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The course is scheduled to be held on FRIDAY 16th SEPTEMBER 2011 at Bicton College
Course timings:
0930-1000 Coffee & Registration 1000-1115 Training Part 1 1115-1130 Coffee Break 1130-1300 Training Part 2 1300-1345 Lunch (& opportunity to discuss issues with your peers) 1345-1500 Training Part 3 1500-1530 Q & A Session / Close
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Before I leave for my holiday, I thought I would share with you this bit of news, from July, for those of you who don’t know Alan Richards, Information Systems Manager at West Hatch High School or didnt know the great award he has achieved.
Alan writes regularly on his blog “Education Technology Now”, a fantastic read that I would recommend to everyone interested in technology.
On the page dated 1 July, the news that Alan’s been awarded the status of Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).
It’s a distinction he’s rightly proud of. The MVP website page explains that MVPs are nominated by other technical community members who are in a position to see the qualities of their nominee. Nominations are rigorously scrutinised and there has to be evidence, over time, of excellent leadership as well as
“Willingness and ability to help others make the most of their Microsoft technology.”
It’s absolutely great that Alan, who clearly has quite enough to do in his own workplace, spends huge amounts of time and energy on sharing his expertise and experience with others. His blog is a mine of information, particularly on the technicalities of handling the latest software in a demanding school environment. And it doesn’t stop there of course, Alan’s equally generous with his time both formally in presentations and informally when you phone or email for help.
Becoming an MVP brings a free Live Meeting account, and it’s absolutely typical of Alan that he’s going to use his new account to help his fellow professionals. So he’s currently advertising a free SharePoint Webinar, where he’ll concentrate on his drive to cut costs across the school through using SharePoint 2010 related Microsoft products.
It’s good to see generosity and professionalism rewarded. As the saying goes, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Here’s some Friday fun for you. My colleague Rich Lane, Account Technology Strategist, came across these short films (whilst actually searching for something else and shared it with the team.)
I loved them so much, I wanted to share them with you.
Happy Friday!
Recently I found a friend on FaceBook that I made whilst at primary school and haven't spoken to for over 20 years! Whilst catching up on old times, we started to reminisce to back to when we were little (for anyone who has ever actually met the 6’ me, may find it hard to believe I was once actually ‘’little’’!)
Both of us have very fond memories of Astley C of E Primary School where we both started on the same day in 1984 as wide eyed, frightened 4 year olds. But within days we loved the place and had made firm friends with each other. Check out the website and you will see the building I spent my first few years of education, dating back to the late 1800’s.
Apart from the first friends I made and lunch times spent running through the fields that backed out onto a farm with,at the time, what I thought to be the biggest cows in the history of cows, one of the poignant memories for me was the day the school got its first computer to put into Classroom 3 (that was the top class) for the pupils to use. And on that computer was MSWLogo. Or as I remember it, ‘’Turtle’’. Originally developed by Seymour Papert and Wally Feurzeig, this is a programme to allow children to write and create graphics, anything from a standard box, a picture of a basic chair or patterns.
With simple instructions typed into the programme such as Forward 100, Right 90, Forward 100, Right 90, Forward 100, Right 90, Forward 100, Right 90, before you know it you have a square! Being able to develop further meant more complex drawings using very simple programming. Back then, this was very new to us as well as exciting. We were using a computer to give commands to and there before us, a square appeared.
But that was 25 years ago (ok so i have now just given away my age) and technology has come along leaps and bounds since the days I sat in front of the one and only computer my primary school had to have my turn at creating my square. With software such as Kodu, children now have technology literally at their finger tips and gone are the days of creating a simple square to creating actual games still using simple instructions.
And it doesn't stop there. Technology is growing and expanding all the time, continuously allowing students to interact, think outside of the box (or in my case, a square) and create such things 25 years ago, people only dreamt of. With Kinect for Windows SDK now on it’s way, the possibilities are seemingly endless, especially where learning and education are concerned.
At 3.30pm, the old school bell used to ring marking the end of the day. We would all run down the long driveway to our parents at the old iron gate waiting to take us home for tea and being asked, ‘’So what did you learn at school today?’’
I wonder what today’ student would say?
In a recent Computer Weekly article, the UK Director of Education for Microsoft, Steve Beswick, shared his views on the impact that the 1.8% drop in the number of students taking IT related A-Levels could have on the job market. The full article from computerweekly.com is shown below.
A-level IT decline could increase offshoring, says UK Microsoft education director
This year's IT A-level results mark a worrying trend for the IT sector, according to Microsoft's director of education.
A-level results for 2011 show a 1.8% drop in the number of students taking IT-related A-levels, with 15,962 students studying for ICT and computing A-levels in 2011, compared with 16,251 last year. The number of students taking IT courses has fallen by 49% since 2006, down to 15,962 from 20,441 five years ago.
Steve Beswick, UK director of education in for Microsoft, warned a decline in IT A-levels could lead to increased offshoring of IT jobs.
"The downward trend around computer science numbers is a worrying trend from an IT perspective and a business point of view," he said.
"IT jobs are growing at four times the rate of the standard jobs market. With fewer people with appropriate IT skills coming out of education, there'll be no-one to fill the jobs available in the marketplace. We could see more off-shoring to India and China as a result," said Steve Beswick.
Beswick believes the IT sector needs to work to inspire young people from ages as young as eight-years-old. But in the short term, businesses will need to look to maths and engineering graduates to fill IT jobs.
"STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] subjects provide a solid grounding to move into an IT career. The IT industry should look to other subject areas where candidates have the underlying principles to move into a computer science role," he added.
What do you think on this subject? We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.
One of the things I love the most about Twitter are the conversations that can follow on from the act of sharing content, opinions and asking questions. Twitter is totally unique, in my opinion, in its ability to connect people around the subjects they are passionate about.
A blog post that we shared across our education blogs earlier this week around the concept of the consumerisation of IT in education stimulated yet another of these rewarding conversations that proves you can derive huge value out of 140 characters, or less.
The 3 way exchange on Twitter was around the term ‘consumerisation of IT’ and how appropriate it was as a definition. Some of the wider social implications were also discussed.
Some felt that the term used in the post was not appropriate and that user choice and empowerment would be a more relevant term to be embraced moving forward. A further extension of this debate was around questioning whether the term was in fact just an opportunity for the IT industry. Interesting opinions, for sure.
Self provisioning, DIY and bring your own IT were also thrown into the mix as a way to describe the shift we are currently seeing around how people use technology for work, study and leisure.
So how did the Twitter exchange conclude? Well, as the exchange took place pretty late in the evening (for me, anyway) and involved folks from across the world the small matter of sleep came into the equation and the Twitter chat was unfortunately cut short. That being said, though, the exchange definitely help me shape my views and opinions around the consumerisation of IT movement.
With regard to the term itself, I actually think its useful to have a common description that we can all attach to this trend that is currently evolving. Yes, the trend is definitely ultimately about user choice and empowerment but would a more generic term give it a strong enough identity with IT professionals, policy makers and consumers to drive change? Arguably not.
Consumerisation of IT offers an huge opportunity for IT related services to be consumed on the users terms, using a combination of slim line devices with a long battery life, such as the Samsung Series 9, and cloud based applications, such as Live@EDU and SkyDrive. This, as in user choice, can only be a positive thing with a number of productivity gains and flexible working/studying benefits associated with it.
As raised during the conversation via Twitter, from an education perspective there is a danger of exacerbating socio-economic gaps but government initiatives and others, such as Get Online @ Home, will help address these challenges. Cloud based services, which are often free, also help provide access to enterprise class software to a wider audience that might not otherwise be able to afford software at home.
While these shouldn’t be ignored, and every effort should be made to insure inclusion for all, I am personally really excited about the opportunities for education and teaching and learning, in particular.
The challenge now is for IT teams to recognise and embrace the opportunities around the consumerisation of IT in education. In HE, for example, providing access to anytime anywhere learning and allowing students to bring their own technology on campus could play a key part in offering great student experiences that adds value to £9,000 student fees.
What do you think about the consumerisation of IT in education? It would be great to hear your thoughts in the comments below, or alternatively, and in keeping with the Twitter theme associated with this post, share your thoughts over on Twitter.
I look forward to continuing the conversation around this topic in future posts.
Tim (@tbush)
When you say ‘’summer holiday’’ in school, many imagine 6 long weeks off, whether you are staff or student. Some go abroad, some stay at home. The weeks all role into one and the Autumn term seems a long way away. This isn’t the case for everyone who work in education. Gerald Haigh, independent writer to Microsoft, has give us a little insight to those who carry on working in the schools during the summer holiday, so the new term start in September continues to run smoothly for all staff and students.
A deputy head I knew was always called upon by the staff, relaxing after school on the last day of term, to say a few traditional words.
“Come on, Dave,” they’d say. “Give us the Virgin Snow speech.”
It began something like this.
“The holiday stretches ahead, like virgin snow. You haven’t trodden on it yet. It’s there waiting for you…”
Well, that’s as may be, but there are people in school for whom the virgin snow doesn’t exist at all. They are the ones who have to use the student and teacher-free weeks to do all the jobs they can’t do the rest of the year.
As the tumult and the shouting dies and the teachers and the kids depart, these stalwarts wave farewell, roll up their sleeves and turn to the task of bringing everything up to scratch ready to start again. Some are site managers and cleaners, some are administrators.
And some, of course, are network managers leading teams of technicians. People like Alan Richards, Information Systems Manager at West Hatch High School in Essex.
“As in most schools, the summer break is when we tackle any major work that needs doing. These days school networks are available 24hours a day, including weekends. It never stops.”
Even in the holidays, as Alan points out, teachers will want some access to the network, so this summer, down time at West Hatch is limited to three days.
One of his team’s big jobs is encrypting all the staff laptops. All 150 of them, in accordance with data security requirements.
“Even then, we don’t get to keep them for the whole holiday. Staff need their laptops for planning, So there’s a rota which they can log on to the learning gateway and find out when they can collect their laptop.“
For Alan, his team of four, and all their colleagues across the country, then, this is a busy time. But it’s not a frantic one, because as Alan says,
“Everything’s planned in advance down to the last detail.”
The pressure comes from that fact that summer maintenance is a project with no leeway for slippage. It just has to be done in the time available. And contrary to what the world thinks, the deadline isn’t the end of the holiday. It’s a couple of weeks before that, with the arrival online of external exam results. Whatever happens everything has to be up and running smoothly by then. This year it’s 18th August. The date’s important enough in itself but it also marks the beginning of a highly active couple of weeks leading up to the start of term. During that time there’s considerable demand on the learning gateway and on connection to higher and further education institutions, organizations and examination bodies.
Somehow, though, across the country, it all gets done, despite the inevitable hiccups. The classic one, which Alan has often heard about and learned to avoid by careful liaison with the site manager, is when someone pops their head round the network manager’s door and says,
“By the way, we need to turn the electricity off for the whole of next week. OK?’
Sure enough, by the sheer law of averages, that’s a fate which right now awaits somebody out there. Even then, there’s no doubt that the network people will finish on time as they always do. But if you’re a teacher, please don’t breeze in at the start of term and ask Alan Richards or any of his counterparts if they’ve had a good holiday. They may well have, but perhaps not the one you have in mind.
While looking through my Twitter feed this morning over a quick coffee, I came across a great Tweet from Mark Reynolds, a member of the education team here at Microsoft, with a link to an interesting video presenting some of the key drivers around the concept of the consumerisation of IT.
Seemingly a ubiquitous term within the media and around the water cooler, consumerisation of IT is blurring the lines between how technology is used at home and within the workplace and the video does a nice job of presenting some of the current challenges faced by organisations and, more specifically, IT professionals in this rapidly changing IT landscape.
What about within the education sector, though? How is the impact of the consumerisation of IT changing the way that IT is offered and managed within schools, colleges and universities?
With the recent changes within the sector, such as budget cuts and the need for an increased focus on delivering superior student experience, making the call to embrace the consumerisation of IT louder than ever, how are you viewing this shift?
I would love to hear how you are adapting, if at all, to this new way of thinking about IT delivery. We are looking to create a series of posts over the coming months addressing this important theme and it would be great to share as many examples from the education community within these posts as possible.
Thanks in advance for your time and look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comment section below.
Tim
Recently I wrote a post on how Sawtry Community College has used Microsoft Office Specialist exams (MOS), to challenge and further their student’s education. However it can also be used as an alternative to AS levels. Depending on the student, the option to take the MOS exam could be more suited.
A great example is from West Park , an 11-16 Maths & Computing Specialist School on the outskirts of Derby. My colleague Greg Pearson, UK Lead, Microsoft Learning recently spoke to Jean Moss, Community Developer at West Park with regards to MOS and how it has helped some of their pupils.
‘’All pupils take the BTEC First Certificate for ICT Practitioners (equivalent to two GCSEs). Those who complete the work early have the option to take an AS in ICT. However this is not suitable for all pupils, and so last year as a trial, we introduced the Microsoft Office Specialist Examinations through Certiport. Pupils can practice and take the exams during normal lessons. After a slow start the interest of the pupils was engaged. A key factor was having the results of the examination immediately and receiving a printed certificate to show what has been achieved.
One outstanding pupil was Alice. Alice took her first examination on 21st March 2011 and by 17th May 2011 had become a Microsoft Office Specialist 2007 Master. This is impressive for many reasons. One is that Alice did not have access to Outlook at home or at school. She became proficient through the e-learning available through our IT Academy membership.’’
More information on MOS exams and Certiport can be found here
Fighting off stiff global competition, 15 year old Rebecca Rickwood from the UK pulled off a significant shock at the 2011 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office by being crowned 'World Champion in Microsoft Excel'.
Rebecca, a student at Sawtry Community College (a specialist IT Academy in Cambridgeshire), came out on top in the annual competition which attracts over 228,000 of the brightest students from 57 countries. An amazing achievement!
The newly crowned champion, who is about start her GCSE's, scored an amazing 100% at the finals and won a $5,000 cash prize in addition to the much sought after title of ‘World Champion In Microsoft Excel’.
Rebecca, who was clearly thrilled about her achievement, commented “When I was waiting with all the other students from around the world to hear the result I was really nervous. I heard my name read out in 1st place and I just couldn’t believe it. I’m ecstatic, I just can’t believe I won and now I’m world champion. It’s a day I’ll never forget.”
Rebecca had earned her right to attend the world finals back in May after she achieved the top nationwide score in the Microsoft Office Specialist Excel certification exam. Since then Rebecca has continued to hone her skills by studying at lunch and in the evenings at her school, supported by Pam Kitchen her instructor at Sawtry Community College. “I’m absolutely delighted for Rebecca. She really is a wonderful student who is extremely talented but, also, a very modest person. ICT is a massive part of what we do here but Rebecca astounded me when she took the exam and achieved 100% first time around. What was most impressive was her hard work and dedication during lunchtimes and after school. We told her to go out to San Diego and be herself and are obviously thrilled to have her coming back to us as World Champion” explained Pam.
Kevin Ryan, Marketing Manager with Prodigy Learning who are responsible for the competition in the UK, added.
“We realised Rebecca was extremely talented and one to watch from her scores in the UK championship. But the world competition is another level; it’s highly competitive and notoriously difficult to win, particularly for someone so young. Rebecca really has done her country proud and her ability is a testament to the quality of the Microsoft courses being offered by her school and others across the UK. I believe Rebecca has a very bright future ahead indeed.”
Congratulations again to Rebecca and we look forward to seeing her go on and achieve great things in the future!