranged through a vendor. This type of session is normally voluntary
and the value is greatest for staff already implementing technology.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Method 2 – On site training with teacher relief provided for
staff or PD is conducted during Professional Development days. The cost of this is increased as the staff costs
for the relief teachers need to be covered by the school or it is competing for
access against the myriad of requirements on any staff PD day. This type of training is normally mandatory
for staff.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Method 3 – Just in time support. In this circumstance a teacher will have
support in their classroom for using the technology. This could either be in the form of a
technical support person assisting the teacher and showing them how to deal
with issues or with a curriculum ‘expert’ assisting with the implementation and
transferring skills to the teacher. This
is probably the most effective way for teachers to be supported in the adoption
of technology as it is entirely at a practical level. It does require staff to be available as
needed by teachers. In this scenario
there’s a need for the teacher to reach out so the communication path of other
types of PD is reversed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Method 4 – Off site PD.
This type of PD is readily available and includes those run by vendors,
peak bodies and in some cases, schools.
Most times there’s a cost for this type of PD and the need for
relief. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of these methods have issues which limit their
effectiveness. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Method 1 – (Free on site) Often training which is ‘free’ is deemed to have
no value and therefore little importance is placed on attending this type of
session. As this is dependent upon staff
committing to use their time to come to the training the pressure to attend is
less than the need to deal with other issues so the PD is easily pushed aside
by any urgent matter. I have seen PD
sessions like this timetabled for entire terms in order to enable planning for
teachers, often only two or three sessions out of more than 30 have anyone
attend. At other times when they’re
directly supporting a new technology, such as when we rolled out Interactive
Projectors, they’re very popular, well attended and give great value.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Method 2 – (Paid on site) There’s a limit to how often this type of
training is used. Either the cost or
just the number of PD days limits the number of opportunities to utilise this
type of training. Of course it would be
good practice to have this included in a technology project plan when deploying
classroom technology. In my experience
schools are very sensitive about the cost of IT projects, this means that
normally the implementation stage of these projects is curtailed to reduce
costs. In turn the loss of the
implementation stage reduces the amount committed to training. Most vendors of IT equipment into schools
will have allowance for training as part of their plan. When the school reduces the training it will slow the adoption of technology, which almost always leads to slower adoption of new technologies.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Method 3 – (Just in time) There are two main factors limiting the adoption
of this type of PD/support. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first limitation is around communication. To properly use this method it must be sold
to teachers so they know what’s available.
Staff should know they can call up and have someone come and look after
them whenever they need. Often this is
not the expectation with teaching staff.
The other communications issue is; teachers need to let the support
person know when and where they will need them and also what they’re needed
for.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second limitation is the resourcing problem. How do you have a staff member on-call with
suitable skills? If the school has
acknowledged the need for staff support with technology implementation this
will be provided, however if the expectation is staff will just adopt
technology, this will not be the case.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Method 4 – (Off site) The appeal in the off-site PD is to those who are
already interested in adopting technology. It’s self-selecting, doesn’t get the vast
majority of teachers involved and the goal of complete adoption of technology
will never be realised if this is the only type of PD available.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each of these methods has shown to be less than ideal, but
when combined in the right balance can lead teachers to have confidence in the
implementation of technology in their classroom:<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->When those keen adopters of technology are given
the opportunity for off-site training, they bring those skills back to provide
on-site PD to others, just as importantly they then become advocates for the technology.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->When teachers are well supported for both the
technical and curriculum aspects of technology in their classroom,<span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> when</span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> the school is willing to persevere to
improve the confidence and skills of their staff in the use of technology,</span> there will be
continuous improvement in the classroom use of technology.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The efforts to provide staff with the skills to embed technology into the classroom will not reduce any time soon. The changes in teaching practice being driven by technology are likely to continue for the foreseeable future and so will the need to build skills.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-47329873996780184692016-05-29T16:53:00.001-07:002016-05-29T16:53:06.994-07:00What is next?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSubpBdrpJ1hBjpDZOc0FrYLLIdRXoQNDRG2cYkOS7C_yvhs1iOmZK9F4CTR9uZmC64WXSnFHnRffDMbm_d2fGO0hgK092zoWQ3owpxnt5MGWteXcmgfjG5IjuctVjUTMAFusOb1Dkh7LN/s1600/question-mark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSubpBdrpJ1hBjpDZOc0FrYLLIdRXoQNDRG2cYkOS7C_yvhs1iOmZK9F4CTR9uZmC64WXSnFHnRffDMbm_d2fGO0hgK092zoWQ3owpxnt5MGWteXcmgfjG5IjuctVjUTMAFusOb1Dkh7LN/s320/question-mark.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></h1>
<h1>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What
is next can be the hardest question to get right in the context of ICT, not
only for schools and individual classrooms but also for every industry and
company.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Crystal ball gazing can be very
dangerous, especially with the rate of change in technology appearing to be
extremely high.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">However, when you look
at trends, it is normally a predictable rate of implementing innovation into
schools.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is only when there is an
unexpected disruptor we normally experience rapid change.</span></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">An
example is the change in 1:1 computing expectations within schools. Until 2008, there had been slow progress by
schools towards 1:1 Laptop programs.
These were normally very expensive and required a strong commitment from
the School Leadership to implement such programs. Having started in Melbourne,
the 1:1 ideal had spread slowly across Australia and in some US school
districts and state wide in Maine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">2008
and 2009 saw two disruptors that changed the vision of schools around 1:1
technology access. The first disruptor
was the Prime Minister making 1:1 technology availability in schools a policy
imperative and committing federal funding to make it happen. The second disruptor was in 2009 when Apple announced
the iPad, which provided a smaller and cheaper alternative to Laptops as
student technology. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Horizon Report</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">One
of the best resources for planning for the next big thing in technology for
schools is the Horizon Report. The
Horizon Report is published by the New Media consortium (NMC) and the
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). It provides guidance on technology trends thought
to be a significant impact in education. The research is thorough with the process for
determining what technology makes it onto the list open and visible. I have heard the Horizon Report referenced
many times in presentations about technology and it is widely referenced for
strategic planning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Therefore,
with the disclaimer that all predictions depend on the lack of a significant
disruptor to the status quo I have some thoughts surrounding the trends,
challenges and technologies highlighted in the Horizon Report.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Trends</span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Increased use of
Blended Learning</span><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
think most teachers in Australian schools are seeing the value of blended
learning. In the resource and
technologically rich schools, this can include flipped classroom models, which
seems to offer great benefits for educators.
In less advantaged schools, the ability to scaffold using digital
resources, although limited by the cost of those resources, is still of high value in allowing some
personalised learning opportunities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If
technology is reliable and simple to use, blended learning for traditional
subjects will become deep-seated and should eventually become good
practice. The challenge for teachers is to
know just what resources are available. With
that in mind, teachers really should be collaborating in order to share
resources; one great opportunity for that sharing is TeachMeet (</span><a href="http://www.teachmeet.net/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">http://www.teachmeet.net/</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Rise of STEAM
Learning</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">There
is increased emphasis within the Australian Curriculum for Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The
idea of incorporating other more creative activities into the technology
spectrum has created the idea of STEAM learning, in STEAM the A is for the Arts. Incorporating the creative pursuits into the
traditional very dry content promotes the option of project based
learning. The move to project based
learning is one of the strengths of technology rich learning as the depth and
variety of resources available through technology enhances the learning
experience and will potentially engage students at a deeper level. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
level of technology provided into classrooms must support the students by having
the freedom to access the most appropriate resources. These resources could be in the form of software or just be information from the internet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Challenges</span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Creating Authentic
Learning Experiences</span><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This
challenge is one Australia is moving towards covering as technology is adopted
for virtual experiences of many of our greatest assets. The distances and travel costs within
Australia seem to have energised the tourism industry with the energy to
provide digital experiences; perfect for schools to incorporate into the
learning experience. A dive in the
Great Barrier Reef can be accessed digitally and from that, any number of real
life exercises can be created to cover many subjects. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">There
seems to be a slow uptake of these type of resources. I see the role of resource identification
being very important as the number and quality of digital resources
increases. Schools should be supporting
teachers with this identification of resources.
This is probably the new role for traditional Librarians, as the digital
resources will augment the information resources in the library. It may also be an opportunity for the ICT
department to become more involved in the educational process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Integrating
Technology in Teacher Education</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
think schools treat their teachers as lifelong learners and expect they will in
turn produce students who will also become lifelong learners. The learning of appropriate use of technology
for teachers can be one of the best investments in staff made by a school. There are many options for staff Personal
Development (PD) to build technology skills.
I have previously written about the need for appropriate PD for Teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Technology</span></div>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">Bring Your Own
Device</span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
am not a big fan of this terminology as it really about ownership, but the key
take away in the Horizon Report is, students should be able to use their phone
or other technology in addition to their primary learning device. As long as there is a specified device for learning,
the biggest restriction on the additional devices will only be the capacity of
infrastructure to handle extra connections and PD for teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Makerspaces</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
think the creativity of STEAM curriculum and Makerspaces work well together as
long as the goal is to engender creativity and entrepreneurship in
students. The most difficult part of
this will be incorporating those traditional elements of learning into these
spaces. A key thing to keep in mind is
the need to cross over from the digital ‘virtual’ world into the analogue
‘real’ world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
entire Horizon Report can be viewed at http://www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon/</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-20819023655188432892016-05-23T02:55:00.000-07:002016-05-23T03:50:16.798-07:00Lemonade from lemons<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZy5k_M8_jkvBhUC6Q0CPrQm-OwqDGo7h_5kG-xT4RqFiruOp4e_Zzjcn4iq8NStwjLzqQTx69ArK-Jd9aCJWaiPu6qa6OAO-E8OTv66YIew9d0naDA1pktkL50tabXvBfqWKr3O13ctwh/s1600/lemons-attitude.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZy5k_M8_jkvBhUC6Q0CPrQm-OwqDGo7h_5kG-xT4RqFiruOp4e_Zzjcn4iq8NStwjLzqQTx69ArK-Jd9aCJWaiPu6qa6OAO-E8OTv66YIew9d0naDA1pktkL50tabXvBfqWKr3O13ctwh/s400/lemons-attitude.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
As always ICT Departments all over the country will be busy
with projects of all shapes and sizes.
At some point through a project, many will be faced with some kind of
problem. Problems can arise due to the
lack of planning or resource shortages, which almost every school ICT program
deals with. Other issues will be caused
by external sources such as vendors/suppliers, unexpected incidents or even
extreme weather.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During my time supporting ICT in schools and talking to many
other specialists in ICT support I have often been witness to and or part of
many potential disasters, which has provided me with the experience to be able
to offer some simple pieces of advice that may assist you by turning these
‘lemons’ into ‘lemonade’.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
</h3>
<h2>
Communication is “King”</h2>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
You need to communicate</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can end up with a negative outcome should you fail to
communicate the current status of projects to stakeholders. If you regularly
set the timeline expectations and planned outcomes of projects, everyone tends
to become more involved and empathise with you about the effort you seem to be
expending. In 2011/2012 we were
deploying a new model of laptop into our 1:1 Notebook program. As it turned out the manufacture of the
computers was delayed by effect of the Japanese Tsunami and flooding in
Thailand. I acted as soon as it became
obvious the supplier couldn't meet our planned timeline for students to start
the year with a new computer. I
contacted the affected parents, students and teachers and informed them of the
delay and the expected delivery time table.
We worked with teachers to ensure curriculum delivery was impacted as
little as possible. Even though the
delivery was achieved one term late we had negligible complaints because
everyone felt they had been on the same journey.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
Your vendors need to communicate</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The most frustrating project I have been involved with was
another supplier delay issue. This time
the manufacturer of the equipment was promising us and our reseller that the
hardware was ‘on the truck’. This
happened right up until a week before school started when they finally let us
know there was no stock in Australia and no plans to bring more in. After more than ten years being our preferred
hardware platform we immediately purchased equivalent products from another
vendor and that long term relationship ended.
If we had been informed of the supply issue as soon as they knew we could
have ordered an alternative item from their catalogue. The lack of communication ended the relationship
which was worth a considerable amount annually. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
Hold your suppliers to account</h3>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We spent 8 months planning a complete network upgrade with
the engineering staff from a major hardware supplier. The entire network was designed in accordance
with our needs and was specified to be of high enough quality to last many
years. When we started to unpack and
configure the network it became clear they had not specified the network
switches to be able to provide power to the wireless access points. This oversight by their design team had gone
unnoticed by quality control, it is very easy to miss those sort of details (letter suffixes on switches) when reviewing complex proposals.
Immediately the manufacturer offered to supply us with equipment to
power those access points and another set of switches was ordered and sent to
us to replace those power injectors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
Manufacturers can afford more than resellers</h3>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Have you ever had an issue with an IT project that wasn’t
your fault? You have more chance of
relief from a manufacturer who has generated a significant profit from the supplied
equipment than from the re-seller who made 5 – 10% in your competitive bidding
process. Always start by communicating
with your supplier/re-seller and have them in your corner, if the issue isn’t
your fault and you’ve made sure your specification is correct, manufacturers
will have many more resources to throw at remediating problems. Of course I’m only talking about the tier 1
manufacturers, this is why you pay more for Cisco, HP, IBM, Toshiba and similar
brands.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
Don’t assume – anything!!</h3>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The most common mistake I’ve made is assuming that everyone
can see the picture. In the old days
(remember them) when we had to order a new piece of hardware for every server
you wanted to build I would often order HP servers from their parts list on the
web site. A few times I received servers
that were missing important parts of the configuration because I assumed the
engineer with whom I had been working would look over the configuration and
check I hadn’t missed anything. Having
to order a hard disk controller or battery backup card for a controller was
often needed when we came to build the hardware. I found the best way was to have the engineer
from the supplier specify the server and me look over the specification meant
far less errors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
Prepare for the worst and be grateful for small mercies</h3>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When planning projects in schools I think we often expect
the best and get caught out when things change slightly. Sometimes when we look at the timing for our
projects we end up missing a detail because significant information is in
silos. When we plan an upgrade put the
plan in place, send the email to let everyone know we will be taking the system
off line and suddenly there is an exam, an administrative process running or
some event which has happened for years that we didn’t know about. Don’t panic we can get away with it. Rule number 1 is important; just communicate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
The lemonade is far more common than lemons </h3>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite the issues over the past 15 years, the results of my
projects and my methodology has actually improved. The lemons are now down to less than 5% of
the projects I have started and I think overall there is a 100% lemonade rate. I think this has been achieved by just not
panicking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ks5DSy_dZ4Icx9_0hDkHJm7Vt53gbcEt-l7AULYJAUn9cKVEYhGcFTHqyXQrpM7w87kA47lnalsbdRi_wzECCzZvwQBuBAR9S7ndT7kZVQB26bEeoc8_Wl2KWKsoiVwC2GrGO5s7LkTi/s1600/InspirationalQuotes.Club-life-believe-lemon-lemonade-vodka-party-funny-Ron-White.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ks5DSy_dZ4Icx9_0hDkHJm7Vt53gbcEt-l7AULYJAUn9cKVEYhGcFTHqyXQrpM7w87kA47lnalsbdRi_wzECCzZvwQBuBAR9S7ndT7kZVQB26bEeoc8_Wl2KWKsoiVwC2GrGO5s7LkTi/s320/InspirationalQuotes.Club-life-believe-lemon-lemonade-vodka-party-funny-Ron-White.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-76888132619546949182016-05-14T23:35:00.001-07:002016-05-14T23:35:12.757-07:00The Law of Diminishing returns as it applies to ICT in schools<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif0CMsEBApNmII9mRDr0DCJR3myK35wWMIq2w4lqNq_JV-BKWg8QhvLOUncS4k0F7ptj1VVwircPaM09721YcrGYXVOH3IjIB_O7Vc5evlHmFexWtB-o-wfpL-o8OkwZYY-8UOWhuuJtAB/s1600/diminishingreturns.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif0CMsEBApNmII9mRDr0DCJR3myK35wWMIq2w4lqNq_JV-BKWg8QhvLOUncS4k0F7ptj1VVwircPaM09721YcrGYXVOH3IjIB_O7Vc5evlHmFexWtB-o-wfpL-o8OkwZYY-8UOWhuuJtAB/s1600/diminishingreturns.jpeg" /></a></div>
Several of my previous posts have focused on how effective and efficient ICT Departments operate in Schools. This is true if you look at the number of users and most other metrics used by IT. However, maintaining this efficiency could be a much bigger impact.<br />
<br />
I can see that by having very small IT teams, projects are completed. It's the next stage optimisation, which is invariably under resourced. Optimisation ensures the installation incorporates into the operational practices. There is usually a significant overhead in user coaching; users will not always understand why technology has made it's way into their life. Over time it will be used. But to ensure technology is used appropriately and immediately, we need to allocate resources to training users. Sometimes these resources can be more expensive than the rest of the project. <br />
<br />
In addition we don't normally get to complete any standard IT Industry 'best practice' such as bench marking, and stress testing systems or completing full documentation. This should be built into the project plan but is often the easiest to remove in reducing costs with a plan to do it 'soon' after the project is completed.<br />
<br />
Even though the IT part of the project is complete the School really doesn't obtain the full potential advantages of the system.<br />
<br />
Is this a critical shortcoming? No, but it means full value isn't always achieved. The most difficult part of this scenario is the expenditure to complete these important stages and can often push the cost of the projects out to a point where they're not even actively considered. <br />
<br />
As a decision making Manager, what do you do with a shrink wrapped piece of software that looked fantastic in the demonstration? How do you ensure proper utilisation for some new piece of hardware sitting in a classroom waiting for the teacher to understand how to use it?<br />
<br />
We invariably try to get it done but we're not in the position to finalise it in a way we're entirely comfortable with.<br />
<br />
The end user application of technology seems to be a management/organisational issue and beyond our scope of authority.<br />
<br />
I remember an operations meeting where I was quizzed as to why an enhancement to our School Management System was going to cost so much when we had paid a 'fortune' for the installation and more money each year to maintain it. The disconcerting part of the conversation was all of the critical records for the School were on this system and the cost was minute when considered against similar software for a Corporate. This distorted perception of the value of any IT system is part of the challenge faced by the senior IT staff in schools, either Director or Manager.<br />
<h3>
So what does this mean for us?</h3>
Should the IT Manager be the champion selling the value statement to School Management?<br />
<br />
I don't believe they can be the champion for every system. It's not sensible for the IT specialist to know exactly what the workflows for every department look like. However, consultation regarding IT should be highlighted as the best way forward enabling the optimisation of IT to deliver real benefits across all business units. The business unit can then take real ownership of business based technology project.<br />
<br />
This seems like basic business theory doesn't it? However, from my experience I believe it's not always the case that this methodology is used within schools.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-46054314559565004602015-05-24T21:28:00.000-07:002015-05-24T21:28:12.997-07:00ICT is the global enabler in SchoolsI have been hiding the evangelist in me away from blogging for the last few months. I feel that now is the time to release the evangelist.<br />
<br />
This release is probably due to the fact I have been trying to rationalise the frustration I felt which moved me to leave the School I had been very happy working at.<br />
<br />
I have been considering for several years how important ICT is in modern Schools and how little understanding of this importance goes into the Strategic and Operational Management outside specific ICT areas.<br />
<br />
I can't imagine how a modern school could manage to function with paper (as opposed to ICT) based systems. Everything from classes to school management to events with public, parents and alumni involvement to facilities management and even supporting grounds and gardens is now dependent upon Information Systems.<br />
<br />
There is no-one involved in a school who is not touched buy the Information Technology deployed by the school. The first contact most people now have with a school will be via the web site. Parents and family are contacted by schools with digital newsletters and other information, reports are now delivered digitally. Every class and hence every student now will be exposed to, or facilitated by a computer system. The teacher reports attendance, performance and behavior digitally before analysing these inputs on a school provided computer system.<br />
<br />
Why then do some school leadership teams believe that scrimping on these systems will deliver long term benefits? Spending wisely and well will deliver unbelievable benefits in the medium term. <br />
<br />
My issue is how do those ICT specialists convince school leadership of this potential. Every vendor I speak with expresses a frustration with how little schools are prepared to spend on ICT. Most school ICT professionals express the same frustration. In the indomitable words of Professor Julius Sumner Miller "Why is it so?".<br />
<br />
Why do they not get IT?<br />
<br />
Why is IT seen as a cost, not a benefit when everyone benefits so strongly from IT?<br />
<br />
Even for me the first years managing ICT in a school was about devices and hardware, I now see that the potential is so much more tied to the educational and societal vision for the school. The ICT in a school is now so ingrained it needs to reflect the key values of the school and that won't happen by buying the cheapest solution, it will only happen by;<br />
<br />
Putting IT into the vision!<br />
<br />
Spending strongly to make IT deliver the vision!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-28502224593619457242015-05-18T20:51:00.000-07:002015-05-18T20:51:02.593-07:00Is this the start of the end of NAPLAN?<h3>
Does the Machine based scoring of Standardised testing signal the end of Single Point in time Standardised testing?</h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Late last month the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> (</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">ACARA) General Manager, Dr Stanley Rabinowitz was quoted in an<a href="http://www.itnews.com.au/News/403322,how-australia-plans-to-mark-naplan-with-cognitive-computing.aspx" target="_blank"> ITNews Article</a>. He talked about the use of Cognitive Computing to assess the written English part of the NAPLAN tests which will be digitally delivered to students in 2017.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Although this move was opposed by English teachers around Australia I have been talking about this as the emerging and most transformative trend in technology as it fits into education. </span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">There has been very little real change driven by the huge deployment of technology into education over the last 10 - 15 years. The reason for this is the quality of education is determined by testing which doesn't assess the competencies delivered by technology. We don't assess ability to collaborate, create or research, from the myriad forms of information produced by students (and everyone else) or consumption </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">patterns of data</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> from digital sources, in any current assessment I am aware of. </span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Although Dr Rabinowitz forecast the standardised test will continue and the change is primarily in the assessment regime. I believe standardised testing should eventually be delivered as a micro test, a single part of the normal measurement of progress. The test data can be passed instantly into the ACARA systems to produce a constant progress report on each student which is standardised across all schools. In this situation the student's progress is constantly being measured against the international standards Governments are so worried about without interfering with teaching and learning as the NAPLAN currently does.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Of course this will disrupt the industry spawned by producing NAPLAN study guides. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">If the questions are digitally trickle fed into the ongoing assessment process, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">I don't see any opportunities existing for 'teaching to the test' which is one of the widely held concerns with the current NAPLAN system. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<h3>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The long term effects of </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">utilising</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> Cognitive Computing </span></span></span></h3>
</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">I can see some big changes flowing from the use of Cognitive Computing at a Government level, initially for assessing NAPLAN but, then for who knows what. </span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">If it works at this system wide level it will only be a short time before the technology becomes affordable at a school level and will be incorporated into school assessment systems so potentially in the future we will see a system where teachers teach and computer systems assess and analyse. This would be the first real broad systemic change delivered by technology into education. </span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-35242546043888619722015-04-26T22:41:00.001-07:002015-04-27T00:42:26.328-07:00ICT Risk Management in Schools<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivaYIsKOp9VIIOpQxvdLq6_Z_KZCZTRKBdb7OaLenr2CqiKt-0isNvX5eY6txmQXhyP5GKpJRuu9Co1Rmff6BUX31ZbYSLDe22Keq8BMqgdmNQxf5NmPr3aOLru91EMe1pGxjRP_f-osGM/s1600/risk_management.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivaYIsKOp9VIIOpQxvdLq6_Z_KZCZTRKBdb7OaLenr2CqiKt-0isNvX5eY6txmQXhyP5GKpJRuu9Co1Rmff6BUX31ZbYSLDe22Keq8BMqgdmNQxf5NmPr3aOLru91EMe1pGxjRP_f-osGM/s1600/risk_management.jpg" height="169" width="320" /></a></div>
Thinking about Risk Management has been the impetus for several of the posts I have already published and is likely to be in the future. <br />
<br />
This subject probably needs a book written to cover all of the significant risks ICT adoption presents for Schools. These risks will continue to evolve as technology changes and more technology exists in the classroom. The risks have grown exponentially with the increase in connectivity in the classroom, especially when there is no-one tasked with analysing and recommending how to manage and minimise that risk.<br />
<br />
From Wikipedia;<br />
<br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Risk management</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none;" title="Risk">risks</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> (defined in </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_31000" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none;" title="ISO 31000">ISO 31000</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> as </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">the effect of uncertainty on objectives</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">) followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Risk_Management_pg._46_1-0" style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11.1999998092651px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_management#cite_note-Risk_Management_pg._46-1" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> or to maximize the realization of opportunities. Risk management’s objective is to assure </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none;" title="Uncertainty">uncertainty</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> does not deviate the endeavor from the business goals.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11.1999998092651px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_management#cite_note-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup><br />
<br />
I am not sure what Risk Management philosophy schools in general take, as I have never been involved in the process of risk management within a school. As the Manager of ICT Operations I did expect to be involved but it didn't happen. At my previous employment, Risk Management was a significant management expectation and assets were liberally applied to identifying risk and reducing potential impact. At various times I have been involved in a Risk Management task force, Risk Management Committee and Business Continuity Planning group. I was also tasked with writing many of the Risk Management policies for ICT at my previous employment.<br />
<br />
Without formal acknowledgement of the potential for risk there will never be any effort spent on true assessment and reduction processes. I know this isn't core business for Schools and has never been part of the process, however, we have now started creating organisational and personal risk from deploying technology. The worst part is we have been slowly increasing this risk for many years and at no time stopped and analysed that risk.<br />
<br />
I was going to list the risk schools are exposed to but think I will save that for my next post on the subject. Instead, I will propose some examples which are real. I won't acknowledge either the schools or staff involved in these examples, however I will point out the risk exposure a real business would have to address. The first is a legal risk within the bounds of new privacy laws; the second is operational risk associated with running highly complex ICT environments without sufficient succession planning.<br />
<h3>
The Lighthouse Teacher</h3>
I know those of us who promote the constructive and adventurous use of technology in the classroom seek to develop the Lighthouse teacher. They are adapting technology in their classroom to achieve the best outcomes possible. However, they're the ones who could potentially be exposing their Schools to the greatest risk. I know of one such teacher who was putting together lessons on edmodo, then setting up Google accounts for students and linking to many web sites which were able to fit very well into thelesson plan for those students. Sounds great doesn't it? <br />
Who was taking the due diligence on the sites to ensure the students privacy was being protected? <br />
As the teacher was creating the accounts used for this exercise should they have been ensuring everything was suitably secured? <br />
Should the teacher have been checking the policy for every site to ensure everything they were trying to achieve was within their guidelines? <br />
Did the teacher know and understand the legal implications of signing up for these 'free' on line services?<br />
<br />
Of course the teacher was blissfully unaware of any implications of their actions.<br />
<br />
The School was blissfully unaware of the teachers actions and hence the implications.<br />
<h3>
The busy ICT Manager in the medium sized school</h3>
<div>
This is a person who has come into an educational setting with a wealth of industry experience and is the only ICT support person on staff. He picks up on the poor quality of hardware previously deployed and uses his abilities to build a fantastic infrastructure package for the school. He then leads them through a deployment of significant numbers of devices. Now he is the only full time support person supporting technology in a school with more than 600 deployed student devices and all of the supporting infrastructure. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The work is overwhelming, however, the school doesn't need to worry as this person is fantastic he makes things seem simple. Unfortunately for the school he is the only one with any knowledge of the very complex environment and has pointed out to school leadership the risk this poses but no-one seems to care. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This significant operational risk is easily mitigated by having a company come in to audit and document the infrastructure. However, this isn't seen as a risk so no action is taken.</div>
<h3>
Final word</h3>
I know that risk around ICT exists in schools. How schools monitor and address that risk without impact on teaching and learning will be an interesting exercise.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-88812352893333090812015-04-11T22:47:00.000-07:002015-04-11T22:47:45.259-07:00Can other industries learn from the efficiency of school ICT support?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiubV9sjnc94P28b13hxmHX6FLQpy_aB1zdIA3llmfmIjuZqemh_NVH463AOf-d7wYKku3oeGj4h5ZVbyn_IXrBhEVud3dmzg5V7_alDdbnDXCS8aeuv953Fx-W33FwrmSW0v6J2ZmCqHvT/s1600/sitting-at-desk-300x203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiubV9sjnc94P28b13hxmHX6FLQpy_aB1zdIA3llmfmIjuZqemh_NVH463AOf-d7wYKku3oeGj4h5ZVbyn_IXrBhEVud3dmzg5V7_alDdbnDXCS8aeuv953Fx-W33FwrmSW0v6J2ZmCqHvT/s1600/sitting-at-desk-300x203.jpg" /></a>I wonder if many ICT Managers in general industry understand the efficiency many school ICT departments must maintain.<br />
<br />
When I think of my life before school support I remember the PC support team of four, which grew to 6 if you included the contractors supporting the Apple hardware. There was a network support team of 6 and more than 20 in the servers/applications area with at least five managers leading up to the CIO. <br />
<br />
The total number of endpoints would be very significant in local industry terms with more than 600 PCs but these were all corporate managed desktops with less than 50 mobile devices and about 120 Apples. There was also several hundred mainframe terminals which were maintained by the IT department. The network was big with multiple redundancies and about 20 Cisco switches four VLANS but it was before wireless so that was not a concern.<br />
<br />
Now I think of the school, 4 technical support staff with me as a manager. More than 1200 endpoints, more than 800 of them mobile devices taken home by students who were quite happily using them to get as many malware infections as possible. The other 400 were mostly mobile with about 150 desktop computers. We had 35 switches, almost 100 wireless access points and a constant battle to ensure the network wasn't attacked from within.<br />
<br />
I have recently met with two smaller schools both of whom have support departments of one but never the less support hundreds of end points, virtualised server infrastructure, complex networks with 10 - 20 switches and more than 30 wireless access points. I consider this almost untenable but the schools expect that they will have systems available at the same level as you would expect in a corporate environment. <br />
<br />
The advantage all Corporate/Business IT support departments have is the ability to put costs to outages and use ROI calculations to determine the value of IT support staff. I have yet to see a dollar value placed on outages in a school. <br />
<br />
What is the cost of a student being out of class having their Computer fixed? How much do we lose if a teacher loses a lesson due to system outages. What would the cost be if that teacher then changes their teaching practice to avoid technology following an issue? <br />
<br />
So schools end up using as little as possible to do as much as possible and accept the risk of failure caused by insufficient resources. However, very rarely are there failures which put systems off line. Without management having realised the risks we took, new systems come on line, systems are updated and old systems decommissioned<br />
. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-85429937428978274922015-04-06T17:28:00.001-07:002015-04-06T17:28:44.595-07:00Happiness is a connected digital classroom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEtSAOGHhCI3zbes4nKB2bvwGV2rwLQb-6lVKZ04OFM4xsqVwfS3z-lTym7QIkUVw4tus2CjJTt574cj42bkipY3NrV0ee-SFKdDvVKN-bIlqH16L383VO2UfmHGck8mxhoLwT1peOwLh_/s1600/Classroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEtSAOGHhCI3zbes4nKB2bvwGV2rwLQb-6lVKZ04OFM4xsqVwfS3z-lTym7QIkUVw4tus2CjJTt574cj42bkipY3NrV0ee-SFKdDvVKN-bIlqH16L383VO2UfmHGck8mxhoLwT1peOwLh_/s1600/Classroom.jpg" /></a></div>
As a technical specialist not a teacher this might seem to be a bit off topic for me. However as part of a life skills program at my school the ICT support staff ran a Computer Skills course one period a week for the Year 8 students. The experience of being in the classroom was fantastic. It also put into perspective the challenges teachers face with technology in the classroom.<br />
<br />
I had no idea how effective technology was as a tool to engage students until we were supervising those classes. The curriculum was focused on teaching the use of technology, so we were able to have project based tasks which were fun for the students.<br />
<br />
My enduring memory of those classes was how often we'd run late as students would get so engaged with the technology. Often they were problem solving the capabilities of the software within the context of the task they had been set. <br />
<br />
I have no illusions about being a teacher in a conventional classroom. I would not feel comfortable and probably couldn't engage the students by myself. However, when we were using technology and with my personal comfort level with that technology I found it quite easy to make things happen and could see how easily the students engaged with their technology and the tasks, despite my lack of teaching skills.<br />
<br />
The entire experience did reinforce my belief in the value of anytime access to technology in a connected classroom. It also reinforced my belief in the value of a solid support network for teachers in the use of the technology, the value of teachers feeling confident about the reliability of the technology as well as being competent in the use of technology.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-72378661586330791932015-03-31T17:53:00.001-07:002015-03-31T17:54:41.997-07:00Creating 'Community' for ICT Support StaffI had a thought provoking conversation with Rob Barugh on Friday.<br />
<br />
Rob was talking about how he values the sense of 'Community' within the scope of some ICT Conferences and how a shared sense of purpose is important.<br />
<br />
That triggered some serious self contemplation on the value I have for community and how it fits into the overall self value of anyone in a specialised field. I've spent a lot of time contemplating why my sense of 'Community' within the school faded over the twelve years I worked there but grew with other ICT Professionals over the years.<br />
<br />
I think it's the feeling of shared challenge and achievement we feel when we gather as a community.<br />
<br />
Within the school, the acknowledgement of achievement by the ICT team was very limited. There was in fact, normally, no acknowledgement for what we were achieving with very limited resources and wasn't valued or in any way worth taking about. The classroom challenges for teachers were shared in the staff room and acknowledged at staff meetings and in public forums at every opportunity. <br />
<br />
Within ICT community gatherings (normally at conferences or PD opportunities) we all got an opportunity to acknowledge each other's efforts and converse about them. This served to increase our sense of worth and community.<br />
<br />
It's been spoken about for many years; there needs to be more opportunity for the growth of community of ICT staff in schools. There are State based collaborative areas and some of these are quite strong with the AISNSW group as a great example of how this can be achieved. Unfortunately we still don't have a national group supporting this community. <br />
<br />
Fortunately I am now in a position to expend some effort on building the platform for that community. I wonder what it should look like and how it can be curated to be of value as well as capture the strengths of community. Any suggestions and comment would be gratefully accepted but I will make something interesting happen.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-25558077280707413832015-03-30T06:59:00.001-07:002015-03-30T07:02:12.067-07:00Why Cloud deployments are not the answer for ICT in schools<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaAi7ejp3yTYIxMPCbaVvgAnRmC1M1tYz7JIG6IyUZHIZaUnVA9Ddxt4zS0_Si0Nx9m6c44I6KqGi75tivU35PJhCwCUHvRQeiGyS9c2wf4Jp-MJzfR9uOEUivZHmIIXRB_OmQ-tPOeLPP/s1600/Final+'ICT%2Bin%2Bthe%2BClouds'%2BLogo-0000.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaAi7ejp3yTYIxMPCbaVvgAnRmC1M1tYz7JIG6IyUZHIZaUnVA9Ddxt4zS0_Si0Nx9m6c44I6KqGi75tivU35PJhCwCUHvRQeiGyS9c2wf4Jp-MJzfR9uOEUivZHmIIXRB_OmQ-tPOeLPP/s1600/Final+'ICT%2Bin%2Bthe%2BClouds'%2BLogo-0000.png" /></a>It's apparent that 'Cloud' has impacted significantly on the development of school's ICT. <br />
<br />
However, this isn't necessarily happening in the way vendors had hoped. The adoption of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service" target="_blank">Software as a Service</a> (SaaS) has been huge across the board with everything from Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps for Education to Mathletics and web based learning solutions to the innumerable iPad apps with web back ends.<br />
<br />
The thing that seems to be missing at the moment is a similar focus on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service" target="_blank">Infrastructure as a Service</a> (IaaS) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_as_a_service" target="_blank">Platform as a Service</a> (PaaS). In the immortal words of Professor Julius Sumner-Miller, "Why is this so?". Some schools have deployed IaaS, most commonly a Back Up as a Service solution or some virtualised machines in data centres; these services seem to have had much more traction in the commercial space. <br />
<br />
Why have schools not adopted this? This is a very important question for many vendors as they see IaaS as a large opportunity for sales growth into the school sector. However some very significant issues will hamper sales of these infrastructure services into the school sector.<br />
<h3>
Single site</h3>
Most schools exist as a single site. There won't be many companies with IT infrastructure the size and complexity of a school who exist on a single site. The value of having an IaaS cloud solution is multiplied many times when you operate a diverse multi site environment. In a single site the cloud solution means the school is totally dependent upon their Internet connection. This could mean significant extra cost in having a second link to remove the single point of failure. The main effect of this is when looking at the benefits of cloud we immediately remove some of the most significant positives and increase the negatives.<br />
<br />
There are a few schools who are not single site and the organisations representing multiple schools such as Catholic Education Office and Swan Christian Education Association which are not limited by this concern.<br />
<br />
Of course the other consideration is we do have significant access needs for parents and students from of campus which is improved by cloud technologies.<br />
<h3>
Lack of a cost benefit</h3>
Significant numbers of schools have adopted Virtualisation at a higher rate than other industries. The immediate benefits of Virtualisation is important to schools with significant hardware and support cost savings. Now many of us are on our third generation of virtualised servers and have no interest in losing those savings. This means when we are comparing the costs of IaaS solutions to our current environment there are normally no savings available and often the cloud based solution is costing more with little obvious benefit.<br />
<br />
There are schools still moving down the virtualisation path. They will benefit from moving direct to IaaS.<br />
<h3>
Hiring patterns</h3>
Most schools went through an expansion of their ICT support teams in the period up until 2012. As a result of this timing most of the Manager/Directors with technical backgrounds came into schools prior to the widespread adoption of cloud. This means most senior technical staff come from their previous environments with no experience in deploying IaaS, this doesn't mean they're not sure of cloud or doubt it is going to rule the future, it just means we are going to need to be convinced of the real value and security of IaaS.<br />
<h3>
Bad experiences</h3>
Although not widespread there have been pioneers who tried IaaS solutions or even as we did PaaS as part of older projects. We were trialling a PaaS solution in 2007 but we ended up leaving the trial due to the providers of that service not understanding that taking the service down for updates in week 4 of term 1 would be detrimental to uptake within the school. When updates were applied to the servers which bought the system down for an extended period and the provider was quite comfortable that they had no need to provide us with an assurance they would not repeat the exercise we decided that we couldn't continue with that risk. <br />
<br />
The result is that in 2007 we started to virtualise our environment and continued to prefer the option of controlling our own schedule of updates and patches.<br />
<h3>
Summary</h3>
To summarise my post - The 'Cloud' in particular IaaS is not the answer to any school's IT problems. We (schools) are not looking for a quick solution to problems which don't exist. We're looking to make every dollar we spend deliver the best value possible. At the moment a tenancy in a very expensive data centre doesn't deliver any savings. We're looking and waiting for the technology to deliver savings for us. What vendors don't want to understand is; we don't care that much about your profits, and we won't necessarily sign up for whatever is "trendy". <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-70785735102864504642015-03-21T20:05:00.000-07:002015-03-21T20:05:12.762-07:00Protecting the kids<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">I believe the most important issue with school mandated 1:1 Technology programs is Student Protection.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you've been following the <strong><span style="color: #6a6a6a;">Royal Commission</span></strong> into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse you know that the passage of time will judge harshly anyone not monitoring and working to make children as safe as possible. I have seen some attitudes to monitoring student activity on their school mandated technology which leads me to believe in 20 years time we could be watching a Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to online protection of students. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My first concern is that school leadership don't fully understand the risks for there to be significant harm delivered by a device mandated or even provided by the school. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The security of the corporate grade firewall we maintain at school may not even pick up on the patterns and sites which are part of activity and could be of harm to students. Even worse, those limited protections may not even be there when the device leaves the campus and is used for web browsing at home. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have seen many schools with great products deployed to make sure students using their device are always under the watchful eye of child protection software which is being developed and updated constantly to fulfil only one purpose, to make every effort to keep students safe. The decision to abrogate that responsibility to parents is almost certainly flawed. We have seen over the last few months students leaving their home country to join extremist organisations and their parents apparently not aware of their radicalisation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I worry greatly about the first time a school mandated device is used in the grooming of a young person into a radical movement. I particularly worry because there are far more important problems the student protection software can help with identifying. I have seen first hand the ability to use this software to identify and potentially intervene in the circumstance where a student is displaying suicidal tendencies. There are far more students in need of support than there are those likely to become radicalised. It's my belief that all parents would gladly pay almost anything for the device to have that protection built in.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know some schools believe students need to be exposed to some risks and taught how to manage those risks. I believe this is a risk you should be very clear in discussing with your entire community and ensure they're buying in to the premise of allowing that risk; they also need to be well informed on all aspects of that risk.</span><br />
<h3>
Legislative Solution</h3>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Student protection has been looked at by many companies with
strong solutions available which will work in the background on just about any
device.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe this type of software
should be compulsory on any student device.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It should be mandated that devices used by students, if mandated or even proposed by
schools, should be required to meet certain child safety standards. In this case
Government has not kept up with the risks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When the Federal Government instituted the NSSCF it was fantastic to see
the acknowledgement that students having 1:1 access to technology was essential
in the 21</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup><span style="font-size: small;"> century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, at no stage was the impact of take home technology
considered as being dangerous for children.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-60240581795963818832015-03-17T05:18:00.001-07:002015-03-17T05:18:45.316-07:00The Internal SalespersonOne of the most important roles we take on as the ICT Manager is the job of 'Internal Salesperson'.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7vezrzWae8RYgh0QJ9jisCZDvd0bfe40ac12cqJgoUKtnBdjXVtcbW1btsUgcfYCKJiXM9Qq6CzPp1cQMVhxeZQMprQq6n7alLOAhlZJA-aE4qw4NaPYpueeZ7lCDgnCPhLtsvJ_7WvV/s1600/105-salesman-249x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7vezrzWae8RYgh0QJ9jisCZDvd0bfe40ac12cqJgoUKtnBdjXVtcbW1btsUgcfYCKJiXM9Qq6CzPp1cQMVhxeZQMprQq6n7alLOAhlZJA-aE4qw4NaPYpueeZ7lCDgnCPhLtsvJ_7WvV/s1600/105-salesman-249x300.jpg" /></a></div>
When you're presented with an idea, technology, option, and/or proposal that you can see would be of value to your school, you have to be able to 'sell' it to the appropriate person. This skill is probably the most undervalued and untrained skill expected of you. You often don't even know this is what is expected, you just have a feeling someone should be told.<br />
<br />
How do you become that 'Internal Salesperson'? We all have most of the skills needed to be able to sell ideas to your Leadership when they need to be involved in the decision. There are several things to consider as part of your preparation present an idea.<br />
<h3>
Sanity Check</h3>
The first stage of working out the value of a proposition is a quick sanity check with a knowledgeable party. At one stage I'd seen a fantastic presentation at a Conference I thought would be great for adding some extra data into assessments. I went to our Dean of Studies with the idea and found out they had been doing something similar using our current database. This quick 'sanity check' saved me wasting time on further investigation.<br />
<h3>
How should I present the idea?</h3>
The next question is critical to the internal sales effort. How much effort you put in to the presentation will be at least partially driven by your 'passion' for the proposition. I always tried to figure out the most appropriate person to work out the proposition with. For instance when I was trying to get approval for print management I had the CFO and Director of Staff and Services involved. When we were looking at new hardware to work with scientific sensors the Head of Science had to be the co-sponsor of the proposal. In this way an effective sales pitch will already have some traction before you try to sell it to the Principal.<br />
<br />
I'd always start to write the proposal out. This helps you consolidate the idea into your environment and work through potential issues. I would do this even when it will only be presented verbally as I find the writing process focusses my mind and I will quite often identify potential issues or even unexpected benefits during my writing. <br />
<br />
A very long time ago I had 12 months purely writing strategic papers. This experience helps me produce reasonably succinct but very dry proposals which all seem to work in my favour when presenting technology proposals to Principals and Leadership teams.<br />
<br />
A piece of advice in preparing presentations is highlight risk in the proposal, not only for the execution of the proposal but if there is risk in not adopting it. It seems there is a limited understanding of risk within School Leadership particularly around technology. You'll need to use your expertise to highlight not only financial and operational risk but issues such as privacy, copyright and child protection.<br />
<h3>
How can I sell technology ideas to the Curriculum areas?</h3>
Sometimes you can't, but if you can see the technical/operational benefits you should try. It's a great starting point if you can get input from someone within the Curriculum delivery area to make sure the idea has merit and can fit within their classroom practice. <br />
<br />
I always tried to allow for consideration of other options when the technology was directly for the classroom. An example; each time we were looking for upgraded display technology I would have determined there was a need and had a demonstration of something which interested me. However, there was always several options open to us, so the consultative process was critical and my sales pitch included multiple options. <br />
<h3>
You are the expert!</h3>
This is always the concerning part and the piece of the puzzle that needs you to maintain your self confidence. You have been empowered by the school to be the expert, don't be afraid to be a advocate for what you see as the best solution.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-13440158762748607462015-03-15T20:36:00.000-07:002015-03-15T21:27:26.330-07:00The Loneliness of the School ICT Manager<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxxmPcELmx0T16fjtioqmEMdmFwOLnoUg_tvJTqYKiwxOR1cXOUyXBgFQUH7nrkEPugiaq-ryLIG9IGO2DvdOJlpUsAyXqin_yjKpKu4n8SODBDi_APKew7ZWFebxO5kJdkQgMXYE3wGH/s1600/Lone+Tree.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxxmPcELmx0T16fjtioqmEMdmFwOLnoUg_tvJTqYKiwxOR1cXOUyXBgFQUH7nrkEPugiaq-ryLIG9IGO2DvdOJlpUsAyXqin_yjKpKu4n8SODBDi_APKew7ZWFebxO5kJdkQgMXYE3wGH/s1600/Lone+Tree.png" height="268" width="320" /></a></div>
The last 12 months has been a bit of a revelation to me. Since leaving All Saints' I've talked to school ICT Managers across the board in schools ranging from the large rapidly growing schools to the medium sized school which is shrinking and the small school not changing too much.<br />
<br />
I now realise how fortunate I was being able to obtain the funding I needed to keep the infrastructure up to a Corporate standard. Many schools battle for any amount of funding for ICT even though it is now expected that ICT will be critical in delivering curriculum. <br />
<br />
When Managers in schools are forced to keep inappropriate technology operational even though they're operating end point counts higher than you would see in any IT environment in medium - large business. You need to look at the Corporate or Government sector to see more than 1000 concurrent users in an IT environment but that's normal in the larger schools. Even small K-12 schools with 400 - 500 end points are not inconsequential. <br />
<br />
One of the challenges is school executives expect ICT will just work like it does at home with very low funding level. If you search the Internet for information about technology in schools you will find thousands of articles from educators and for educators, however, there are very few for the technical person working in the support of the classroom technology. <br />
<br />
Some companies take it more seriously and will publish information targeting the IT Manager, one example is an excellent blog post by Brett North from Computelec "Measuring up to the Mythical Man" which is no longer available but still relevant. However, there are, from my experience, very few peer generated resources for those working at the coal face providing technical support for classroom use of ICT.<br />
<br />
I have always felt frustration around that short coming in the fact there are fragmented groups around Australia but no opportunity for a group large enough to be a 'go to' for all those involved in ICT technical support in Education. This makes it quite a lonely life being a person looking for resources supporting the case for change/improvement for infrastructure and support options.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-44430079177569505212015-03-14T04:43:00.000-07:002015-03-15T20:39:37.647-07:00Finally I understandI've been trying to figure out what it is about BYOD for schools that rubs me the wrong way; but I think I've finally figured out the problem.<br />
<br />
Many schools have tried to change the terminology to BYOT (BYO Technology), BYOOD (BYO Other Device), BYOX (x being an unknown) and just about any other letter with a prefix of BYO. <br />
<br />
I think the problem isn't in the last letter, it is in the O which we know stands for Own. Why would we ever consider ownership as important. My experience shows that most students consider a device their 'own' as soon as they personalise it. As soon as the background on their PC is customised it is their 'own' device. Another problem with calling it the students 'own' device is most students up until they enter senior school would simply have a device as determined by their parents. When they are empowered to make that decision it will most likely be whatever is trendy with their peers.<br />
<br />
So in schools it would mostly be BYPD (Bring Your Parents Device) and that is fine.<br />
<br />
I would like schools to label their personal technology programs as BYLD programs and move the focus from ownership to purpose. What is BYLD? It's Bring Your Learning Device. I think this would place the focus squarely on learning and make everyone in the process become focused on learning not on any side issues which are at best distractions.<br />
<br />
If you do run a true program where you don't offer any guidance for parents as to the type of device which should be bought in to your school then BYOD is fine because you're not even specifying the purpose of the device. If you have any other style of program it should be a BYLD program and you are therefore trying to improve learning with a device of some sort.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-76595652295773427232013-04-22T17:51:00.000-07:002013-04-22T17:51:37.662-07:00Where to next???When we get to the point when devices don't matter anymore what is the real thing that the whole digital revolution is going to deliver. A digital device in every students hand is just the start, it opens the door for those of us that understand the other aspects of technology to give real guidance to our schools about what can be achieved.<br />
<br />
The things which are giving business the biggest bonuses from IT are not replacing the secretaries Typewriter with a Word Processing PC. The sort of advanced analytics that businesses are now starting to apply to their data will provide the next transformation of education. <br />
<br />
This is going to require far more acceptance within education of the vision of technology specialists as this revolution will happen away from the classroom to benefit the classroom. Teachers will most likely not be the drivers of these changes. This is about delivering the promise that was proposed by the LMS but could not be delivered until every educational resource is digitally delivered, consumed and produced.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-17167848061481904102012-08-28T01:37:00.003-07:002012-08-28T01:37:34.763-07:00BYOD? Really?I have just been on a conference and talking to lots of schools about BYOD. When I say BYOD I mean a "bring anything you want, you know what you will learn best with" scenario where the student or their parents take total responsibility for the type of device that the student uses.<br />
<br />
I must say that I don't get it. <br />
<br />
Why would you look at BYOD in a School? To my mind it is a path fraught with danger and problems. From what I can see none of the problems are technical as far as getting devices connected and working.<br />
<br />
The most important thing to keep in mind is that teachers will be the one' s that are responsible for all levels of tech support as it will not be possible for a IT department to offer any support for devices beyond making sure that they can connect. <br />
<br />
the teacher then has to be able to tell from looking at any device that it isn't a 3G only device which can access the Internet unfettered by pesky filters or monitoring software. <br />
<br />
It is possible that there are 1 or 2 teachers in the Education System who could manage that task but most are not going to be able to so will simply ignore technology totally. The devices will not be incorporated into the learning, technology would move back to the labs and we could all go home happy.<br />
<br />
I will keep the thoughts flowing on the 1 : 1 versus BYOD argument.<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1858679013172651212.post-87567876742847453992012-01-02T03:20:00.000-08:002012-01-02T03:20:26.973-08:00Momentum change in 2011<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have noticed this year (2011) that the driver of momentum for
changes in the use of technology (in the classroom) is quickly moving from the
visionaries and technologists onto the classroom teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am confident this is because the
consumerisation of Technology, caused by the growth in iOS and Android
platforms, has simplified the interaction and reduced the need for technology
skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The impetus for moving forward is now something that a
significant number of ICT specialists feel should be contained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am certainly in that state of mind at the
moment, even as the consumerisation and simplification of interaction between person
and device continues there is still some significant shortfalls in the way
these changes would be impacted in the classroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By this I mean that the importance of a
reliable and secure environment for students to be able to learn in is still
the primary goal of our IT infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The new generations of personal devices will impact on our ability to
deliver that basic goal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
standardisation of the interface between teacher and student, the monitoring of
activity and many common applications are simply not available at the moment on
these devices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also very difficult
to work out which is the study device and which device is the personal device
with a 3G connection that doesn’t even connect to the School’s infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15271039109849998498noreply@blogger.com0