Tag: EdTech

EdTech: Foundations

EdTech or Technology use in education, which is my preferred term, relies on some foundational elements.    Understanding why we seek to use technology is the first thing we need to achieve (see my post EdTech: Start with the why? ).  After this we can then seek to put technology to use, but again before we can make much progress there need to be some key items in place.    It’s all well knowing why you want to use technology and knowing how to use technology, but you also need the relevant technology itself along with the infrastructure and other support resources to make it work.    It is worth noting, from my own experience, if the technology doesn’t work due to not having the relevant plan, infrastructure, setup or support, it will be very difficult to recover from, as once the technology appears unreliable it will be almost impossible to reconvince people of its value.  

Back in 2013 at the GESS conference, I sought to try and suggest what the foundational elements might be, in the 2nd layer of the framework I proposed.   The elements I proposed were as below:

Resources

This is very much about the required infrastructure, devices, software, etc.    It is also about making sure that the items chosen are reliable and sustainable.   Having poor Wi-Fi or internet bandwidth which doesn’t support your use of technology is only going to turn users off quickly resulting in them choosing not to use available technology.   Within this area I would consider things such as your internet bandwidth, firewall, core and edge switching, wireless access points and overall wi-fi system.   I would consider the devices being used, classroom display technology, the apps and software, device peripherals and printing/scanning resources.   I would also consider the long-term sustainability of everything, avoiding seeing each item as a one-off cost, but instead considering the long term replacement and disposal costs, maintenance, licensing, etc; Basically the total cost of ownership rather than just the initial purchase cost.

Now, on reflection I listed this on my framework on the left which given an expectation of reading left to right, means it comes first, where clearly shouldn’t.   If there was one thing I was going to change about the 2nd layer of the framework I proposed, it would be to put Strategy first, on the left, followed by Culture then Resources.   It is important to have a strategy and plan before having investing in what can often be costly infrastructure or support.

IT Support

Users will always need some support whether it is to resolve technical issues, to help them get initially set up or to migrate devices for example.   It is important users feel supported and have somewhere to go where they need help.    There is also the requirement for the maintenance and operation of the infrastructure including making network changes in response to changing needs of teachers, students and other users, plus responding to changes in software, cyber risk, etc.   As such some form of IT support is key.      I feel one key feature of successful IT support is for them to be seen as a partner in the processes of learning rather than simply the people that need to make it work.   I have long heard about the importance of not allowing the technology and the IT team to decide what can and cannot be done within teaching and learning, however we also need to be aware that sometimes there are things which may be appropriate from a teaching and learning point of view however would be extremely costly, difficult to support or introduce significant IT risk.   As such we also need to be wary of teaching and learning dictating to IT services what must be done.   The ideal situation therefore needs to be a partnership.   In considering this partnership and resultant balance, I will however always lean slightly towards supporting the teaching and learning side over the IT technical side given this is what schools are all about, but it still needs to be a more balanced and partner based decision making process over a hierarchical, teachers over IT support staff, process.

Strategy

At a virtual event regarding EdTech during the pandemic an attendee stated that the key feature of those schools particularly successful in their use of technology during the pandemic was simply having had an established plan as to technology use in their school.   I think the need for a plan, the need for a strategy, which is both shared but also lived is key.   How can we seek to decide what technology to use, how to set this technology up, how to deploy technology and how to support and train staff if we don’t have at least some sort of plan?    For me the first step is having a strategic overview of the schools direction in relation to technology, where the stated aims should align and ideally enable the schools overall strategic aims.   It should be written in a way to be easily accessible and understandable, and therefore should be at an outline level, with more specific plans regarding projects or specific technologies then springing out from here.   It should include both content looking at the here and now but also towards the future.   I also believe it is important to get a strategy in place, without too much time spent on wordsmithing it and making it perfect.  Instead we need to accept it may evolve and change with time.

Ethos (Culture)

I have always felt that culture plays such a significant part in the life of schools and other educational establishments.   Technology requires a little bit of experimentation to find what is right, it requires us to step out of our comfort zone, it requires acceptance that sometimes things will go wrong or not as planned and it requires an embracing of change and the challenges which accompany it.   There also needs to be a culture which supports an open sharing of ideas and experiences, both those which work and also those that have not worked.   The culture and climate of the school should therefore be open and positive or warm, such that this will then support the use of technology, enabling it to be as effective as possible.       I am not going to discuss here how such a culture can be developed; There are plenty of educational books which focus solely on this.

Time

I listed time as a fundamental resource given I know how busy schools can be.    Creating a strategy, identifying and purchasing technology, setting up and deploying technology, supporting and training users, etc, all take time.     If we are to be successful in the use of technology within schools we need to have time.    This will always be a significant challenge as in order to provide more time for one thing, such as for staff to become skilled in using technology, we need to reduce the time given to something else.   Technology can help here by either automating or making processes easier however I also believe we need to regularly look at processes, which often become complicated over time and in attempts to improve and try to simplify these where possible.   We need to constantly ask ourselves where is the value in what we are doing and can we achieve similar value but with reduced resource cost, often in time.

Conclusion

Looking back to my conference presentation, I think some of the details may need to be changed, but the first two layers were correct in their overall theme.    We need to first know why we are seeking to use technology, then have the foundational items in place, including a strategy followed by the necessary time, hardware, software and support.

The EdTech Big Guns

Microsoft, Google and Apple are the big guns when it comes to EdTech however each of their offerings is somewhat different.  As such I thought I would share some of my personal thoughts as to the big three.

Apple

For me, Apple has always been about the hardware and the ecosystem.    Apple were first to the market with an excellent tablet device, in the iPad, which fitted the educational space, being reliable, usable and flexible albeit not cheap.   The reliability was largely built on the fact that Apple operate a closed eco-system and therefore control the software including OS and the hardware.   This also has helped in terms of usability as they can enforce standards for the apps available on their platform.   As to the eco-system itself, having been in play the longest, Apple has built up a comprehensive collection of apps in their store which can be used in schools and colleges with an equally comprehensive number of videos and other online resources to support teachers in using iPads in lessons.     The eco-system includes Augmented Reality apps which are often shown on video case studies from schools due to looking particularly flash and impressive albeit I suspect the longer term usable and impact of such apps across a full school year may not be quite as impressive.   With the addition of pen support in 2015/16 allowing digital inking, plus with the availability of cases, complete with a keyboard, the iPad still continues to present as a great device for use in a school context.    If there was one thing Apple lacks, it is a single productivity suite to pull the educational resources together and to provide the collaboration and communication space needed in schools.   I know they have iTunesU but I just don’t feel that fills the space which Google Workspaces or Office 365 fill.  That said Apple devices can gain this functionality via the use of the Google or Microsoft platforms, but on the Apple device.

Google

Googles main contribution in my eyes is Google Suite for Education, now titled Google Workspace for Education.    This provided a productivity suite in Docs, Sheets, etc but also Google Classroom to pull the whole education experience together.    Accessible on any device either via native apps or via a browser, I have long been a fan of Googles offering and have used it in schools where Windows PCs were the standard hardware.     Adding to this Google then introduced their own hardware in Chromebooks to go with their productivity suite, with this hardware available from several hardware manufacturers.     This hardware quickly became popular due to the lower unit cost when compared with the alternatives plus the overall cloud-based nature making them easier to manage and support, again impacting the cost, but this time in terms of the total cost of ownership.    You could also use the Chromium OS on old PC/Laptop kit to rejuvenate it and get a couple more years use out of it where funds may be limited.   One of the limitations with Google is the eco system which is growing but obviously lags behind that of Apple, however given we tend towards using core apps such as Docs, Sheets, etc, significantly more than other apps, this doesn’t pose much of a problem.   The other limitation I have found is the minor differences between Docs, Sheets, etc and the more commonly used Microsoft equivalent in Word, Excel, etc.   When working with a brand new school this hasn’t been too much of a problem but I have found it to be a more significant challenge where trying to change setup from Microsoft to Google due to familiarity which users build up in prolonged use of a given platform. This familiarity builds attachment in users.

Microsoft

Windows continues to be the most common OS in use in the world as a whole.  It also continues to be the most common solution in place in school IT labs the world over.    In the productivity world, MS Office is almost equally popular with the move to Office 365 allowing the apps to be accessed on any device, either via native apps or via a browser, in much the same was as you can with Googles solution.    The benefit for Microsoft here, is the familiarity which the Microsoft Office 365 solution presents with its natively installed Office counterpart, plus the logical progression it provides students where a Windows environment is likely to be encountered in higher education and beyond.   I also like the extended range of Office 365 apps which allow those who are more adventurous to dig into automation via Power Automate, or data analysis through PowerBI.    From an eco-system point of view Microsoft windows has access to a large number of apps, but managing them isnt as easy as it is for Apple users.   The Microsoft store should help to address this going forward but for now I find this to be rather limited.   Microsoft have also now been in the business of producing hardware for a while now, with the Surface range the most notable from an education point of view, not mentioning laptops from other vendors where Windows is the standard OS.   I myself currently use a Pro 7 however have previously dabbled with the Surface Go as a main device.   The advantage in the Surface range is the full desktop operating system experience but with the added ability to use digital inking and the device in a tablet format.   Cost is a factor here, in that the surface devices come in more expensive than the iPad range, but for the price you are getting a full desktop operating system so I believe this is understandable.  The Surface Go and Go 2 as cheaper devices aim to help to address this, and I suspect would make for a more than adequate student device,

Conclusion

In my current school we have settled with the iPad hardware with the Microsoft Office 365 productivity suite for now, although I see possible benefits in use of something like the Surface or a device with a full desktop OS for older students studying their A-Levels or Level 3 vocational qualifications.  That said, different schools are using different solutions.   This shouldn’t be a surprise given each school is different in terms of its staff, students, parents, community, etc.   Equally the options are complex in terms of hardware, operating system, cloud productivity suite, third party apps, managing devices, ownership of devices, 1:1 or shared, teacher confidence, student confidence and many other aspects.

For me there is no one solution which would fit all schools, just the one solution for each individual school.    Each schools solution should be based on their own needs and wants.  If I do have a concern, it is that moving from one platform to another is becoming increasing difficult in terms of staff training and confidence in schools forming silos around a given solution.   As mentioned earlier, the familiarity builds attachment which in turn shows as a reluctance to change. This to me is a concern as it might prevent schools which could benefit from moving, from making such a move.   Thankfully, the increasing ability to mix and match using Microsoft, Google and Apple solutions together, to form an overall solution maximising the benefits of each solution, is only a good one and should therefore make change, if there is a need to do so, more palatable albeit still not particularly easy.

Windows 365 and Education?

I recently read Microsoft’s announcement regarding the launch of Windows 365.   Now the launch is focussed on Enterprise customers but I can see so much potential within the education space, especially after the last year and the pandemic.

Win 365 basically is a virtual computer in the cloud running Windows.    You can watch the launch video above.    From an education standpoint I can see a couple of significant benefits both from a teacher and student point of view:

  1. Consistency and personalisation across devices
  2. School hardware purchasing
  3. Data Protection.

Lets deal with each of the above one by one.

Consistency and personalisation

Students are likely to have to access learning content plus to create portfolios and evidence learning using different devices.    They might use school PCs while in school computer labs, access materials via a laptop, desktop or tablet when at home, and even use a laptop or tablet in general lessons where shared or 1:1 devices are available.   The challenge for this has always been the different operating systems and the resultant differences in apps across platforms.  Where apps have different user interfaces or functionality across platforms, this puts a cognitive load on students, which takes away from their capacity to focus on the learning content itself.     Providing students a consistent interface across devices therefore allows students to focus more of their thinking capacity on the content at hand rather than the tool to access it.    Additionally, students can jump between devices, picking up exactly where they left off.   So a student might be working on a presentation on a desktop PC with a nice large screen in a lab, but then jump back into the same piece of work later in the day, from their tablet, at exactly the point they left the work when they left the lab.

Another issue with the current multi-device setup is personalisation. Students may setup their tablet, but then have to do the same on their laptop and school computer, assuming the school allows for some personalisation. Using a virtual computer, students can setup their preferences once and then will see these no matter what device they access.

School hardware Purchasing

Purchasing of client devices for schools has proven problematic as schools havent been able to establish appropriate replacement plans plus have to wrestle with different subjects having different requirements in relation to the specification of computers.   A media studies class working on video editing is likely to need more than an English class doing some simple word processing.   This then leads to a variety of different kit in different locations in a school.   A move to a virtual computer approach simplifies the hardware, as the main requirement is simply to be able to handle the streamed content from the virtual computer.   As such this may mean the hardware can be cheaper and hopefully from this effective replacement cycles can be established.   It also means that we no longer have the complexity of different hardware in different subject areas.    Where we need better resources, we simply provision a better virtual computer, but all accessible from whatever device the teacher/student has in front of them.   I will however note that this will obviously depend on the cost associated with the virtual computers themselves; We havent yet seen the pricing for Win 365 from Microsoft with this likely to be key in education.

Data Protection

The last year has required staff and students to make use of personal devices at times.   This brings with it the risk of data being stored on personal devices where it may remain even when the device is disposed of, leading to the data being leaked.    A switch to virtual computers would address this as the data wouldn’t be stored on the local computer, but instead on the virtual computer which can be accessed from any device. 

Conclusion

Win365 just reminds me so much of Thin client computing and the potential it promised when I looked at it back in 2015/16.    At the time I couldn’t make Thin client work for my schools’ needs possibly due to the technology and flexibility not quite being there at the time.    Maybe with Win365 and Azure this may now have changed.    Maybe we can finally have a solution which allows the students to access their digital learning space from anywhere, anytime and on any device, but with a consistent and persistent interface. Obviously the pricing will be key here, however I note that the cost of storage and of computer power is only coming down, so even if not viable now I see this as the direction of travel.

If G-Suite and Office 365 represented the big jump over the last 5 years, putting students files, conversations and meetings in the cloud, it may be that Win365, and putting their very computer in the cloud, is the next big thing.

EdTech Cupboard of Doom

Following on from my last post I thought I would have another go at an EdTech graphic but this time focussing fully on the forgotten technologies.

Some are forgotten, but can be found in a dusty cupboard, and when you come upon them you positively reflect on their impact. For me the BBC B micro is one of these forgotten items, which, had it not existed, I am not sure I would have become so interested and motivated by technology.

Some are forgotten for the best. These are the technologies which came and went, possibly with some fanfare by sales people on their arrival, but little more than a whimper as they disappeared from use having had little impact on learning but having costs schools a pretty penny.In some cases these were technologies which were good but just didnt catch on. In other cases these were flashy objects with limited use but high cost. The voting buttons which some Interactive Whiteboard manufacturers flogged is just one example.

And lastly, there are the technologies which personally I wish were forgotten but for now seem determined to stay around. These are the technologies where I am not convinced to the impact, but where the cost seems clear, and therefore the value is doubtful. For me the dreaded interactive whiteboard, that 20+ year old bit of technology, fits this category.

I wonder how this graphic might look 10years from now?

Technologies Past

Further to my last post I thought I would try and encapsulate the technologies which I have experienced, and which come to mind in relation to my time working in schools, in a graphic. The below is what I came up with:

Now I know I have missed some key technologies such as the BBC B however my experience of this was as a student rather than a teacher or someone working in schools, hence why I didnt include it. Given this I may expand this graphic in the future.

But for now, considering the late 1990s, the 2000s, 2010s and early 2020s, is there anything I have missed?

Technologies past

My last post looked forwards, considering what next, so it seemed natural to also do a little bit of reflection.   I have now been involved in schools, including my teacher training, for around 26years.   In that time I have seen a number of technology items come and go.

1990s

I went through my teacher training in the mid-90s working as a “technology” teacher in departments where craft and design was still the most significant part of the taught curriculum.    Overhead projectors were still widely in use as were the traditional chalk whiteboard.   I remember on many occasions arriving home to find the left hand side of my suit covered in chalk dust from where I had brushed the board while writing on it.

During my teacher training, I took a laptop and LCD panel into a school I was attending as a trainee teacher;   The panel was basically an LCD matrix, which fitted over a conventional OHP, allowing the OHP to provide the light which then projected the LCD image onto a wall or pull down screen.   I was using the unit to display a little 3D animation I had created for a lesson on orthographic projection.   The hope was the little animation of a 3D object would help students visualise the 3, 2D projection planes.    For me this panel was the precursor for the common data projector now seen in classrooms everywhere.

2000s

The start of the 2000s saw me now teaching Computing/IT in an FE college.   Data projectors were now much more common, and from what I can remember, were available in each of the Computing/IT classrooms.    It was at this point the Interactive Whiteboard seemed to start to make an appearance.   My first experience was of Promethean whiteboards and the often lost pen which came with them, an expensive item for schools given the loss rate.  I need to admit to being quite eager in the use of IWBs back then;   They were an infrastructure item which was dealt with by the IT Services department so all I saw was their potential, and not the cost;  Who would fail to be positive about a new technology item with an apparent zero cost.   It would be later in my career where I started to consider cost vs. benefit of IWBs and develop a less than positive view of them.

Around the same time there was a big push on all schools and colleges having a virtual learning environment.  Again, I was positive about the potential at that time.   I didn’t fully appreciate the amount of time that would be taken creating and keeping content up to date, plus the tendency for VLEs to simply end up as a dumping ground for worksheets.   I will however note, the VLE did start to push the boundaries in terms of where learning could take place, suddenly allowing students to access learning resources provided by their teachers at any time and in any place, or at least any place with internet access.

Laptops for teachers came and went during this period.   It was great when the funding was available as schools bought their staff nice new laptops which helped in preparing resources, marking, record keeping, etc.   The issue was to come 3 or 4 years later as laptops reached the end of their lifespan yet the funding to replace them no longer existed.

Gaming was also something I got involved in back in the 2000s, introducing cross college gaming competitions initially using some Xboxes, then Xbox 360’s and latterly on PCs with the Halo series of games being particularly popular.    As I returned to secondary education, my teachers desk drawer hid a PlayStation 2, connected to my classroom projector, while most of the PCs had a number of strategy games such as Age of Empire on them for LAN gaming after school hours. 

It was at this time I made an attempt at paperless assessment.   As a visiting moderator I was astounded at the amount of paper I was presented with when moderator the BTec IT qualifications so set myself the challenge of presenting our moderator all of the evidence electronically rather than as printed copies.   It did take a bit of explaining to the moderator, who like me normally would be presented by reems and reems of printed copy yet was now just presented with a CD-Rom and a PC.  

2010s

The start of the 2010s saw me in the Middle East where some schools which hadnt embraced technology yet while others were in similar situations to schools in the UK.  Those schools which hadnt embraced technology might have IT labs but these were often not networked and were without internet access.  The schools themselves often only had a basic domestic internet service available in a limited number of areas and there were certainly no PCs or data projectors in the average classroom.    For these schools, heavy investment would see the basic infrastructure put in quite quickly with training quickly following.

In the schools where technology had been embraced, the 2010’s saw the start of discussions around 1:1 devices with the iPad being a particularly favoured device.   Students could now enjoy the power of technology to communicate, to collaborate, to problem solve and to be creative in their lessons, all supported by their own individual bit of technology.

Cloud based productivity suites also made their appearance in the 2010s with Google Classroom being a favourite.   I myself made use of the Google suite of apps in a number of schools although when I returned to the UK in the middle of the 2010’s I then switched to the competing solution provided by Microsoft in Office 365.   Office 365 quickly developed to catch up with Google, who stole the initial march in this area, with the launch of Microsoft Teams being a key moment in the development and use of Office 365 in schools and colleges.

The flipped classroom idea made an appearance; So, teachers using technology so students can do the learning at home, and then practice it in class with their teachers, rather than learning in school and practising, through homework, at home.

2020s

Its early days.    A pandemic has accelerated the use of technology in schools but also highlighted the issues such as a lack of general investment in infrastructure, devices and in professional development around technology use in schools.      I have already posted some thoughts for what might come next in this decade however additionally I think its worth mentioning esports and Virtual Reality.     I see esports as a key area of growth in the years ahead with Virtual Reality also showing some very clear potential although I do worry that VR may go the way of the 3D projector, and be something which doesn’t quite live up to the hype or mainstream use.

Conclusion

Its interesting looking back.  When I think of each decade I have clear memories of the technologies which were becoming common or trending in education.    I suspect there are other technologies which I have missed from my post but these are the ones which stuck out in my memory.    I also note, that maybe as I have got older I have became a bit more balanced on my views as to new technologies, whereas when I was younger my eagerness may have got the better of me.

Or maybe I am just becoming a little more cynical when speaking with Technology salespeople?

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.

Infrastructure

For me there are a number of foundation stones upon which successful technology use in schools are built.   Some of them are technical in nature and some less so.   In this post I want to briefly explore the technical foundations and infrastructure in particular.

One of the things I have found is that building successful use of technology isnt easy.  It takes planning, time, effort and much more.    The only thing more difficult, is trying to build technology use where your users, your students, staff and parents, are not confident in the technology’s reliability.   If while developing the use of technology, the technology proves itself to be unreliable, you will have a hard time getting users to buy back into its use.   As such the key is to try and get it right first time.

Infrastructure

Using technology now largely involves devices of some sort being connected to the internet.   Devices access the resultant bandwidth through the network infrastructure with the initial connectivity through Wi-Fi or it can be through network cabling.  This infrastructure is critically important to technology use.   In deciding on the infrastructure needed consideration needs to be given to the number and type of devices which will be in use, how technology will be used as well as the need to futureproof any solutions.    Cyber security and safeguarding are also a significant consideration to ensure users are kept safe and that users, systems and data are secure.   In my experience good infrastructure isnt cheap, but the costs of a poor infrastructure in terms of lost time, loss of user confidence and lost effort significantly outweighs the financial cost.    In relation to cost it is also worth noting that infrastructure costs are not a one-off.   Any investment to improve infrastructure requires continued investment to keep everything maintained, supported, secure and also up to date with new technology as it arises.  The above applies to both infrastructure in schools to support technology on-site but also the broader need for infrastructure at a national level to support students and teachers at home, as they have been through the recent significant period of lockdown.

I do however wonder in relation to the above whether 5G may start to change things at least inside schools.    As we currently look at BYOD and students bringing their own devices, will we eventually be looking at BYON and students bringing their own network, their own infrastructure, in the form of 5G enabled devices.    In doing so might this allow schools and other educational establishments to move the funding currently focussed on infrastructure to other areas.    On the reverse of this though, this will likely also result in new challenges such as providing support and also safeguarding where each student and teacher is effectively using their own network.     It will also be a challenge in terms of access to 5G across countries as a whole;   I note some areas in the UK which are currently lucky to get 3G or 4G never mind a 5G signal, and that’s after many years of 3G and 4G being in operation.

Pilots and trials

In developing new infrastructure, pilot projects are key.    Through smaller pilot projects you can limit potential loss of confidence, plus users involved are also more likely to accept a level of unreliability or trial and error based on the trial nature of the project.    This is all about limiting the scope to limit the risk while allowing new things to be tried, whether this is a Wi-Fi solution or new network switching, etc.   Going big from the outset may seem like the way to get things done quickly, however it also represents greater risk, and sometimes the issues that arise mean that it actually takes longer.   It also tends to be more costly unless you are lucky and everything goes exactly as is planned, which in my experience is seldom the case with IT projects above a very small scale.

The wider need

The global pandemic has proven that schools across the world were at vastly different places in terms of being ready to use technology to address the challenges which arose.   The same is true in relation to technology use in general in schools.    The foundational infrastructure is equally varied across schools, however, in my view, requires significant investment both in the short term but also continually in the longer term.    

We cannot hope to consider the pedagogy, training of teachers and students, sharing best practice, etc, in relation to technology use in education before we get basic fundamental and reliable infrastructure in place.    There is a lot to do in the immediate term to address this and ensure the basic infrastructure exists in all schools.    There will then need to be an ongoing effort to maintain this.  

The pandemic for me have clearly identified the need for the technology infrastructure to be addressed;   Now we just need to do something about it!

EdTech: Start with the why?

Back in 2013 I shared a framework in relation to EdTech which consisted in 4 layers.   The bottom layer being focussed on understanding why EdTech is important, the next layer concerned with fundamental building blocks, before training/professional development, eventually leading to confidence.

Looking back at this framework, I think there may be some things which could do with being added, however largely I think it still stands.

Considering the first level of my framework, focussed on all involved being aware and embracing the reasoning as to why technology is important, I identified the following:

  • Technology Based World: The world is certainly more technology based then ever before as we live through the current pandemic, as we seek to keep in touch with others via Zoom, we seek to work and learn from home and we use apps in almost every area of our lives.
  • Manager of Learning: In the pandemic, we havent had access to the usual data associated with teaching face to face, however instead we have access to analytics in relation to student interaction with online platforms plus tools such as the replay function in OneNote which provides us insight into students learning in how their answers to questions have developed.
  • Deliverer of Learning: Online platforms can deliver the learning content to students and then guide students through additional materials based on their strengths and weaknesses, all on an individual student level.
  • Facilitator of Learning: Technology has facilitated learning opportunities which wouldn’t have previously been possible including allowing guest speakers to join virtual classrooms or students to explore space via VR.   There are still many further opportunities which we have not yet identified.
  • Research Evidence:  This point I am not so sure on; The evidence which currently exists often presents opposing outcomes.   I think in 2013 having been focussed on the benefits of EdTech I may not have truly appreciated some of the research which found against edTech’s impact.   That said, for me, there is enough research to suggest technology can, in the right context, with the right staff involved and applied in the right way, have a positive impact on learning.
  • Changing Brains: This is another point, on reflection, I am not as confident on now that 8 years have passed.   I think back in 2013 I was concious of evidence regarding changes in how we think, some brought about by requirements of the changing world and some brought about by technology itself.   Technology therefore is important in allowing us to be flexible, agile and adaptive.
  • Globalisation: As the world collectively suffers from the impact of a global pandemic, I think it is all the more evident that the world is getting smaller and that we are increasing living in a global world.   As such we need to embrace technology to help us to make the most of this globalisation.

Considering where we are now, in a pandemic, where technology has become critical to the continuing provision of lessons and learning, my hope is that within education in general we now better appreciates why we need to be making use, or even better use, of technology in our schools.  

Before seeking to use technology in our schools, it is important to start with the why, and understand the reasoning behind its importance.