Have you ever faced a Canute-like colleague, keen to roll back the tide of technology? Or treats technology problems completely differently from any other kind of problem. For example, I’ve often wondered if we’d ban pencils in classrooms if they were invented today, because they have a bad side as well as a good side. Just like ICT.
I really enjoyed reading John Spencer’s “Pencil Integration” blog, which proves that satire is sometimes the way to go when faced with cyncics. It’s satirising ICT in education, by writing about the introduction of pencils in the classroom. As you read it, change every reference to pencils & books to ICT, and you’ll see how ridiculous some of the ideas sound.
Three of my favourites:
If you think this kind of thing doesn’t happen with technology today, then take a look at The Angry Technician’s blog post series entitled “Let’s solve everything with Technology”
One college reduced its staff sickness rate by 50%, by changing that way that they cover the lessons for absent lecturers. The Head of Department became the default cover option, meaning that most absent lecturers had their boss taking cover for their lesson. That simple changed halved sickness rates, because staff simply didn’t want their boss to see their class, lesson plans etc
I learnt, at a conference, that the average full-time college lecturer teaches 840 hours per year. Working this out for schools, I think it’s about 850 hours for a typical teacher (at 38 weeks a year, and about 5 hours of teaching a day, less 10% for PPA time)
The Home Access Programme has been running since January, and I learnt, in a tweet from Bob Harrison, that so far they have had 400,000 applications for free home computers - an increase of 70,000 since April. In total they’ve now approved 200,000 of the grants – which leaves just 85,000 left to hand out.
We’re thinking about how our activities online (like this blog, our other education blogs, the Partners in Learning Network, and the main Microsoft UK Education website) can be developed to support schools more – and meet the needs of different people within a school. Within our small team we’ve got quite a few years of working in and with schools, but we thought it was an opportunity to ask somebody outside of Microsoft to do some research for us, and tell us some things we didn’t know. The first phase of that research, based on a small number of in-depth interviews with people in different roles in a range of schools, has just come back, and during the debriefing, I took lots of notes on things that I thought you might find useful. Some of it is obvious but there were also some surprises, especially about people’s behaviour.
This research isn’t a huge, representative sample, but I think that the information is definitely worth sharing, as it may help you to get an insight into what’s going on in other schools. I’m sure your school doesn’t suffer from the tension between Network Managers and Teachers that we’ve picked up on through the research, but are you aware of other colleagues suffering the similar problems?
One of the themes that came out of the research was that there is a tension between teachers and Network Managers, which was highlighted by informal comments from both groups.
Secondary school teachers told the researchers that want somebody to help them mediate with their network managers, to help overcome the tensions and barriers!
In secondary schools, teachers commonly complained about the difficulty of getting curriculum resources installed onto the school network, with some reporting that “the network manager doesn’t trust my choices”. This may be compounded by Network Managers who told us that "installing new software is a low priority" for them, and some said “we hate doing it”.
There were two quotes that clearly illustrated this tension, from both sides. One teacher, talking about getting curriculum software installed in school, said:
And a Network Manager, talking about teachers, said:
For phase two of the research, we’ll look to see if there’s more information on this tension (and possible solutions).
Primary schools have a more unified approach to ICT. The ICT Co-ordinator tends to see a whole school view, whereas in secondary schools ICT development is more likely to be driven by keen members of staff, and there are wide departmental disparities in ICT adoption.
Secondary schools were described as "more cynical", and with more tension in role differences between ICT staff and teaching staff
Primary schools ICT strategies tend to place more emphasis on pupils' ICT use whereas secondary schools focus on teachers' use of ICT. (The researchers wondered if this reflected a learning-centric versus teaching-centric approach in the school?) And because primary teachers learn skills for one curriculum area, and then apply it across the rest of their teaching, they felt that there was much better cross-curriculum use of ICT, compared to the ‘islands of best practice’ reported by staff in secondary schools
Teachers face huge time pressures, and regard their time as very precious. So time to use and explore ICT is therefore an issue. And in secondary schools they also reported that they find lack of access to IT equipment a big pressure (coupled with big departmental discrepancies in access).
Secondary schools have what the researchers described as “complex budget workflow”, compared to primary schools. Mainly this results from fewer decision makers in primary schools. In secondary schools, it’s not just a discussion between a Network Manager and the Head Teacher, but also involves many different members of the Senior Leadership Team, and with many curriculum departments involved. Partly this is because Network Managers like decisions about curriculum resources to come through them, to ensure compatibility and so that they can plan implementation of new resources.
However, the researchers found, after the complex budget process, once the budget is actually allocated, it's left to the IT team to spend it - and they can more or less spend it anyway they want (eg change the plan and the priorities during the year)
Network Managers see the goal of their job as to maintain a constant service for students, and also staff. But they referred mainly to students - even more so at primary schools. As one Network Manager said "It doesn't matter how good your network is, if it doesn't help with learning, it's worthless".
Only a minority see training, such as making sure everyone knows how to use ICT, as a critical part of their role.
Most Network Managers use EduGeek as their online professional community
Every teacher interviewed said "I don't want to reinvent the wheel", and wanted to use other teachers' good resources. But few teachers actually took action about finding other teachers’ work online, preferring to use one or two sites created by publishers or similar organisations, and only a miniscule proportion were actually sharing their work with others online.
The main online place primary teachers go to get teaching resources primary schools was quoted as the free Primary Resources website, whilst in secondary schools, teachers start from their favourite search engine to look for teaching resources.
Most teachers did have other sites that they used in addition to their first choice. Other free sites used are TES Connect, BBC BiteSize and the discontinued BBC ReviseWise. And a smaller number of teachers use subscription sites for resources, such as Education City and Espresso.
One strange and interesting piece of feedback from the researchers was that teachers prefer resource sites that look home-grown "If a site looks too professional, they think it isn't for them" (I did wonder if the researchers meant "corporate" rather than "professional").
Teachers also said that if a resource was made available through their local Regional Broadband provider, then they’ll trust it more than other content, because they assume that somebody has reviewed it, and made the judgement that it is better than other resources.
Based on this, I’m sure as we go into Phase 2 we’re going to find out some more interesting stuff! NB: Feel free to add comments to the blog - to prevent spam, anonymous comments wait overnight for checking
Based on this, I’m sure as we go into Phase 2 we’re going to find out some more interesting stuff!
NB: Feel free to add comments to the blog - to prevent spam, anonymous comments wait overnight for checking
Last weekend, Doug Belshaw’s “Things I learned this week #17” mentioned this blog (although with some fake reluctance), and the post that contained the What’s new in PowerPoint 2010 for teachers video. I often read Doug’s blog, as well as listening to the EdTechRoundUp podcast, which Doug takes part in weekly. The thought hit me (belatedly!) that “Things I learned this week” is an excellent way to share some of the snippets of news that aren’t quite important enough to make a blog post all of their own, but lumped together they may make interesting reading.
So, thanks to Doug’s idea, here’s my first “Things I learned this week” list:
Level 1: Basic Level 2: Intermediate Level 3: Advanced Level 4: Expert Generally uses humour in a positive way Uses humour to bring people together Knows exactly when and where a joke or story will be effective Can see humour in almost everything Is conscientious about timing and setting for humour Uses humour to boost morale or decrease tension Has a great sense of timing Sought out by others for guidance in this area Tries to diffuse tense situations with appropriate humour Uses humour to make for a more relaxed and productive atmosphere Realises when and where humour will backfire, and withholds Uses humour as a uniting dynamic across a range of situations Can laugh at self and others Allows others to be funny Understands that laughter makes a more comfortable meeting, classroom, etc Recognizing and appreciates a great sense of humour in others
Generally uses humour in a positive way
Uses humour to bring people together
Knows exactly when and where a joke or story will be effective
Can see humour in almost everything
Is conscientious about timing and setting for humour
Uses humour to boost morale or decrease tension
Has a great sense of timing
Sought out by others for guidance in this area
Tries to diffuse tense situations with appropriate humour
Uses humour to make for a more relaxed and productive atmosphere
Realises when and where humour will backfire, and withholds
Uses humour as a uniting dynamic across a range of situations
Can laugh at self and others
Allows others to be funny
Understands that laughter makes a more comfortable meeting, classroom, etc
Recognizing and appreciates a great sense of humour in others
And like all of the other competencies, there are sections on improving proficiency, interview questions, learning opportunities and even a recommended reading list. (Honestly, it took me half an hour to satisfy myself that this wasn’t some kind of April Fool’s Spoof)
Thanks for the inspiration Doug