You could look through a brochure and a list of support ranging from curriculum focussed and topic-based training; pilot programmes; support for peer teaching; INSET sessions; implementation of financial systems into schools; broadband services; filtering and e-mail services; curriculum software; strategy planning and even leadership development (until SLICT came along…).

Nowadays you need many brochures and lists, publicity and advertising material and you may still not be sure that everything is covered.

Support for schools has changed. We are in a different world now as the dedicated funding has ended and many local authority teams have reduced, some have gone completely, others offer a reduced range of services and increasingly local authority based support is being provided as part of corporate IT support or via a commercial or quasi-commercial provider. There are exceptions and some great examples of collaborative working between local authority teams and RBCs however provision is patchy, the breadth of support is variable and in many cases there is little opportunity to create space and support for leadership and direction – in technology or learning strategies.

What is clear however, is that the wrap-around support from local authority teams is becoming increasingly rare. Yet the range of services and support is still important to ensure that schools can fully exploit technology.

Taking Stock

Regardless of the status a school has and the choices they have made about how to access education and ICT services, there is a common thread we are starting to see – a need to take stock of what support and services are needed; a view on their quality and appropriateness; and advice on how to monitor and maintain effective services. These apply to local authority, partnership and commercial arrangements.

Increasingly, school leaders are recognising that the benefits they get from having a choice of services and providers can be compromised by fragmented arrangements, through contention between providers and gaps appearing (normally where the traditional wrap-around local authority support services are no longer available).

Pleasingly, school leaders value working together, recognising the importance of partnership and in many cases are developing more formal partnerships and consortia arrangements. We are increasingly being asked by colleagues in schools (and also from local authorities) to help them take stock of their ICT in Education support, to offer a view on relative value and areas for improvement and how both procurement and provision can be improved.

Commissions

Over the past year we have worked with a number of local authorities and schools. We have been commissioned directly by the local authority, through a mandate from schools or in a partnership of the two. In some cases, the local authority team already provides most services, in another there is no local authority employed team and in a further example, school leaders wanted an independent view of the services they get and need.

It is a fascinating ask… early into our work we develop a picture of the local (schools, commercial and local authority) context; assess the issues and perceptions that schools and providers have; bring in our expertise in the education and technology arena; and seek to understand the drivers and expectations.

Whoever has initiated the commission is the key client, however we make sure our work is focused on the impact of services on learners and schools. We therefore spend time with school leaders, hearing the issues, wishes, aspirations and frustrations. We spend time with the local authority, with providers and with support teams to understand their offering, services and issues. We review key documents, service level agreements and services themselves to help develop a balanced view of needs, provision, quality and future needs. We pay attention to governance, management and interaction between the parties, and of course strategy and direction.

Positive outcomes

This is not about quality assurance of providers – other schemes exist to help providers validate their services – it is about providing an informed, professional and independent view. We are interested in improvement and the right arrangements for schools and providers.

As we have developed and shared our assessments, we have found that all parties really value our independent view; they recognise our expertise and credibility. Their understanding and appreciation of each other changes and improves and a common view of services, provision and quality starts to emerge.

In every case to date, the process of our review has improved services in schools. Relationships between parties have become simpler and more focused with greater clarity on roles, expectations and review. In all cases our findings and proposals have been accepted, leading to improvement in services, better value and arrangements that are appropriate and sustainable.

Want to know more?

If you are a school leader (or a group of leaders) wanting to review the support you have, if you are a strategic leader in a local authority and want to assess what and how to provide or broker services, if you lead support services to schools or you simply want to know more about what we can offer, please get in touch with us at moc.setaicossateinull@ofni.

As we shared ideas, tips and some challenges, we talked about plans, policies, implementation, and of course monitoring impact. It was clear to me that despite how it feels sometimes, our Leaders and school Governors are pretty adept at keeping on top of things, well versed in checking changes in legislation, guidance and of course have a programme of regular review of policies.

Yet, as things move on from a new initiative or drive, it is easy to get lost in the detail of making changes, to become beguiled by technology, be swayed by the enthusiast or the anxious, and difficult just to hold back and take stock, checking the map and direction before we drive on. Hence on this occasion, we took a different focus. As we discussed the potential of technologies we kept a close eye on how we consider our strategies and – bearing in mind it is nearly 4 years since the Online Reporting expectations were made clear (June 2008) – we took time to take stock of our strategy for parental engagement and technology and within that to consider some initial areas to think about.

So, if you have already embarked upon a strategy to use technology as a medium, device or even a Trojan Horse to improve parental engagement, what might you look at to check your route and next steps? You might want to think about these questions a starter for 10:

Do you actually have a strategy?

• If you do, can you map where you want to be and where you are starting from
• Are you looking at the way you record and manage information; your overall parental engagement approaches; the role, interest and views of staff and finally, the potential of technology
• Have you prioritised and considered where you are content, how great you want to be in some areas and what is right for your school
• How would you judge success and impact? Would it be in terms of cost, reach, time savings, positive feedback, better attendance, more activity with parents, a drain on resources, technical concerns or a combination

Have you thought about roles?

…of the leadership team, of cross-school groups, of your IT team, of your administration and support teams and taken into account their ideas and interests

How well do you use your web-site to publish information?

• Does it showcase and feel like your school?
• When did you last look at your website?
• When did you last ask parents and learners what they want and expect?
• Is the basic (contact) information there?
• Does it show critical and timely information?
• Can visitors search and leave messages?

Do you just publish on your website or do you broadcast too?

Including showcasing the work of your learners, using simple video techniques to welcome visitors, making your site more interactive, using curriculum related activities to exemplify what your learners do and of course a bit of Show and Tell to the world.

Could push and pull technologies work for you and your parents?

Many more schools are using e-mail as a standard or default form of communication (efficient, cost effective, consistent) but are you making the best of it, do you have contingences for homes without access or if the technology fails? Are you happy to receive e-mails as well as send them (and how do you record, manage and ensure responses). Simple e-newsletters are really effective, as is the embedding of links and references – just a click away. Add to that blogs (from teachers, pupils and parents) and mundane things can come to life.

Technologies are constantly changing, are some new ideas right for your school?

• Social media sites are increasingly being used by schools in innovative ways; there are some great examples that help bridge the gap between the formality of school and the social approaches beyond the gates
• Twitter has now reached 10 million users in the UK, have a look at it and see how schools are using it for news, alerts and sharing positive news
• How interactive is your use of calendars and diaries – an parents see live calendars and add details to their own calendars and diaries

What is your approach to mobile technologies and online services?

There are particularly exciting examples of schools using automated texting to contact parents and receive responses, to share good news in a timely way. Do your parents like the idea of electronic payments for trips and can it help reduce some burden for you? Pleasingly the commercial offerings are very well tuned to the needs of schools. Perhaps it is worth finding out more.

And what about using social media sites?

An increasing number of schools are using Facebook (other sites are available…) to supplement their online presence, carefully managing content, posting and purpose, another example of bridging the gap. Would that work for you?

and there’s more…

I said it was a starter for 10. However, as we worked through our ideas we went well beyond 10 and you will have noticed I have not even touched on curriculum access, prior notice of learning topics, MIS reporting, reports, learning platforms, uploading material from home, technical and security issues. The above list (other than the first two) are not even prioritised, but they proved to be a great set of questions and challenges to help staff in schools think again about how they can support and improve parental engagement with technology.

At IET Associates, we passionately believe that technology can change the dynamics between home and school, we feel that EVERY school should be assessing how technology is used and what will work for them and their parents.

If you want help to think through your strategies; assess how your school can get more from your investment; review your short and long plans; know more about what other schools are doing or dig deeper into particular areas, we would be happy to help. Simply get in touch with me at moc.setaicossateinull@ekim.

Original picture credit: CC BY by Rutlo

Leaders in schools are the most self-reflective people I have ever come across. Frequently challenging their own decisions, asking difficult questions of themselves and each other and always looking to find answers to challenging issues.

I have had the tremendous pleasure to work with school leaders across the country and learn from them about what they see to be critical issues, how they priorities those issues and how (or if in some cases) they work out how to resolve the challenge of reconciling their current state, their preferred state and how they move from the former to the latter.

I was delighted to speak at the London Grid for Learning (LGfL) Schools’ Conference held on 30th April 2012. My brief was to look at critical issues for leaders in the context of ICT. I shared some thinking about these issues and concentrated on real, tangible issues leaders should consider – things that are happening in school and under the control of the leadership team. Below are some of the issues I shared:

Where to focus?

In the context of ICT in schools, this is becoming increasingly difficult as policy, strategy and direction for ICT in schools has become fragmented and almost invisible. Add to that decisions being made by suppliers in the industry, funding restrictions in Local Government meaning that local authority ICT teams are reducing their services or in some cases disappearing altogether, the loss of central (Government supported) advice and support, and the current lack of clarity over ICT within the curriculum. Where do leaders focus?

First things first

Take 30 minutes out. Sit, lie, stand, slouch (as you wish) with a piece of paper and pencil, or post-its, or your favourite piece of kit and list the top 5 burning issues for you in school (in the context of ICT). Prioritise them 1-5 based on how things feel for you now. Add a further 3 issues and prioritise the 8 you have. Ask a colleague or two to do the same and just reflect on your list and your combined lists.

My guess is that (other than money and time) you may find similar things however, having done this with colleagues in schools around the country, at conferences, events and workshops I believe it is highly unlikely you will have exactly the same lists, the same priorities. If you repeat the exercise a week, month or half-term later, I doubt that you will have the same order of priorities.

Thinking about your list

So, now you have a list, think about the items on your list in three ways:

• As a question – How do I know? Where are we? Do we? Can we? are good questions
• As an action – we need to know, we will, we should find out more, we must ask our learners, we have to ask staff, we will ask parents…
• As a statement – we do, we are, we make sure (backed up by action and impact assessment)

An example list

In developing our work with leaders in schools, we have identified a common set of 9 critical leadership issues – these are used to form the core content and support resources of the excellent EXite programme. In question form they are:

• Are we really aware of new technologies and implications for learners?
• Have we considered the impact and potential of technology in teaching & learning … beyond motivation?
• Do we equip our young people to manage and exploit technology when they leave us?
• How much do we exploit technology to improve engagement beyond the school?
• Can we say we do enough to ensure our learners are e-safe and aware?
• Is our provision of technology well managed, planned, supported and appropriate?
• How well do we use data to support learning (and as an administrative tool)?
• Do we make sure we get best value, understand costs and are efficient?

The final critical issue is perhaps the one most overlooked and potentially most important:

• Do I have a clear strategy and approach to technology in my school and do we (as a leadership team) lead by our own actions and behaviours? …and what do I need to help me develop my thinking?

Equipping yourself and fellow leaders

Leading schools is a complex yet rewarding role; technology is complicated yet also offers tremendous potential. But what is available to help you take a leadership role and exploit the technology?

You can find out more about EXite here.

Photo Credit: Valerie Everett (CC BY-SA 2.0)

With a key for the phase and type that is both colour coded and identified by acronyms, it offers a chronological list of changes and helpfully includes links to information and sources in some cases.

For the second time this week, I have to say I welcome this, not just because I work in the sector and with schools but also in my role as a school Governor.

Could be even better

As you would expect, I have views on how it is presented, how:

• it could be made more interactive
• helpful if would be if it could be searched or sorted by phase or type
• we could more easily identify statutory/mandatory changes from other ‘changes’
• useful to be able to download it as a wall-chart
• I might like to import the deadlines directly into diaries…

All ways that we can use technology to ease burdens and improve efficiency, but I guess that would just be nitpicking.

Finding it

You can find this latest update (again in the section ‘Cutting burdens and bureaucracy’) here.

A footnote

It is Friday as I post this and as well as my end of week frivolity (referencing the start of a David Bowie song in my title) I have to admit to a faint smile breaking out when I read one of the notes at the foot of the article. It reads “Schools and colleges are free to adopt non-mandatory reforms if they wish” …

The problem that the cloud solves

I generally describe cloud based services as technology that’s not in your school, that you don’t have to look after, and sometimes that you don’t even have to pay for. That is certainly true of cloud based storage providers. These allow you to store files, whether documents, videos, presentations, photographs or anything else, in a secure online storage space that you can access from any device, anywhere that you have an Internet connection. And indeed sometimes even if you don’t have an Internet connection.

The choice

There are lots of cloud based storage providers. The most popular ones, from my experience, are Dropbox, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, and doubtless now that Google have joined in with Google Drive they will also become popular pretty quickly. All offer an amount of free storage – Dropbox starts with 2Gb, though it can be increased if you invite your friends to use it too, new SkyDrive users get 7Gb (though if you used it before this month it was 25Gb, as long as you log in soon and claim it before it drops to 7Gb), and Google Drive starts at 5Gb. All can be increased for a fee, of which more later.

So there is plenty of choice out there. And there are many others that I haven’t listed – in the past I’ve used Syncplicity, Mozy, and Microsoft’s now defunct Live Mesh.

What to consider

When thinking about using a cloud based storage provider, what should you think about? Security is certainly an important issue. You will need to think about what sort of files you might want to store online, but at the very least you should make sure that your chosen provider will store your files in the EU, or has signed up to the US/EU Safe Harbor framework which provides equivalent levels of reassurance on security and privacy. I have heard objections in the past to using Dropbox for that reason, but they announced in February that they now comply with that framework. Clearly it is up to individual schools to decide whether that level of security is sufficient. Information security is a responsibility held at school level. There is no shortage of guidance and documentation on this from the Information Commissioner’s office, and there is still the guidance on information security produced by my team at Becta in 2008, which contains a lot of good practice, though it is no longer published on the DfE website. A good rule of thumb would be, if in doubt, don’t store any personal data using these services.

A second key factor in deciding is where you need to be able to access your files. I started using Dropbox because it met all of my needs in this area.  I needed access on my home computer, my work laptop, my iPad and iPhone. And sharing files with colleagues meant that it also needed to work on Android phones. The fact that it works offline was also important, meaning that I could access folders and files on my laptop even without an Internet connection, provided they had “synced” the last time I was online.  At the time this was not easily available using other services, though now it is.

This highlights one of the key difficulties with choosing a particular technology.  Things change.  All the time.  What seems to be the right decision today might not be tomorrow. My approach to this is to make sure there is always an exit strategy.  With all of my files on my computer, as well as on my laptop, if (perish the thought) Dropbox stopped trading tomorrow I would not lose any files. Obviously I also have the files backed up elsewhere, but it would not interfere with my work if the Dropbox service wasn’t available.

So what’s on offer?

Dropbox

Dropbox provides 2Gb of free storage, and an additional 250Mb for each friend who signs up following your recommendation. There are also paid upgrade plans, starting with 50Gb for $99 per year. Top level folders can be shared with others, but files in shared folders count towards your storage limit. Dropbox clients are available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch), Android and Blackberry.

SkyDrive

Microsoft have recently announced new features for SkyDrive, which now offers 7Gb of storage for free (or 25Gb for people who were using it before April 2012). An additional 50Gb of storage costs £16 per year. It has clients available for Windows, Mac, Windows phone and iOS. It integrates well with Microsoft’s online Office suite, making it simple to create and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents.

Google Drive

Google Drive was announced this week, and will be made available to existing Google users over the next few weeks.  It is part of Google Apps, and comes with 5Gb of free storage. Upgrades are available, for example 25Gb at $2.49 per month. If you had previously upgraded your Google storage in order to store more photos on Picasa, you can continue to pay the previous rate (for example $20 per year for 80Gb), but will have to pay the new rates if you change your storage plan.  There is a Google Drive app for PC and Mac, and for Android, with an iOS version under development.

Other storage services are available

There are many other online storage services available. The choice, as they say, is yours. I would be interested in any comments on which ones you use in your educational setting, and whether you have found any particular drawbacks or benefits of them.  Please add your comments below.

If you look carefully on the DfE website – you will need to go to the Home Page, Schools, Tools and initiatives, Cutting burdens and bureaucracy and then scroll through 11 pages (if you click here it is a little easier) you will find an important piece of information.

I am really pleased to see it.

It is not a statement about funding nor about new schools but an important change to The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (the Statutory Instrument can be found here). The amendment sets out clearly the specified information to be published on a school’s website, or at least online. Although not easily found, it is an important change to regulations and comes into force on 1st September 2012.

The changes

The first change is that from September 2012 schools will no longer have to publish an annual prospectus although I suspect many will do so as it forms part of their material for prospective parents, provides an overview of the school and in many cases is exactly what some parents want to see.

Replacing that requirement is a specific list of what must be published:

• the school’s Pupil Premium allocation;
• use and impact on attainment;
• curriculum by year and by subject;
• admission arrangements;
• policies on behaviour, charging, and SEN and disability;
• links to Ofsted reports;
• details of, and links to, performance data.

Funding Agreements will ensure that new Academies publish the same information as maintained schools. The existing requirements for local authorities to produce a composite prospectus every year will not be changed.

Must be online

Although I may have views on the content, I am very pleased to see that it explicitly says that it must be published online – on the school website. It even says that if you haven’t got a school website, get one or put it somewhere and tell parents where it is!

Good news

I think this is good news. It offers (some) consistency of basic information for parents and a nod toward the role of technology – although narrow, good news nonetheless. It is not an ‘expectation’, it is a requirement, a regulation, something schools must do.

OK, it is not the hard push, is not based upon the brilliant peer and practise based advice and guidance about how technology can transform parental engagement, it does not link to the consensus formed a few years ago that parental engagement matters and technology does make a real difference – see the excellent blog from Lorna Thompson – but it does mean that Governors should now take a long and hard look at how they use technology to provide information and improve engagement.

The first of many steps?

Although hidden within the argument of ‘Reducing bureaucracy in schools’, I really hope we will see many more instances where schools are required to make better use of technology. It makes sense, is efficient, is consistent and can make a real difference to how schools interact with parents and learners.

One small step, but at least it is a step!

Picture credit: Carsten Tolkmit from Kiel, Germany (barrier tape uploaded by Manuguf) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

With the demise of LA support services, local leadership networks,  budgetary constraints and financial pressures who can we turn to and trust to extend and advance our thinking?

Over the last few years’ collaboration, networking, shared ideas and co-operative practice have dominated the leadership landscape.  The culture of working together, sharing experiences and resources across local area clusters and within authority boundaries has been the norm.  Can this be maintained as we enter a period of significant system change?

During my headship years I welcomed the chance to engage in professional debate with colleagues, I looked forward to sharing in a risk free climate the ‘good’, the ‘not so good’ and the desperately ‘awful’!  The openness and learning we gained from each other was encouraging, motivating and refreshing. It enabled us all to think beyond the constraints and confines of one school.  Shared ideas enhanced personal visions, and whilst remaining firm to personal values, each was able to offer their students the best possible experiences and learning opportunities. In the true spirit of partnership one gets pleasure from giving and helping but also from taking too. This is such a great way to learn, and frankly what we nurture and encourage in our classrooms. What a shame it would be to lose this at a professional level! Remember the old saying: listening never harms any one, it’s how you take it, apply it and use it that matters in the end.  The chance to hear what others are doing, see their work in action and take from it those things which will enhance your personal work is just the best.

So, how can we maintain this type of activity?  How can we ensure that the advice we get is the best for us?  How can we continue to work together for the greater good?

Well, there are still chances out there to join network activities that do just this.  IET Associates are commissioned to organise activities for a group of school leaders who meet termly to share ideas around how technology can be used to support school improvement.  In practice the discussion and debate is much wider than the application of technology.  You can find out more about Leading Leaders here.

Amongst the schools we work closely with there has been an explosion in the use of personal mobile devices , used in school and taken home. Schools are reporting dramatic changes in learner achievement as well as learner behaviour. The increased communication and contact with parents has led to things like reduced summer holiday learning loss in Key Stage 1, a greater awareness amongst parents of how best to support their child’s learning and interestingly it is just emerging that through the shared use of iPads between home and school fathers are becoming more engaging in their child’s learning. Some schools can point to specific examples of how technology has supported primary age children to reach stretch targets and secondary GCSE students who have increased their passes by at least one grade.

25 million laptops later,” Mashable announced today, “One Laptop Per Child doesn’t increase test scores.”

Error Message,” reads the headline from The Economist: “A disappointing return from an investment in computing.”

What a surprise! We know that technology alone is not the answer BUT when it is carefully planned as part of an improvement strategy it definitely works! The use of personal devices, the ability to continue learning beyond the classroom, the involvement and partnership between home and school all have a significant effect on achievement and standards.

So, why does technology work? How does it strengthen the relationship between home and school? Why do parents get more involved in supporting their child’s learning?

Well there is a variety of reasons given by schools but generally they all say “we work with the technology parents have in their pockets, we contact them in a way which they find most accessible and we give them what we know they most value – the chance to see what their children are doing, share in their successes and discover a whole host of things they can do to help and support”.

Lorna Thompson has a wealth of school leadership experience, she knows the power of working closely and in true partnership with parents. She is committed to sharing ideas about how technology can be used to support this process.  Contact Lorna to find out more about how IET Associates can support your school in your engagement with parents.

I was fortunate enough to be working in Birmingham at the time, and we became one of the 14 National Grid for Learning Pathfinder authorities. It felt sometimes like finding a path through a minefield, but within a year of the 4 year NGfL programme beginning, we had connected every school in Birmingham to the Internet, with all secondaries and a few primaries having 2Mbps, and all other schools with an ISDN2 connection at 128kbps. It quickly became apparent that those speeds were going to prove inadequate as bandwidth use doubled every eighteen months, and by the time I left Birmingham in 2004 we had already upgraded most secondary schools to 10Mbps, and most primary schools were using at least ADSL2 connections offering speeds of around 2Mbps.

15 years have passed since that bold vision was set out in “Connecting the Learning Society”. It is now an expectation that fast Internet access should be available throughout all schools. And in much of the country that is the case. As an aside, while writing this I’ve just had a phone call from my internet service provider, Sky, in response to my registration of interest in their fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) broadband offering. They are just about to start making that available, and it is available in my area. So, for £20.00 per month, I can take advantage of their unlimited use FTTC service, which their system tells me should deliver approximately 40Mbps download speeds, and 2Mbps upload. How many schools have speeds like that, at least on the download side.

Anyway, I digress. The main thrust of what I am talking about here is whether schools have been keeping up with the appropriate speeds. With bandwidth use doubling every 18 months (consistently), a continuation like that will mean that secondary schools might need 800Mbps by 2015, and even small primaries something like 80-100Mbps. Who is planning for that? Are local authorities still doing that work? Can they afford to? And are they offering value for money right now?

A number of commercial schools broadband providers are coming into the market, looking to compete with local authorities and regional broadband consortia (RBCs). They all offer a variety of leased line and DSL services, and some have bonded FTTC services which will deliver up to 160Mbps downstream. Their prices are no doubt very keen. What should schools be doing?

I suppose the first point to make is that for schools taking most ICT and non-ICT services from a local authority, it is important to be clear on which of those rely on the broadband. Can you answer these questions:

• Does your school use the local authority finance system?
• Do you use a corporate HR system?
• Do you share data with your local authority?
• Does the ICT support service provide you with remote diagnostic support of your ICT provision?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then you may introduce a new set of problems if you move away from their network. Have they made that clear to you? Have they threatened you with any additional charges if you try to access those services via a different broadband provider? Have they refused to let you access services via another Internet provider, citing security concerns?

And there are other questions to consider:

• When moving away, how will you get your Internet filtering service?
• Does your new provider offer you those services?
• Can you provide them yourself?
• How much would that cost (including in staff time)?
• Do you already have any services that might help with that?
• Do you use a learning platform?
• Is it provided by the local authority?
• What of e-mail and other collaboration services?
• Which services will you have to pick up and deal with in house?
• And, with the bandwidth doubling every 18 months conundrum, will you be able to keep growing your use on these alternative services?

So, is it all about money? Or is it about a range of different factors? Which are most important? It’s going to be up to you to decide. And where do you go for advice? Is your local authority best placed to offer you that advice, or should you look to more independent advice. We can help. Just let us know what your needs are and we will be happy to help. We have a range of services available which can help you to decide, and you might well be able to save yourself a lot of money by taking advantage of them. We can provide support for individual schools or groups of schools looking at their options for Internet service provision. Give us a call – or visit our contact us page!

At BETT 2012, EXite and IET Associates will share ideas on ICT development with school leaders and detail the EXite programme and its activities through a number of seminars, briefing sessions and other events.

Following changes that have taken place in the past 18 months, including the reduction in support for schools, fragmented advice and increasing pressures on costs, it is critical that school leaders take a clear, strategic view of their commitment to technology and, in particular, consider how to manage costs while ensuring that learning and running a school is not compromised.

However, this is not just about bringing down the costs of technology, it also has to be about maximising the value of technology for learners, exploiting technology already in place, and not reducing provision to the point where it undermines future decisions about learning and about learners themselves.

International, European, UK, regional and school level experiences have helped us to identify a number of themes that can help reduce costs. We find consistently that to be effective, cost management needs to be handled as a leadership issue, not a purely operational issue, and it has to be seen as a management concern rather than merely a financial activity. Cost also needs to be managed with an outcome driven agenda, not as a technical topic. In advance of BETT 2012, here are some tasters of what leaders should consider.

The virtual cupboard

Regardless of your longer term plans, it could be worth thinking first about what you already have, how much it is used and whether it is fit for purpose. Quick and simple audits across departments and administrative areas will almost certainly reveal software and technology that has been forgotten, or is not even known as staff have moved on. Often, some of this forgotten software can do a reasonable job, or hardware can supplement existing provision. If the technology is not relevant or of use, move it on, declutter and keep only what is helpful and appropriate. Revisit what you have, assess how much and how widely it is used, and be objective about how effective it is. It may be specialist software with low use, but high impact. Equally, it could be generalist software with little impact or real value. Think also of the hidden costs. Does the software or hardware demand unnecessary support or take too much valuable time to manage? If the costs of maintaining something of low value are now higher than upgrading or finding alternative resources, perhaps it is time to let go and look for other solutions or approaches. Seek out tools, advice and guidance to help you audit and assess provision, and of course, help you to develop a technology implementation plan.

An objective view of cost

Technology is moving fast and it is easy to be beguiled by new features without understanding the true costs. The equation covering costs, value for money and impact is complex, but there are some core elements. Understanding total cost of ownership – or TCO – is important when making decisions about technology and requires looking beyond purchase and maintenance costs.

Cost issues

When new software, hardware or services are bought, are costs assessed in terms of new training demands and time needed for familiarisation? Are staff costs being built in as changes are made and is it possible to identify improved efficiencies that can balance the costs? Looking at new provision and approaches requires an understanding of the cost of existing consumables, licences and support contracts for the current provision. These then need to be mapped to the costs and, ideally, cost reductions for new purchases and contracts. Importantly, have gains in productivity, engagement and environment impact been documented and assessed, and have expected outcomes that are expected to balance potential increases in cost been detailed?

Further ways to reduce cost

Although technology costs money, it can also save money, not only in terms of time efficiency, but also in reducing other costs. For example, in terms of consumables, effective use of managed print services could significantly reduce photocopying costs, printing costs and reduce wasted time. Looking again at technical support costs and arrangements – do you keep a log of calls, issues and responses? – will help you work out if in-house or external contracts are better for your circumstances. There are also many free or low cost tools available. Schools are taking advantage of services such as Google Apps for Education and Microsoft’s Live@edu to replace in house email and calendar systems. They are also starting to use other facilities that those services offer, including document editing and storage. All of these services can be accessed both in school and from any internet connected device.

Connectivity

Connectivity continues to be an important consideration. With an increase in availability of services that are managed and located outside school, including those mentioned above, but also an increasing use of management information systems, it is important not to jump to the cheapest available service. Bandwidth used by schools has consistently doubled every 18 months since the earliest days of internet provision in schools. By 2015, this would mean schools would need somewhere between 80 and 800Mbps. The cheapest connectivity available today will not scale to those levels.

Devices

Do you need to buy every computer or device used in your school? Plan for the use of student owned devices and make it easier, but still safe, for them to be used in school. Many of the latest tablet devices, such as iPads and iPod Touches, are designed to be personal devices rather than items to be shared between many users. If students have access to their own tablets or laptops, making it easier for them to use them in school as well as outside can reduce the financial burden on the school.

Find out more

This is just a sample of what school leaders can look at to address value for money and start to think more strategically about ICT costs and efficiencies. If you would like to find out more about these issues and gain a wider set of tips, ideas and tactics for leaders, the EXite programme could be for you. Visit the EXite website for more details of the programme, costs and dates.

This article was originally published in ICT for Education magazine in their BETT Preview 2012