This week, I’ve been reading the Becta Harnessing Technology Survey in a lot more detail, and especially some of the spreadsheets of questions which didn’t make it into the final report. And the following things I learned are courtesy of the survey.
At a time when cost pressures are becoming more acute, there has been plenty of discussion about where outsourcing helps. Is it something that’s good for cost control? Does it help improve service delivery, or does it get in the way? Well, according to the survey, many schools have already outsourced one or more of their ICT services to a third-party: The question Becta asked was: “Are any of your ICT resources provided as a service by third parties over the Internet?”, and this is the response: Email – 54% MIS – 32% Office – 10% Desktop – 6% Applications – 18% None – 19% So 81% are outsourcing some part of their ICT already, and for the majority that’s email. I suspect that’s a result of so many primary schools using their Regional Broadband Consortia’s email service
At a time when cost pressures are becoming more acute, there has been plenty of discussion about where outsourcing helps. Is it something that’s good for cost control? Does it help improve service delivery, or does it get in the way?
Well, according to the survey, many schools have already outsourced one or more of their ICT services to a third-party:
The question Becta asked was: “Are any of your ICT resources provided as a service by third parties over the Internet?”, and this is the response:
So 81% are outsourcing some part of their ICT already, and for the majority that’s email. I suspect that’s a result of so many primary schools using their Regional Broadband Consortia’s email service
Becta asked how often the school provides technicians to other schools or colleges, and the answer was 9% for network support - which rose to 14% for secondary schools.
They asked over 1,500 Year 10 students (14-15 years’ old) “How many computers do you have in your home”. Just 2% said “None”, and 20% said “One” – with the rest having more than one computer at home. (Although an unfortunate 2% disappears, presumably as a rounding error). The actual responses were 2% said None 20% said One 27% said Two 23% said Three 12% said Four 14% said Five or more
They asked over 1,500 Year 10 students (14-15 years’ old) “How many computers do you have in your home”. Just 2% said “None”, and 20% said “One” – with the rest having more than one computer at home. (Although an unfortunate 2% disappears, presumably as a rounding error).
The actual responses were