ICT in learning and teaching
Findings from qualitative research
Successes which points to good leadership and management
Successful embedding of many aspects of ICT Test Bed work
The first two years of ICT Test Bed provide evidence of the high levels of engagement and enthusiasm of a very large number of staff, students and children. Close links have been established between the clusters of schools and productive working relationships with the college are excellent in one LEA and good in a second. The work is well coordinated in all three clusters and is increasingly being integrated with other policy initiatives - particularly since the integration of planning across various initiatives has been a high priority for schools.
Change management consultancy
The change management consultancy provided by the National Remodeling Team during the first half of 2004 was particularly successful and there are many examples of the NRT tools being used to provide structure and direction for planning and implementation of new aspects of ICT Test Bed work.
Home-community links
Although subject to considerable delay, the various initiatives in the three clusters to use ICT to strengthen links between schools, home and community have generated good will and enthusiasm. In the case of one cluster, additional funding was secured to supplement ICT Test Bed funds and enable a computer to be given to every home with software to support children's learning. It is also the intention to establish electronic links in the near future. This initiative has been greeted by parents with great enthusiasm and resulted in many visiting the school and establishing contact with teachers for the first time.
Development of an innovative whole-class teaching resource
In one LEA, ICT Test Bed has provided the opportunity to develop a suite of specialist equipment for whole-class, interactive teaching. This is seen by this LEA as a better classroom resource than the interactive whiteboard. The two phases of funding in the first year enabled the LEA to develop and trial a pilot version of the equipment. The large-scale nature of the initiative then attracted the attention of a major commercial provider who undertook to produce an improved suite of equipment and make it available to all schools in the LEA at a very competitive price. This is a clear case where substantial government investment has led to the development of an ICT resource which would not otherwise have become available to schools.
LEA support or school autonomy - a continuum?
Where they were in place, it was clear that an LEA with well established structures and procedures, as well as stable relationships with schools, could take on a strong leadership role and provide very high levels of support. ICT Test Bed showed that at best this role builds on existing practices and there is no one right approach. Where an LEA is in a more transitional phase without good existing infrastructures (electronic and otherwise) it is more difficult to provide strong leadership of this kind. On the other hand, ICT Test Bed provides evidence that schools can benefit from having the opportunity to work together in ways that are more autonomous. Comparing the long-term effects of these different approaches will be particularly interesting, although ICT Test Bed will only be able to provide indicative evidence rather than reaching a definitive judgment on relative benefits.
Good procurement practices
ICT Test Bed provided the opportunity to compare different approaches to procurement. In two of the LEAs, prospective suppliers were required to go through a tender process, following initiations to tender, in one case only to suppliers from the government's approved list. At its best this worked well and one LEA could point to savings of £200,000 as a result of this process. In the third LEA, a formal tender process was unnecessary except in the case of procuring very specialist equipment (such as a VLE) because the Council operates a three-year rolling programme of tendering and approval under the European Union Tender Protocol. A choice of approved suppliers was available and purchases could be made very rapidly with obvious benefits to the schools. The element of competition retained by having more than one approved supplier also ensured very good value for money. Two LEAs reported on the importance of specifying needs very precisely on a classroom by classroom basis to ensure that equipment was installed in just the right place. One LEA also said that it had proved important to have one contractor supplying both equipment and electrical infrastructure to minimise potential misunderstandings and disruption.
Challenging issues
Fairness and equity
The allocation of such large funding to some, but not all, schools in an LEA raised issues of equity and fairness. This was particularly difficult in the case of one LEA where the cluster had already received substantial funding for another initiative. In two LEAs the ICT Test Bed schools' share of other available funds was re-allocated to other schools by the LEA to reduce the gap. One LEA ensured a benefit for all schools by specifying in contractual agreements that agreed prices would apply for purchases by all schools, not just ICT Test Bed schools.
The scale of the challenge
The huge scale of the project made it difficult for heads, particularly in the secondary schools, to manage both the challenge of dealing with planning and procurement and the need to keep staff informed and develop a sense of shared ownership. One secondary head perceives that it was fortunate that delivery of much of the equipment was delayed. It would have been impossible to deal with it all arriving at one time, 'whereas what happened in practice was that, because there were delays, people got the kit in small parts and they became proficient with it.'
Underestimates of costs for the home-community links theme
There was a problem for all the LEAs in meeting the benchmarks laid down by the DfES for the home and community links theme (in supplying computers to children's homes, for example). The cost of connectivity for all children's homes in addition to the costs of supplying computers proved to be well in excess of the allocated funding. This problem was exacerbated in one cluster which had three secondary schools, rather than one as in the other clusters, and consequently 5,000 rather than 2,000 homes needing to be equipped. This meant that the LEA had no option but to 'disregard the benchmark' and let schools decide on their own approach 'with a common theme of support in the community.'
Sustainability
Sustainability will clearly be a problem as ICT Test Bed comes to an end. It will not be possible for schools to renew equipment and maintain the same level of activity without a continuation of funding at a higher-than-normal level. The pressure to renew equipment will have three causes: the acknowledged three-year life-span for ICT equipment; the constant use of data projection equipment which is likely to come to the end of its life in three years through 'wear and tear'; and 'people's expectations of technology' which always rise over time. However, the perception of some participants is that if ICT Test Bed demonstrates significant gains in children's learning, a way should be found to extend this level of funding in the future - both for ICT Test Bed and other schools.
Over-zealous network security
In one school over-zealous network security is creating a serious barrier to staff use of the system (in terms of both email and access to software of their choice). There is a similar negative impact on students' use. When controls become too draconian 'it degrades performance of the system.'
An apparent negative impact of Ofsted inspections
Ofsted inspections have had a clear negative impact on ICT Test Bed's work in one of the LEAs, preventing staff from attending meetings and causing them to put project work, including action research commitments, on hold. In one case two schools missed a workshop run by the National Remodelling Team which was described by those who attended as 'fantastic, very motivational' and was said to have 'led to sustained use of the NRT tool set' by all those who attended. It is hard to measure this negative impact precisely but it is likely to be reflected across many areas of the schools' ICT Test Bed work.
Problems arising from dependence on external network providers
The LEAs are all dependent on the connectivity infrastructure in their local area. In one rural cluster the costs of connectivity were, until recently, prohibitively high but the Council has now negotiated its own terms with a broadband provider and opted out of the regional broadband consortium. Costs of providing connectivity to homes is still prohibitive, however. In a second cluster the Council infrastructure for connectivity, including email, was poor at the start of ICT Test Bed and this caused major difficulties in implementing some aspects of the work. In the third cluster connectivity inside the LEA is good, but externally is not always so good. 'When you rely on a broadband provider for your connectivity from the internet, you are obviously out of control.' The LEA has experimented with 'a very big content management box' and using it to cache content by communicating automatically with the proxy server and provider but this proved problematic at least initially.
Additional costs arising from security problems with ICT equipment
There have been major problems with theft of equipment from schools, particularly in one inner-city cluster. This is a serious additional cost in terms of security systems (CCTV, strengthened locks and bars, for example), security marking and increased insurance costs. In consultation with the police and the Council's security experts, the best solution is now clear: 'Get all the equipment security marked and then proactively market that' with brightly coloured notices that can be seen easily inside and outside buildings, advertisements in the local paper etc. These additional costs need to be included in calculations of the total cost of ownership. The costs, however, are not the main concern. Rather, it is the disruption, particularly in relation to teaching and learning, that is brought about by the damage to windows and classrooms, removal of the equipment and time taken for the scene to be investigated by the crime squad, often preventing access to equipment for numbers of weeks.
Achieving the right balance between usability and affordability
There were difficulties for schools in taking procurement decisions which struck the right balance between usability and affordability. In one school the cost of upgrading the existing wireless network to enable very flexible use of laptops in all teaching spaces was expensive so an initial decision was made to experiment with using the existing 11Mb system where 50 or 60 wireless links were required, rather than 19 before the start of ICT Test Bed. Although this reduced costs very significantly it proved to be an unworkable solution because the time taken to establish the link between each laptop and the system was unacceptably long. A 54Mb link has proved to be essential. This higher bandwidth has the advantage of being much less vulnerable to unauthorised access from hackers, since it does not permeate many structures and is unlikely to be accessible through classroom walls. Nevertheless, this has been a difficult decision to make for the school because it has meant diverting funds that had been allocated for other things. A similar difficult decision had to be taken in another LEA where the very large display screens to be installed in assembly halls would be extremely expensive if they had the recommended quality of data projectors and associated sound systems. Reduction in quality might, however, considerably reduce visibility and lead to problems with sound. The difficulty of taking this decision led to its being delayed for many months.
Delay caused by asbestos clearance
During the installation phase, one LEA had to overcome problems resulting from the presence of asbestos in some of the school buildings. This was dealt with efficiently by the Council's specialist asbestos unit within building services. It did, however, cause some significant delays.
The need for a dual system of financial management
In two LEAs it proved impossible to maintain up-to-date financial statements for ICT Test Bed using the Council's standard financial system. This was because of a delay, sometimes of as much as two months, between the commitment of funds and deduction of these sums from the financial statement. The solution in both LEAs has been to set up a dual financial system so that records of ICT Test Bed budgets are kept locally as well as centrally. This is an additional cost which may, in time, be overcome by better management information systems.