Month: April 2021

What’s next?

The last year has seen schools and other educational establishments jump forward in their use of technology.  Note, I say Technology rather than EdTech as I think EdTech represents a narrower, and often slightly biased view on the technology actually in use in education.   The question I now find myself with, when thinking about technology strategy, is where next?

The last year saw 1:1 devices, whether school issued or bring your own, grow massively as schools sought to continue learning despite students being at home.    It also saw a massive jump towards cloud platforms including Office 365, Google Workspace for education (I think that’s what its now called!), Showbie and many more.  Additionally, video, either pre-recorded or live, became a key part of lessons.  Some of these things are now very much hear to stay or at the very least will be significantly more common than they were prior to the pandemic.

But what comes next?   What are the next jumps forward?

I decided to give this some thought and try to do a little future gazing.   I will acknowledge one thing the last year has taught me, and that is that we cant accurately predict very far into the future;  Who predicted 2020 would start with a pandemic?    But that said, I think it is important to look forward and at least try and imagine where we might be going.

Learning anywhere, anytime

The pandemic saw creation of massive amounts of learning content largely in the format of videos.   There is an increasing amount of learning content which students can access independently both available on the internet, but also within their own schools learning platforms.   The pandemic has shown us that learning can take place outside the classroom.     As a result I think we will start to see more of this learning anywhere and anytime although possibly it will start of with a growing number of students being directed to, or self-engaging in, such content rather than a momentous shift of learning in general.   Maybe we will see the revenge of the MOOC, but maybe not in the same format/shape as in 2012 when the fanfare of MOOCs never quite came to all that they promised.   Or maybe we will just see the continued creation of free to access learning content, by educators across the world followed by the curation of such content ready for teachers and students to access as needed.  Another possibility might be an increasing in the number of virtual schools.   There are certainly a number of options as to how learning anywhere, anytime might progress.

Micro Credentials

Linked to the above, we will likely see students potentially engaging in learning broader than the taught curriculum, but maybe only dipping in and out of subjects or topics of interest at a given moment in time.    I think there is the potential for this to reignite the need for micro digital credentials or badges;   A way for smaller units of study, much smaller than a traditional GCSE or A-Level, to be recognised with some sort of digital badge.   Now, I note that digital badges have been around for some time, however I think the current situation may see them become a subject of discussion, development and greater use.  I myself am already looking to make use of digital badges with at least one programmes run in my school.

AI (Artificial intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning)

AI and ML are already in use in schools, in the automatic transcripts created from Teams meetings, in our grammar and spellchecker and in a number of other almost transparent ways.   We have also seen the growth in educational products which allegedly use AI or ML, however often in my view this is just these terms being used as buzzwords as opposed to products actually using AI or ML.   This is something we need to challenge by asking vendors to explain how their product uses AI or ML.   Going forward though, I think we will see increasing applications of AI and ML to teaching and learning, to assessment and to drawing conclusions from the massive wealth of data which schools routinely produce.   I see the use of AI and ML in identifying patterns and correlations in school data which will allow teachers to be more responsive to our learners and their learning.   The potential is significant however I believe it needs to be led by schools/colleges rather than the tech vendors seeking to sell the next big thing.   I therefore think we need more projects like that at Bolton College and all the work the have done on Ada, their student assistant.

Conclusion

The three items above, learning anytime anywhere, micro credentials and AI/ML are the three areas I can see growing in the next five years.   There are other areas such as virtual or augmented reality which I also see scope for growth, however the three areas mentioned are the ones I see to be more likely to see significant progress.     It is always very difficult to predict the future, and even more so when it comes to technology, however I wonder if in five years’ time I will look back on this post and prove to be correct?   Or maybe I will be miles off the mark.

Tech Confident Students

I previously wrote a post on developing confidence in the use of technology within teachers.   I therefore thought it would be appropriate to turn my attention to the issue of building student confidence.

One of the challenges with student confidence in the use of technology is possibly the outwardly perception they convey of being highly confident and competent.   They naturally seem to swipe ands scroll through different apps, taking on new apps as they arise.    This may be the reason that the idea of students as “digital natives” seemed to ring true; It just seems to superficially fit the situation and the appearance students convey.    The issue here is that it simply isnt, in my view, true.

One of the first things to pull out is student engagement with social media.   Social media apps are designed to be easy to use and are designed to grab and keep user attention.   As such it isnt that difficult to become familiar and comfortable with using social media apps, and then to spend many hours swiping and scrolling through their content.    The apps are designed this way, to be easy to use and to, dare I say it, be addictive.  As students likely spend a fair amount of their time on such apps, and as our perception of them as confident may partly come from observing them on such apps, we need to rethink our view as to how confident they really are.   

In discussing Digital Citizenship with students, the one thing which has often surprised me is students lack awareness of, and even lack concern, relating to the implications of their social media app usage.   Students are not fully aware of the extent of the data being mined about them through their continued use of apps.    And even when made aware, they express apathy; All our friends are on the apps, so we need to use the app.  What really can we do in relation to the data being gathered about us?    This for me is a very big challenge and one which I don’t have the answer for.   I too find social media useful to stay in touch, share ideas, etc, but am concious of the data being mined from my interactions.   Am I going to stop using social media to stop the mining of data?   I think not, however I think the key here is being concious and aware of the fact that data is being gathered, and then making balanced and informed decisions.   I choose to use social media as the gain in the ability to stay in touch and to share ideas and collaborate with others outweighs the risk associated with the data being gathered.   Aware of the risk though I sometimes choose not to share some things on social media.   

Thinking about being confident always reminds me of the concept of mastery and the need for 10,000 hours of practice.    I feel confident in the use of technology however I am certainly way beyond the 10,000 hours.   If we want students to be confident with technology use we need them to be using it but not just for social media engagement, which as I mentioned previously has been designed to be easy.   We need students using technology in different contexts ideally across the curriculum.   If students are using technology to explore concepts, to collaborate on projects, to present ideas, etc, and they are using it in Maths, in English and across the curriculum, there is a far greater chance of them developing the necessary confidence.   Linked to this though is teacher confidence, in being able to support the students in lesson, set learning activities suited to the use of technology and even facilitate students to support each other.      

When thinking about student confidence in using technology my focus is on technology as a tool.   My focus is therefore on knowing what technology tools are available, what they do and the benefits or drawbacks from their use in different situations/contexts.   This generally draws the question of teaching about technology within the context of subjects across the curriculum, or as a discrete subject, another of the binary arguments all too common on social media.   For me the answer isnt binary, one or other, but to treat these two standpoints as either end of a continuum with the answer lying somewhere in between.    For me it is important for students to see technology being used, and to be supported to use technology within different contexts however it is also important for students to learn about the general tools and the implications of using technology tools.    As such it is my view that we need to both have cross curricular use of technology combined with some discrete teaching about technology and digital citizenship.

I find students in schools are less afraid of things going wrong using technology than their adult counterparts, and therefore they are happy to try new apps and tools as needed.   They are also less concerned about using a wide range of tools.   This is both a benefit and a risk;   It means students are less afraid of change in relation to how the tools they use work or in the tools they are expected to use, however it also means they are likely to create a larger digital footprint, plus less likely to consider data protection and cyber security.    Their lack of fear though shouldn’t be confused as confidence; They are willing to try tools but this doesn’t mean that they know how to apply them effectively to a particular problem.   This is one of the things schools need to address, in ensuring students know which tools to use and when, how to use and how not to use them, which tools go together and which don’t and overall how to be effective in their use of technology.    It is important we harness their lack of fear and explore how they can positively use technology to enable their needs and interests.   We also need to ensure they are able to make educated and informed decisions as to their technology use, so as to manage the risks which may exist.

Technology, in my view, doesn’t scare our students so they are largely willing to try, but what we really need is for them to be sure of their ability to use technology tools well, plus to have the relevant skills and experience.   We need them to be competent and confident.

Data Protection and Cyber Security in a Pandemic

In a pandemic, when trying to keep students learning and businesses operating, while schools, offices and shops are no longer able to operate as they normally would, cyber security and data protection aren’t exactly top of the list of things to consider.   They may even have fallen off the list altogether.   As such, over a year after the first lockdown I thought it appropriate to share some thoughts in relation to data protection and cyber security in schools.

During a pandemic it is critical to prioritise.   The important things come first.   So, health, safety and wellbeing are likely at the top of the list.   For businesses, during a lockdown, the ability to work remotely is critical while, when looking at educational institutions, enabling online teaching and online learning are critical, all requiring action to be taken quickly.    Back in mid-march 2020, although the writing was on the wall, we didn’t see the first UK lockdown coming and so when it did there was a rapid move to put the relevant technologies in place to enable online working, teaching and learning.

The issue with this rapid deployment of technology was that it was done based on an immediate need rather than fully thought and reasoned out.    Considerations, such as potential cyber security of data protection risks, were, due to immediate necessity, either pushed to the side or given less consideration than they would normally receive, or they are due.    So now we find ourselves a year further on, here are some of the things I think we should be looking at:

  • The big players

Schools coalesced largely around the two big players in relation to cloud based productivity solutions, being Google and Microsoft.    For me this was done for very good reasons given the functionality provided by each, however I wonder if the implications of this, such as the reliance on a single platform had been considered.   I also wonder if schools have considered what they would do in the event of a significant issue/outage within their chosen platform or if specific tools within the platform were discontinued.   I do believe that it is almost essential to select one of the two platforms, however I think it is important to consider the implications of this decision.

  • Where is my data?

During the pandemic, and in order to deliver the best learning experiences possible, teachers introduced new apps, often for specific lesson activities rather than for long term use.    I suspect that as a result of this the overall visibility in relation to the apps in use, and therefore the location of school data, may have reduced.    This is something that will need to be addressed and will likely require schools to audit the apps in use as we move forward.

  • PIA and risk assessments

Linked to the above, apps may have been introduced without an appropriate review of cyber security and data protection, including reviewing terms and conditions, privacy policies and other documentation relating to third-party apps.   This would have been done due to the need to quickly adapt to the remote learning and teaching situation we found ourselves in however as we move forward appropriate reviews and impact assessments will need to be carried out.   Additionally, changes to existing platform settings or their usage are likely to have been made to facilitate learning during a lockdown, and as such any previously conducted risk assessments or impact assessments may no longer be valid; These will therefore need to be reviewed and updated.

  • Use of personal devices

During lockdown both students and staff have often either been forced or have chosen to make use of personal devices in remote working and remote learning.    With this comes cyber risk and also data protection implications, such as the potential for school data to end up on a personal device which is shared by different members of a family.    This needs to be considered and risk assessed, and appropriate mitigation measures put in place, whether these be technical measures and/or policy measures.

  • Remote Access

Remote access to systems was key during lockdown.  How else would students and staff access the relevant systems including both teaching and learning, and administrative systems.   We now need to review this situation with a view to cyber security to limit the risk of the malicious use of remote access by external threat actors, plus also to ensure that remote access settings are appropriate to a secure IT environment.

The above 5 issues are the 5 which come most easily to my mind however I suspect I could easily continue this blog to cover 10, 15 or even more items which we now need to consider.    The pandemic and resulting lock down required us to work quickly and flexibly to identify solutions.   We now need to spend some time and reflect on the decisions made, and to check that in the longer term they continue to be the right decisions.  

As I have commented on a number of previous occasions, the issue with data protection and cyber security is that everything is ok until it isnt.   We may have put new systems in place or changed settings to support us through the pandemic.    There may be no current issue with what has been done however unless we now spend time to analyse the decisions and their potential implications, we run the risk of sleep walking into a data protection or cyber issue.   As some sense of normality hopefully returns to the world, we need to look back to the rapid change the last year has brought and assure ourselves that we are happy with what is in now in place.

Confidence

When looking at teachers using Technology in lessons, one of the key indicators in relation to their successful use of technology is confidence.    Those who, in my experience, have had the most success have been confident about how they plan to use technology and the impact it will have.  That is not to say that it always goes well or as they would have expected, but they are confident in outlook, and when things don’t go as intended, they confidently deal with this as a road bump rather than an obstacle, before moving on.

The challenge therefore is how do we build this confidence, with “training” being key.    Training in relation to the technology itself and how it works, and training in relation to how to use it for the purposes of teaching and learning.   

One of the limitations though in relation to training, to sharing and building confidence, is time.   Time to train has historically been limited to specific inset days where the schedule is often prescriptive.   To counter this limitation, we have increasingly been referring to continual professional development (CPD) or continual professional learning (CPL); I prefer the later as the former suggests something is lacking and in need of development.   The emphasis here, in both versions, being on the “continual” nature of the learning and sharing.   It isnt a once a year or once a term, but something ongoing, continual and day to day.  It should be part of the culture of our schools.

The challenge with CPL (or is CPLS better, where the S refers to sharing?  Education has more acronyms than a series of Line of Duty!)  is supporting it to occur and I think the last year of lockdown has given us a bit of a window into what we need to be doing.

The last year has seen massive amounts of fast paced change as teachers across the world have had to shift from face to face classroom learning, the type that every teacher would have been used to post their training, to online teaching and learning.    What I have seen as a result of this forced change is a need to find support and help.   This need has been met through online platforms, EdTech tools and social media, including solutions such as Microsoft’s Educator Centre, through groups of proficient users such as Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts, Google Certified Educators and Apple Innovative Teachers, and also through more local groups including groups of schools which have come together to support each other.    I have also seen support groups form in individual schools using platforms such as Microsoft Teams to allow staff within school to share their successes and issues, and for other staff to learn from and support each other as and when required.   This is something I feel has worked well in my own school.

The last year has seen various support groups pop up plus I suspect will have seen greater engagement in such groups as teachers everywhere sought to adapt to the forced change brought about by the pandemic.    Teachers have been sharing their issues, sharing their techniques, sharing what worked and what didn’t, supporting each other to get through the challenges the pandemic has brought.   For me the key going forward is for these groups to continue to support teachers, providing a place to share techniques, ideas and thoughts, and for teachers continue to engage.   These groups also need to exist at different levels from the large corporate sponsored groups offered by Microsoft and Google, through to the support groups operating inside our schools, made up of our colleagues helping one another.

One of my favourite phrases continues to be “the smartest person in the room, is the room”.    I think this is key to “training” or CPL.   The days of the expert trainer and one-off training session are gone and especially in relation to EdTech where technologies change, disappear or are introduced on a daily basis.   As such it is critical we embrace a more open, just in time model, sharing not just what works but openly discussing what hasn’t worked, so that we can all benefit.  This needs to be available throughout the year for teachers to engage as and when it is appropriate for them, to dip in and out as needed.

I do wonder that maybe one of the challenges we currently have is that the sharing of ideas, resources, etc is spread across different platforms.   I have seen resources on specific websites belonging to companies or groups, on social media using twitter, on YouTube, on MS Teams, etc.    As such it can be difficult or time consuming to find things, plus it means that on each particular platform you are only able to access a subset of the teaching expertise available rather than all of it.    I suspect this fractured nature of sharing and the associated resources is unlikely to change as people tend to their preferred platform or the platform used within their school, however I suspect as we move forward there will be a greater curation of the available resources.

Building confidence is key to the successful use of EdTech in schools.    We therefore need to consider how we support and enable confident to be built.   Also worth noting, the above refers to confidence of staff however it is equally important that we build confidence in our students, however I will leave that for another post.

Sustainability

Prior to covid-19 I attended a CIO event, where presenter after presenter talked about how their organisation was now looking at sustainability and how to be more environmentally concious.   Up until this point, when I considered sustainability in relation to IT my thinking was focussed on the financial and resources implications of IT.    If we purchase a particular service or equipment, will we be able to continue to support it in terms of ongoing replacement, licensing, and also other support costs into the future?   If the answer is yes, then it is a sustainable solution and therefore one we can move forward with.

Having attended the CIO event, I am now thinking a little bit differently.   I am now thinking about the environmental implications of procurement, of continued use and of disposal or recycling.

Procurement

When purchasing IT equipment or services we need to start thinking more about the implications of our decisions on the environment.    If it is hardware, we are looking at we need to consider how the product is created, whether recyclable materials are used, how the product is delivered and the resultant fuel requirements, plus also the packaging which may be used.    We need to start asking our suppliers to prove they are environmentally concious.

In relation to online services, we need to start considering the power implications of running servers and the associated cooling of such servers.   Are online service companies acting responsibly and carbon offsetting for example?

Continued use

The environmental implications of how a service or company operates have recently been highlighted to me in two companies which choose to send me significant piles of invoice documentation in the post.   I found myself wondering about the cost to the environment of the paper used, the ink, the process of printing and then of transporting the documents to me via conventional post.    It struck me that both companies clearly were not very concious of the environmental impact of their decision to post me stacks of invoices rather than providing these documents online.

I have since challenged both companies to re-think their processes, which I hope is something they have taken on board.   I think we all need to do more to challenge where processes have not been designed with minimising their environmental impact in mind.

Disposal

Disposal is a relatively obvious part of the product lifecycle and one we should generally already have in mind.   We need to ensure that equipment which reaches the end of its useful life with us, either can be moved on to be reused or can be, as much as is possible, recycled.

Conclusion

I will admit to not previously giving the environmental impact of my decisions enough consideration.   It may have been that my assumption was that each company should be doing this however now I have come to realise that it is for each of use to challenge the companies we work with, the third party suppliers and services, to ensure that together we are environmentally concious.   Going forward I am therefore going to develop a framework for challenging my third parties in relation to environmental consciousness plus will also be conducting a review of our own practices.

It is for all of us to develop our environmental consciousness with a view to ensuring the sustainability of the planet which supports our lives.