It’s the start of another academic year and for us in the tech side of EdTech, it is the busiest time of year. We have new staff and new students to get signed up and able to access school systems to enable teaching, learning and administrative processes to proceed. We have the usual uptake in cybercrime, partly due to cyber criminals targeting education at this busy time of year but party due to staff returning and looking at their email inboxes after a period away from them. Then we have the usual issues associated with people being away from their school tech, or at least not using it as frequently, including forgotten passwords, “can’t connect to the Wi-Fi” or to the classroom Smartboard and the like. Printers where toner cartridges may have dried up too, among many other issues that all suddenly appear at the end of August and beginning of September as teaching staff and students return. And it is also worth noting that although teachers and students may have been away, for school IT staff the summer holiday period wasn’t a holiday period. It was their chance to do all the maintenance, upgrade and general preparation work required ahead of the start of a new academic year.
So the start of a new academic year is definitely a challenge. My approach to the above, and to the challenges of a new academic year, for the last several years has been two key words:
Reasonableness. IT staff in schools are (mostly) human and it is a busy period of time so there is almost immediate need to prioritise. We cannot do everything, for everyone, all at once. Now laughingly my office does include a crystal ball and a wand as often it does appear that we are predicting the future and performing magic, however largely this is part luck and part good planning. The reality is we will do everything we can to support but it will be what we “reasonably” can and therefore involves triaging and prioritisation of tasks. It is important to get this “reasonableness” across to all engaging with school IT teams, plus to the teams themselves.
Entropy. This simply for me is the acceptance that the world around us is always seeking chaos, no matter what we put in place. It is therefore required that we are agile and responsive when things go wrong, or when things aren’t planned as well as they maybe could have been. Schools are dynamic places, and we need to plan and prepare as best as we can, however no amount of planning and preparation can cope with the variables presented by thousands of students and hundreds of staff especially at the start of a new academic year after over a month away from school. This means we, and those engaging with IT teams, need to be accepting of where things go wrong or not quite as we would have liked.
As the new academic year begins my wishes go out to IT staff in schools across the UK and beyond. Our job is to make the tech aspect of school life go smoothly and if all goes well, be almost transparent to the end users whether they be students or staff. Where things do go as planned, we are supporting schools by putting appropriate technology tools in the hands of school leaders, teachers and students. These tools enable, enhance and empower. This transparency, however, means when it all goes well there is little praise or thanks, as the work and effort was all but invisible. If it goes less well the concerns and complaints will be quick to arise.
As such if you see your IT team around your school do say hello, ask them about the work they have done over the summer in preparing for the new academic year and thank them for this, and in advance for the work they will do in this busy introductory period and beyond. I know from experience, teaching isn’t easy, but also from experience, the educational IT world also comes with its challenges, especially at the start of a new academic year. If we want to achieve all we can in schools, for our students, for staff and for our wider community, it takes everyone’s involvement and effort.
Technology and Learning