Should ICT austerity lessen the quality of learning and teaching? No, says London adviser Dave Smith.
With the spectre of public spending cuts on the minds of teachers, heads and advisers visiting BETT 2010, how can they anticipate and counter the effects of future cuts in ICT expenditure? What would happen should the Chancellor of the Exchequer suddenly demand immediate 5, 10 or even 15 per cent cuts in school budgets? If you are working in a school, or offering advice - are you ready to decide what needs to stay and what needs to go?
By following a few proactive tips you may be able to protect the things that teachers, teaching assistants and pupils find the most valuable, and lessen the impact on pupils' learning experiences.
Headteachers or governing bodies looking around for cost savings will immediately look at the largest budget pots. Salaries and ICT are high in that pecking order but providing a precise breakdown of ICT expenditure over the past three years and the impact will help to support your cause.
You will need to show the total cost of the equipment, outline clearly broadband connectivity charges and by drawing up a "We cannot do without? list, you’ll be well prepared for the probing questions that will certainly arise. When money becomes available again, this will help inform future purchasing and is a crucial part of the Becta Self Review Framework - a vital tool to help analyse all ICT practices.
Make the most of what you already have
Schools have spent heavily on ICT over the past decade so it is a good idea to ask: "is all of the ICT equipment being used to its full capacity?" Interactive whiteboards are a case in point. Measure ‘cost over impact’ of approximately £3,000 per classroom plus ongoing maintenance costs and ask if this provides a good return on investment? Do staff and pupils really tap into the ‘interactive’ of your interactive whiteboards? Is your school using ICT in line with the five stages of development of technology outlined in Hooper and Rieber's Teaching with Technology?
- Familiarisation: A teacher is becoming increasingly aware of ICT, and may have attended some INSET, but rarely (and often reluctantly) tries to use it in their classroom teaching.
- Utilisation: A teacher becomes increasingly aware of the benefits of technology, and begins to incorporate it into teaching, often “replacing” former activities with ICT alternatives. This begins to have beneficial effect on teaching and learning, although use remains fragile.
- Integration: A teacher is becoming increasingly familiar with appropriate use of ICT, and can integrate it into many aspects of their ongoing teaching. Teaching and learning begin to be very significantly enhanced.
- Reorientation: The potential of the ICT is now exploited to move into new areas and approaches that could not easily be replicated by more “traditional” means. Teaching and learning begin to be significantly transformed.
- Evolution: The developmental and creative possibilities of the ICT are being fully explored. ICT use can grow and develop in response to the needs of the learner and the consequent teaching implications. Teaching and learning are very significantly transformed.
Undertake an audit of staff ICT training needs
Once analysed, it would be a good idea to implement a package of ICT continuing professional development so staff can make more effective use of the range of equipment already in school. Provide in-house training for everyone including teaching assistants and other support staff. This will save money.
Clear the network of unused programs, CD-Roms and broken items like printers, scanners, laptops, PCs and that 1979 slide projector that has never been used. Portable Appliance Testing can cause a drain on budgets but make sure to follow WEEE regulations when disposing of unwanted equipment.
Printing – the vintage champagne saving in your ICT budget
Remarkably, inks and toners often cost more per cubic centimetre than vintage champagne! Analyse the print spend over the past three years and check if a print credit or print counter facility can be installed on your network to make staff and pupils aware of the amount of printing they are generating. Limit the number of credits, put a premium on colour printing and look at recycled/remanufactured print cartridges for possible savings.
Encourage the storage of outcomes of work on the school network or learning platform. Consider using older PCs around the school as interactive displays to share pupils' work. Yes, you will have to pay for the electricity, but it will be a lot cheaper than printing - and it looks better too!
Web 2.0 and open source technologies – free and educationally enriching
If you can't afford to buy new equipment or software use your broadband connection to exploit free online Web 2.0 interactive applications and open-source solutions (government policy now expects open source to be considered for all ICT solutions in the public sector).
Join a social network like Facebook or Twitter to meet like-minded educators who will happily share insights into the array of online digital tools they exploit. For example, teachers like Jan Webb, in Cheshire (@janwebb21 on Twitter), who is building the Apps4Class wiki to provide a "by subject" guide to useful free applications. And look at this early attempt (below) at a presentation with Animoto.
;feature=player_embedded#
Not on Facebook or Twitter yet? Start exploring with these useful applications:
Wordle for generating “word clouds” from your text, with the cloud giving greater prominence to words that appear frequently. Clouds can be tweaked with different fonts, layouts, and colour schemes - excellent cross-curricular tool for supporting Literacy and text analysis.
Picnik - online image-manipulation software.
Befunky - a social network where you can turn personal photos and videos into cartoons or digital paintings to make your own impressionist, popart or oil paintings.
Animoto - upload photographs and create animations.
Makebeliefscomix - create comic strips online – ideal for supporting Literacy and Modern Foreign Languages.
Also, consider using open-source and free alternative office applications such as OpenOffice and Google Documents instead of paying for licensed versions.
Effective technical support – cut it at your peril and waste even more money
Cutting technical support is often seen as a quick way to save money in the short term. But it's a sure-fire way to increase expenditure in the medium term. Technical support is vital to the good running of a network because machines that break down undermine staff confidence and inhibit learning and teaching.
But negotiate with your technical support provider and ask for an explanation about what you are getting for your money to ensure the correct level of support for the size of your network. If you have to buy additional technical support days, try to agree a fixed price. A disaster recovery approach to technical support is imprudent, and network issues that need repair without warning, can cost many times that provided by proactive technical support.
Consider sharing technical support with local schools. Primary schools can ask for support from their secondary counterparts or check to see if the local further education colleges have any students training as Microsoft Certified Service Engineers. This will enhance in-school support. Finally, use the Becta FITS Framework to analyse your current level of technical support.
Laptops or netbooks - why spend more if not required?
If you have some budget to spend, it might be a good idea to consider netbooks rather than laptops. For example a netbook, which is sometimes half the cost of a laptop, can be sufficient if you only want something to use for surfing the web, email, learning platform activities and watching streamed video. (See Mike Herrity's guide to picking a netbook and Gerald Haigh's review of the Asus Eee PC 1005HA).
Enhance parental engagement techniques by looking for other sources of funding from organisations such as the eLearning Foundation to match-fund contributions from parents/carers. And encourage parents/carers to apply for Home Access Grants.
If you are looking to introduce games-based learning, consider a home-school agreement where pupils bring their own handheld devices (Nintendo DS Lites) to use in class for maths, literacy and other subjects. Explore some of the research from Learning and Teaching Scotland for inspiration here.
Create partnerships with commercial and charitable organisations
Offer your school as a training venue, for product demonstrations or to trial new software/hardware. This can sometimes reap benefits such as free software and even reimbursement for other schools signing-up to subscriptions at a hosted-session. Offer to hire out ICT facilities to other providers when not in use – for example for Extended Schools' use. Alternatively, explore what grants available through organisations.
For example grants are available from:
- Lottery Funding – This includes funds from National Heritage, the Arts Council and the Sports Council.
- European Funding – This includes funding from Structural Funds, Community Initiatives and Community Action Programmes.
- Single Regeneration Budget – These funds are intended to support schemes which, for example, create employment, develop skills or have a positive environmental impact.
- Trust Funds – There are a number of UK trust funds which give out small or local awards for school equipment and resources.
- Private company and charity grants – A number of private and commercial companies and charities offer grants for schools. Examples are the Foyle Foundation and the Tree Council.
I recently hosted a visit by delegates from Japan's Ministry of Education to two Havering schools and they were in awe at the amount of technology British schools use to support learning and teaching, complaining how Japanese schools are a long way behind. This was real food for thought and a time to feel proud of what we are providing for our pupils. However, we must not allow our schools ICT to wither on the vine if we are to drag our country out of recession and develop a workforce able to engage competitively in a technologically advanced, global economy.
Lessen the impact of the recession on your ICT provision by:
- Ensuring you have a fully costed plan of future and previous expenditure, showing analysis of impact of expenditure and total-cost of ownership and outlining "non-negotiable? items;
- Making the best use of existing technology and dispose of unwanted software and hardware
Reducing printing costs by using print credits and storing outcomes of work electronically; - Making use of free and educationally rich Web 2.0 applications;
- Reviewing levels of technical support and look for additional free support;
- Engaging with parents and carers as a source to support ICT provision;
- Looking for additional funding from commercial or charitable organisations
BETT 2010
January 13-16, Olympia, London
www.bettshow.com
www.becta.org.uk – Stand J40
www.e-learningfoundation.com – Stand M40
Find out more about netbooks from:
www.microsoft.com/uk/education/ - Stand D30
www.intel.com - Stand E40
www.rm.com - Stand D60
www.opensourceschools.org.uk - Stand L20
More information
Dave Smith is ICT consultant and curriculum adviser to the London Borough of Havering Inspection and Advisory Services (joint winner of Becta's 2009 ICT Excellence Award for Support for Schools) and chair of The Visualiser Forum
www.haveringict.edublogs.org
