ICT in institutional links with home and community
Findings from qualitative research
The roll-out of computers to all pupils' homes in a vertical group of high school, junior school and infants' school in Cluster C
In this cluster, the home-computer roll-out took place in the summer term for one vertical group of a secondary, junior and infant school. Procurement was supported by the LEA and its ICT Test Bed Manager. The eventual choice of product was made because the price and servicing arrangements were good. The unit included a 17" flat screen monitor, a Gold level service agreement (3 years' onsite warranty, 3 years' access to a 24-hour helpline), Microsoft Office and Encarta (which was given free of charge), and anti-virus software. The secondary school units had some content for KS3 and KS4 pre-installed, as well as direct links to the school intranet on the desktop. The units were all badged with the Dell help-line number. Originally the schools were looking to procure 1000 units but lack of interest meant that the numbers were lower in the end. The schools requested that the units were pre-installed with an Internet Service Provider but unfortunately this did not take place. The secondary school provided AOL CD-Roms while the primary schools handed out CD-Roms from Tesco. The expectation from all schools was that parents would pay the connection costs (1p per minute at the time).
The idea originated with the secondary school, which originally envisaged working alone on this initiative. The junior and infants schools joined in later. The relative size of the secondary school meant that most decisions were taken to suit its needs. For example, when the two primary schools negotiated a different image (design of the user interface and choice of icons on the desktop) for the machines for their children they had to pay extra to the supplier. Busy staff in the secondary schools did not always keep primary staff informed about decisions which in some cases proved to be more important than had at first appeared.
The three schools worked together to ensure that families with children at more than one school (or about to move schools) were only provided with one computer. This was essential to reduce costs, although there were concerns about sharing a single computer between two or more siblings in relation to equity. Collecting and cross-checking the data on families between the three schools proved to be rather time-consuming since they did not manage to set up a common system.
Parents were told about the initiative at information evenings. The secondary school did a survey of home computer access by talking to parents on Achievement Days (when attendance was the highest). Then they targeted individual families by inviting them to information evenings. The primary schools faced problems owing to parents' assumptions and expectations. Parents had to be telephoned at home to remind them about the meetings and take-up in the junior school was disappointingly low since only 44 homes actually took delivery from an estimated 100 that would have been entitled to receive a home computer. The secondary school used the word 'loan' as the equipment was technically owned by them, but this acted as a deterrent as some parents associated this with weekly repayments and debt. Other pupils and parents thought that it would be outdated technology and not worth having. All schools found that many parents did not realize what was on offer. Some parents were suspicious and wanted to know what the catch was. In the secondary school word of mouth eventually had an impact as pupils began to approach staff and ask for application forms.
In the event, fewer parents took delivery of their computers than had originally expressed an interest and surplus units were distributed to pupils coming into the secondary school in September 2004 from non-ICT Test Bed schools.
Once the computers were allocated, there was further work to be done in installing them in homes and providing basic instructions on use and technical support. The contract with the provider included delivery and support through the Gold level service agreement but owing to delays and difficulties in making arrangements for deliveries, many problems came back to the schools to be dealt with.
Maintaining software on the machines (such as Windows updates and the virus software which does not update automatically) was not included in the service agreement and remained a worry. At the secondary school, parents initially rang the school for help; the member of staff responsible for the project redirected them to the supplier but in some cases, particularly where parents did not speak much English, helped them directly. There was also the issue of parent training. The secondary school organised training sessions from a commercial provider who also offered a free printer to the first 150 parents to sign up. The junior and infants schools were not part of this deal but planned to make alternative arrangements.
Points emerging from this study
The organisation of this project from start to completion of the roll-out was very time consuming, particularly the amount of time required to chase up parents who qualified but had not attended meetings, or who had changed their contact details between applying and taking delivery of the machines. The administrative burden on key staff was substantial but it was not deemed to be appropriate for admin staff to undertake, although they did help at times with telephoning.
The benefits of placing computers in pupils' homes are likely to be considerable, far outweighing the difficulties that staff have encountered in procurement and the roll-out to homes. However, the problems encountered illustrate very well that such large-scale collaborative initiatives involving three schools from different phases need to be planned in collaboration from the start. Almost all the problems resulted from the fact that an initiative planned originally by the secondary school alone was enlarged at the last minute to include two primary schools. The experience of these three schools also shows the complexities of communicating with parents and the importance of doing so effectively even when offering something that the school assumes will be greeted with enthusiasm.
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