Education Technology in Schools

Success for Single Sign-on! ... and onwards for EIS guru!

Sometimes we need to take a leap into the unknown. After much deliberation, soft market testing, reading and studying it is possible to still end up being unsure. What was it Donald Rumsfeld said about Known Unknowns and Unkonwn Unknowns .... ?

What are we trying to achieve? We want any Kent Learning Zone user to be able to access the online resources their school provides without having to have a different login for each, and to stop companies insecurely extracting lots of personal data from school MIS systems. Each time they have to remember their password, the resources get used less and less. The answer we were told was Shibboleth. Problem was (we were also told) that Service Providers didn't really support Federated Access. The software  needed is Open Source and therefore community supported rather than something you buy.

Well, to coin a phrase, we ended up deciding to 'Just Do It', and the task was handed to EIS as a Plan-Do project. EIS has delivered the project in a couple of weeks (can't tell you what we'd been quoted externally!). The specialist technical expertise within EIS is impressive.

It works ... and works well! With a focus on primary resources, we started testing with a couple of Service providers, including J2e who offered access to their brilliant primary applications. With EIS, we are going to offer KLZ schools and users access to the best free and subscription 'single sign-on online' resources. Following testing with a group of pilot schools (should be completed by December), we plan to start promoting the service from January.

Sadly though we are saying goodbye to Marc Turner this week. Marc led the technical implementation of this service, and now heads of to even greater things outside of KCC. I would like to say a personal thanks for his help and expertise over the years and for doing an excellent job with such enthusiasm.

RM ... Primary ICT Seminar in Maidstone

RM will be at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel Hollingbourne just outside of Maidstone on Monday 22nd November with their Primary ICT Seminar.

The predominant theme is ' Achieving more with less'

Full details can be found by clicking HERE:

It's rumoured you may catch a glimpse of their excellent new RM Slate

Also, check out UtilEyes, an energy monitor to save on utility bills and connect your learners to real data.

Vital CPD 4 ICT - adding value to teaching

This is a shameless plug for Vital, professional development ICT development aimed at teachers. Vital is delivered by the Open University and funded by the DfE (at least for now!). Vital offers flexible courses and case studies, with guides to new technologies and ideas on how to use them.

In my opinion, School leaders should insist their teachers register to gain access to the course materials, discussion forums and interactive learning tools. A good feature is The Market Place which includes firms and organisations who offer professional CPD.One of the proposals from the last government was to replace LA advisory services with a register of advisors. It would be interesting to know if this is how this will be developed for ICT, by virtue of the fact that its actually in place. One of the issues for LA's is ensuring specialist school improvement advice continues to be available against a backdrop of austerity in public sector funding. Vital is supported by a regional infrastructure, with each responsible for planning and arranging courses and developing networks in their area.

I do have a concern. Vital is funded by DfE, so the obvious question is ... for how long will this continue? Is its survival dependent on support? What are the key performance indicators or criteria for success? I plan to contact Vital and find out!

As a postscript, could the excellent Teacher's TV (TTV) content be moved to Vital rather than lost with TTV's demise? ... it would be a shame if it were to disappear or end up on YouTube. I'm all for putting all of the ICT eggs for teachers in the same basket.

Home Access - the numbers for Kent!

We have been keeping track of the number of approved applications for Home Access laptop and Internet packages in Kent. We have figures associated with each school, and have used them to produce a summary report. The report highlights the numbers by District, and can be found by clicking on the image below. We also have totals for each school, and you can find out how to obtain these for your school through the next e-bulletin. District teams will be sent the totals for schools in their area in the next week or so.

Low income families with children in years 6 through 9 were eligible.

Kent families did well in comparison to neighbouring LA's, with 5,754 packages being distributed.This was 2,077 more than Hampshire and 4,111 more than Oxfordshire.

The 5 secondary Schools / Academies with the highest uptake were: Folkestone Academy, Pent Valley Tech. Coll., The Abbey School, Isle of Sheppey Academy and Hartsdown Technology College.

The 5 primary schools with the highest uptake were:Cliftonville Primary; Dame Janet Community Junior; Folkestone Christchurch CE Primary; Newington Community Primary; Temple Hill Community Primary.

ICT Provision in schools - BESA summary report findings

According to a recent BESA report!

Desktop Computers -  58% of primary schools report being well equipped and 64% of secondary schools report being in the same position as last year.

Digital Content - 52% of primary school ICT leaders do not consider themselves well resourced.

Learning Platforms - 12% of primary schools consider them irrelevant. 30% consider themselves deficient, 47% report being well resourced.

Teacher computers - 71% primary, 70% secondary provide good teacher access to computers for curriculum purposes.

Decreased demand for desktops in favour of laptops.

Average primary school has 7.3 desktops over 5 years old.

Average primary school has 7 inneffective computers (likely to be the same as above?)

Budgets for ICT likely to be 6% less (that's not so bad).

What is Federated Access Management (FAM)? In a nutshell!

Who? A national body called the UK Access Management Federation looks after things, and requires you sign up to a strict contract that assures you are trustworthy, have your organisations approval at a high level and are a recognised educational institution. You can sign up as either an Identity Provider or a Service Provider ... or both. Identity Providers (IdP's) have a directory of users who want access to resources, Service Providers (SP's) have a catalogue of resources and services they want to sell or protect from copyright or intellectual property theft. Trust between the Identity Provider and Service Provider is key and Kent LA is a fully signed up member as an Identity Provider!

Why? Federated Access Management (FAM) allows an organisation managing a directory of users (called an Identity Provider or IdP) to access any copyright protected resources from another organisation (called a Service Provider or SP) without having to remember lots of different logins and passwords. This requires a Service Provider to be able to trust the Identity of a user and their organisation, and that they will manage their users properly, ie deleting users when they leave. Importantly, the system does not pass personal data to the Service Provider because it doesn't need to know; it just needs to know that the user is from an organisation that has paid for a resource or is allowed to access it... although it can if needed!

What? - Its a collection of Open Source SAML compliant software (usually Shibboleth), so its free and very well supported by a UK educational community, BUT setting it up needs some expertise. Setting up an Identity Provider is easier than setting up as a Service Provider. The free software (Shibboleth) is available from Internet2 so play with it!. (SAML Security Assertion Mark-up Language is a secure way of securely moving data around).

How? User logs on to their school's VLE / portal - finds a resource link, e.g. Encyclopedia Britannica - clicks on it - goes to resource without entering another username and password. Without FAM, User logs on to their school's VLE / portal - finds a resource link, e.g. Encyclopedia Brittanica - clicks on it - goes to a login page and enters a different username and password - forgotten password - has to ask teacher for a new password - waits two weeks - gets bored - doesn't learn!

Where? Maintained schools are expected to use the Identity Provider of their Local Authority. Academies and Federations can do it themselves OR use the LA Identity Provider.Any educational institution or organisation in the UK.

When? Available now (free software), but you do have to sign up to some stringent trust requirements.

Links

Great animation explaining it all.
Shibboleth software (Internet2)
UK Access Management Federation

What is Services Interoperability Framework (SIF)? In a nutshell!

Following my last post on interoperability, I received an email asking for a plain english explanation of some of the key concepts, so here goes with the first - SIF.

Services Interoperability Framework (SIF) - used to be called School's Interoperability Framework.

Who? - Controlled by SIF Association (US) - SIF Association UK (UK). Designed for the US schools market - very different to the UK market! SIFAUK spends most of its time trying to tailor SIF for the UK which has much tighter data protection laws than the US.

Why? - "... schools will be enabled to better utilise technology in a manner that leverages the promise and capabilities of interoperability between disparate applications". More importantly, your school Management Information System  (MIS) is where school data is stored, SIF can control access to your data and prevent service providers from setting up all sorts of dodgy extractions to get their hands on it!

So! ... personalisation requires personal data - personal data comes from your school management information system (MIS) - you can't send personal data using CD's or USB storage - not all applications need all of the data anyway - SIF offers a means of transferring data between your MIS and a software application from a service provider (or between two points) via the web - SIF provides a specification for the data, and a specification for its transport  - (this doesn't exactly match the fields on your MIS, but its close).

What? - SIF provides a specification for schools data and a means of sharing it across the web.

How? - A Zone Integration Server acts as an encrypted exchange between a vendor's (service provider's) software application (eg library software) and your MIS (SIMS etc.) ensuring only relevant personal data is released from your MIS. A SIF Agent, a software program created by a service provider, connects their service to a Zone Integration Server. SIF therefore allows software to securely request data from your MIS and be provided with a response.

Where? The Zone Integration Server can act for a whole district, across a federation, or a single school.

When? - A good question! SIF was heavily supported by BECTA, (which is in a hospice awaiting imminent death). A recent DfE review says SIF doesn't cut the mustard. Numerous vendors are interested, but SIF has not gained much traction other than in some large scale pilots, notably Birmingham. Microsoft seem to like SIF, probably because its a global specification, and they've been working with trusted partners such as Visual SI to perfect it, although demand is poor and the market apathetic. 

Why is it important? - because BECTA promoted it as a means of "... rationalising technology in the education sector", and the Information Standards Board (ISB) agree, making it clear to suppliers and service providers that they should use it in their products.

Useful Links:

SIF - Wikipedia

Education, Skills and Children's Services - Interoperability? Ouch!

The Department for Education's predecessor, DCSF, commissioned a report (PDF) to review information and data sharing within education, skills and childrens services (ESCS), with the aim of suggesting a way forward. The report makes interesting reading, concluding that the current lack of interoperability wastes £300m per annum! The report also concludes that a national approach to interoperability would deliver financial benefits of around £250m, (payback within 3 years), and would join up services to learners, families and young people.

The report recommends a central infrastructure to support national and regional interoperability, and adoption and imposition of standards on Local Authorities and Schools.

All of the above sounds fine, but how do we get from where we are now? Currently we have a hotch-botch of standards, approaches and commercial influences. Schools (Services) Interoperability Framework (SIF) is a US approach that has been adapted to fit the UK market, and is designed to control access to schools managament information systems by third party systems and services, e.g. e-catering, library systems etc. This can be extended to Local Authority data collections, but most use Capita SIMS or similar products that already include school census collection features. The report dismisses SIF, which has prompted a response from SIFAUK.

I believe the approach identified in the report is the right one, but doesn't stand a chance of being supported. Why?, because it requires agreement on standards (something that convulses SIF), underestimates interference of public sector IT suppliers who prefer proprietary rather than open solutions, and wholly underestimates the scale of the task. Success would also require a hard line from a big central government, and that's not going to happen to support an approach commissioned by its predecessor.

Stuff that's caught my eye - 031010

Internet Maths Tutor & BBC News Item: Indian Call centrer teaches maths in the UK

Open Source Virtual Private Network (VPN) OpenVPN - with OpenVPNAS may be useful for schools who want a cheap solution for filtered home access for staff and students.

The Future of Education? Mostly American perspective, but some interesting nuggets.

Minimum wage for apprentices - should every school employ an ICT technical apprentice? I think so! I took on an apprentice last year and strongly recommend it.

Wonder what a TeachMeet is? The Whiteboard Blog highlights that BrainPopUK and TeachMeet Essex have a YouTube guide.

Tablets in, netbooks out (by Tablet we mean iPads of course!)

BESA (The ICT in schoolstrade body) ICT in UK State Schools report - Schools likely to spend £75m less on ICT in next academic year.Here's another interpretation of the same report.... and another!

Nutter repairmen climbing1,768 ft TV Mast ... cool video

Thanks to The Whiteboard Blog for pointing out BBC Dimensions.

By what age do children recognise that plagiarism is wrong?

Creating newspapers from your RSS feeds?

I must admit I was disappointed at the demise of Bloglines, the RSS feed reader I first cut my teeth on at an Alan November conference. It was something of a revelation and is fundamental to many of the Internets new tools. Rather reluctantly I've moved across to Google Reader, which does the job I guess.

I've also heard about online apps that turn feeds into a personalised newspaper. There is paper.li that creates news from Twitter, so the articles are a bit short! Thanks to Andy Hutt though, I've decided to try Tabbloid to create a personal magazine. I'll aim to publish weekly and see how things go!

Kent e-safety officer - mentioned in dispatches!

Broadcasting on Mon 4th October, Radio 4 @ 8pm is a documentary looking at S*x, P*rn and Teenagers. Guardian Online has a trailer article that quotes Rebecca Avery, e-safety officer in my team. Worth a look, and the broadcast sounds well worth listening to. Scary stuff!

Primary School Design Guide

We've put together an ICT Design Guide for Primary Schools. It covers key considerations for architects and builders.

Click HERE to download a copy.

Green ICT in Schools advice

I was asked to consider how schools might adopt greener ICT in order to save energy. Prevailing thought is that low-energy technology saves money ... and it does, but the cost of changing technology early is more than the cost saving!The real savings are in the way ICT is operated now!

Anyway, I offer the document for your consideration. Comments welcome!

Click HERE for a PDF copy.

Software licensing on conversion to Academy

• Microsoft Select Agreement for perpetual licenses (supplied by Civica under KCC Contract, and usually supplied through EIS).
• Microsoft Select Agreement - perpetual licenses (through another supplier).
• Microsoft School's Agreement - software rented through an annual payment.

Microsoft are fairly generous and will transfer licenses on completion of a Microsoft License Transfer Form. This form can only be issued by the original license supplier however. Failure to complete the form makes continued use of the software following conversion to Academy illegal. On completing the form, the supplier checks against the school postcode to ensure the software is legitimately licensed before passing the transfer information to Microsoft. Microsoft will then confirm (or otherwise) the transfer. It goes without saying that a school will need to complete a form for each supplier, and make sure they claim the right number of licenses for each.

Schools have to know what licenses were bought from which supplier, as the volume license key is specific to each agreement.

Academies can't take buy through Kent's Select Agreement once they convert, but can apply for a Select Agreement in their own right.

Other Software
 
Each software manufacturer sets its own licensing terms and conditions and there are far too many titles to provide specific guidance. Schools need to work through their inventories and check these individually. Adobe products are worth a mention, as they recently won a court case to prevent onward sale of their products, so this may be an issue. I will try to clarify their position on this.
 
Where software is supported by annual charge, (e.g. subscriptions, annual upgrades, renewals) suppliers may be happy to transfer licenses on the basis that arrangements continue, but it is important to check.
 
Hosted services (ie on servers not owned by the school) are provided by a range of Service Provider's, each with their own terms and conditions. Each should be informed of the schools conversion to Academy, allowing them to respond appropriately.

Conclusion

Schools need to maintain accurate records of the software and services they use and ensure they are appropriately licensed. It should not just be assumed that licenses continue on transfer, as each software manufacturer applies different terms and conditions.

ICT benchmarks for Kent Schools

Following a recent query from a Kent school network manager looking for data with which to compare his schools ICT provision, I have decided to publish two reports (Primary and Secondary) that show the data collected from Kent schools in 2009. Not up to the minute, but it does provide an interesting snapshot that I hope you find useful.

Primary Report

Secondary  Report

Provision by area

Student's reminded of their rights to know more about their exam marks

The Infomation Commissioners Office (ICO) has sent out a reminder that student's have the right to request examiners' comments. Apparently the ICO received complaints about how Subject Access Requests (SAR's) are dealt with by schools and colleges. A Good Practice Guide has been published.

Funding for shared primary School Business Managers.

Not particularly ICT related, but schools may be interested in knowing that DfE is providing grants of up to £20K per project to fund a School Business Manager to be shared across a cluster of Primary Schools, with the aim of at least one cluster funded in each LA. Early application advised as funds may be fully allocated ahead of closing date of 31.3.11. http://bit.ly/aPKq24

Online applications. More than just trust?

I came across what seems to be a remarkably useful online application being promoted to schools, PlannerLive. As with all online services there is a need for schools to consider questions about privacy and the transparency of the service providers business plan before considering using the services they provide.

1. How does the service cover its costs? Answers typically include advertising (services to staff etc.), free trial period followed by subscription, selling user information or lists. PlannerLive offers no information on its web site except its all free with no limits. This is frankly not credible! There should be an honest declaration as to how the service plans to recover their investment and hosting costs.

2. If there is confirmation that it really is free and unsponsored with no cost recovery, will it still be around in a years time? What is the risk to schools who start to rely on a service if it is subsequently decommissioned or worse the URL sold on to a less trustworthy owner because it cannot be financially sustained?

3. Since there is mention of student and parent accounts, as well as being populated with staff names it's worth remembering that Schools are data controllers under the Data Protection Act 1998, and this service is acting as a data processor on the school's behalf. This means that if there is a breach of privacy, the school is responsible, not the service provider. Schools are legally obliged to understand how the privacy of their personal data is respected prior to passing it.  PlannerLive offers no privacy statement that I can find. Schools should not consider passing personal data to a data processor without the data subject's explicit consent and stating the purpose in their school privacy notice.

4. Schools also need to understand something about the way the service provider operates. This includes knowing:

a. The legal entity to whom they are passing personal data, and how it is passed (e.g. is the online system populated with teacher names by sending a spreadsheet, keying it in, or extracting from an MIS report etc.). The URL of a website is not enough, and the single email address provided by 'Stuart' as a point of contact is also not enough.

b.  If there is no formal contract or agreement with the service (because its free?), what remedy is there if personal data is compromised, or confidentiality breached?

c.  What happens to personal data if the service is sold or decommissioned?

e. Is the service hosted in the UK or EU, or in another country?

PlannerLive needs to address the risks before schools consider signing up. I think it has great potential and could be a winner once these issues are addressed. PlannerLIVE! creator Stuart Ridout, writes a promotional blog, and according to his Twitter account (@stuartridout) is Head of ICT at a Milton keynes School. 

Times they are a changing!

It can't have escaped notice that my Blog has been 'quiet'. You may be aware that Kent County Council Children, Families and Education Directorate have consulted widely on changes to the way we do business. This process of change is still under way, and my understanding is that changes should be complete by September 2010.

Significant debate is also taking place in Blogs and on Twitter regarding government policy and funding commitments for ICT, the role of LA's, Building Schools for the Future, Free Schools, New Academies etc. These are political issues and beyond the scope of comment on this blog however I encourage your participation in the debate and the dialogue.

With the demise of Becta, it is probable that Next Generation Learning (run by Becta) will cease, and with this in mind I have decided to change the title of this Blog.

Technology: rights of the child v fears of the school

Interested to read a paper by Miles Berry, incoming vice-chair of NAACE the schools ICT association and evangelist for Open Source Schools. Miles was invited to share a topic of interest to them. Rather surprisingly, instead of a polemic on Open Source, Miles offers the Convention on the Rights of the Child as an illustration of a number of issues.

In particular the tortuous issue of appropriate filtering in schools is set against the Human Rights Act 1998 which guarantees the freedom "to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority". Miles recognises that this is superceded by 'protection of public health and morals', but quite rightly challenges the mass blocking of educationally useful sites. this was brought home to me yesterday at the excellent EIS iT10 event in Ashford, where Andy Hutt took us on a journey through some fabulous online teacher resources. Some of these wouldn't get through broadband filtering in schools.

Kent provides filtering to schools through their broadband service. Secondary schools have complete control to block or allow groups of content. For technical reasons this is uneconomic at present for the large number of small primary schools, so a default filtering policy is managed on behalf of primary schools. In line with OFSTED guidance we have been looking at how we might allow primary schools to determine their own policies and manage their own filtering. This allows schools to implement policies that reflect their risk appetites, and nicely gets the LA off the hook, but doesn't address the fundamental issue raised by Miles.

In practice, filtering in schools is implemented by the technical staff, who invariably respond to requests from teachers. Most teachers are primarily impacted by distracted learners, those using online games, social networking etc. My experience is that inappropriate content is encountered less in the classroom than on the unfiltered home computer.

One approach is a risk assessment for commonly used sites such as Flickr, Voicethread etc. This might allow the school to set its risk appetite in policy at governor / headteacher level. It is a difficult topic that needs an appopriate, proportionate and consistent approach ... and the wisdom of Solomon! It does however require a debate rather than decisions made according to the lowest risk appetite.

I also share the same beliefs as Miles regarding an individuals right to be their own person, and cannot understand why some schools feel the need to operate intrusive electronic surveillance and data monitoring / mining. I do see value in periodic sumaary reporting of achievements, but not dynamic reporting available the instant its loaded. We must allow a child or young person opportunities for reciprocal mediation with educators.

I am also a great supporter of Creative Common's and suggest school's need to address who owns copyright materials. If teachers create content in their own time for use in school, who owns it? The law is simple, its the teacher unless they assign rights. I would like to see this clarified, as many teachers take their resources with them when they leave or are uncomfortable with uploading them to learning platforms, at which point they seem to assimilated as school property.

All in all, I applaud Miles for taking on these big themes, but fear that schools may be '... too frightened to be enlightened'.

Bless this computer!

Since watching Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, I've often mused that gargantuan data-centres may be cathedrals where we get ever nearer to the meaning of (virtual) life (42 wasn't it?). The church of the blessed motherboard seems nearer with a vicar recently reported as adapting a medieval ceremony used to bless plows (and other farm tools). He brought it up to date by placing 2 laptops and 4 smartphones at the altar and getting the congregation to wave their's above their heads, then praying the following words:

"By your blessing, may these phones and computers, symbols of all the technology and communication in our daily lives, be a reminder to us that you are a God who communicates with us and who speaks by your Word."

"May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple, and our websites be accessible."

Thought for the day? ... Dawkins anyone?  Now if God has an email address and phone number we can nail this creationsim thing once and for all.

Tablets, slates and ultrathin ...

It seems that the impending Apple iSlate is re-igniting interest in Tablet's, (now called slates to disassociate them), but the best version I've seen isn't available yet, but is coming in 2012 and may only be available in developing countries. It is the XO3 from the one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) project, and can be found here. The ring in the corner is a wind-up mechanism which recharges the battery! So cool, so cheap, so where and when can I buy one???

Further pics can be seen by clicking HERE.

Kerboodle! ... the video

Top technology ... BETT 2010

I don't often get excited by classroom projectors and interactive whiteboards (IWB's), with new health and safety guidance that means they must be short-throw, the problems of height adjustment (especially with boom types) etc. they often seem to generate problems. There does however appear to be light (.. no, not a projector bulb) at the end of the tunnel with the new Epson interactive projectors in that they appear to be designed specifically for classrooms.

With interesting synchronicity, I was invited to Borden Grammar School in Sittingbourne for a demonstration (Twitter @ictcoverlessons) of the use of Nintendo Wii controllers as a low-cost IWB. Basically, the Wii controllers have bluetooth, and with a little ingenuity and an infra-red LED marker pen, you can create a great little IWB.Indeed @ictcoverlessons demonstrated at the BETT teachmeet on Friday as well. It seems that the Epson projector uses similar technology built in.

So, what you have is an Epson interactive projector that can be used on any light flat surface. Add to this the simple installation, superb colour, wireless, network connectivity, HD, wide-screen, built in sound system etc. It is pretty amazing and sets a new benchmark as a classroom projector, and with the bundled free IWB software (which can be downloaded and used on your other IWB's). This now means that you can install a traditional dry-wipe board that can be used for your multimedia as well ... or just set aside a piece of wall, and away you go!

NComputing showed an interesting product that uses virtual desktop technology to provide very low-cost workgroup computing. basically they take a pretty standard computer and install their software. This connects to their dedicated wall box, either via standard network cables, or USB, into which you plug a keyboard, mouse and monitor ... job done! Keyboards are cheap, monitors readily available etc. NComputing sell the complete set-up, or you can buy your own keyboards and monitors and just get the software and end-points from them.

The Content Grid brings the benefits of 3D worlds (Second Life etc.) safely to schools. Using OpenSIM as the core engine, schools can create 3D interactive worlds, complete with an underlying economy!.Schools are social centres for children and young people, and The Content Grid has amazing potential for extending education beyond physical constraints. A couple of uses immediately sprung to mind such as creating immersive worlds with pre-created 'sets' for those with physical disabilities to interact with, or even 14-19 education where students can keeop in touch with peers from other schools who external courses. The Content Grid have come up with a gem that addresses privacy issues and enables 3D worlds to be used in education.

For me, RM takes the prize for the best part of BETT with their Learning Spaces showcase. I had far too much fun and spent far too long 'playing' and learning; so much so that I had to go to BETT again on Saturday to catch up! Highlights for me (and there were many!) were the interactive underwater (immersive?) experience which is a projection cave. What is more amazing is the potential for this technology to be used to create settings for real-life artefacts, or for backdrops for performing arts. The Graffiti wall was great fun, especially since you can email your graffiti to your friends from the same wall! More practical was the ISIS 'mains-less' laptop power unit for use in open learning spaces. You just trundle it where you need it and charge it at the end of the day. It even fits with their ISIS furntiure! We had great fun treading on the musical stepping stones. saw green screen technology, robots, and most amazing ... MyTobii eye controlled computer!

BROMCOM seem to have grudgingly accepted the dominance of Capita Childrens Services with the creation of an excellent front-end to SIMS. Teacher's WebFolder brings SIMS, including registration, assessment etc. to a wide choice of devices! They have created a user-freindly and intuitive interfacefor SIMS, that can be used on iTouch, iPhone, and other devices (e.g smartphones) with a browser. It's SIMS how it should be, and excellent value. It's also secure, and is integrated with SIMS. This approach of abstracting SIMS data to a new presentation layer is a good one!Imagine being able to give your staff an iTouch each as their mainregister ... and because its consumer technology its comparatively cheap!

British Pathé? Great ... but can you get it to work?

After reading the 'Pathe Returns' blog post by a colleague, you may have tried to find out more whilst sat at your home computer and wondered why it doesn't seem to work. Well, British Pathe is a commercial organisation that (quite rightly) charges local authorities and broadband consortia a subscription. This means the resources are not freely available on the web.

I want to see these great quality educational resources being fully used by schools, and I can't help but note that its difficult to find out how its done, with information obscurely published across several web locations and without an easy guide. If you go to south east grid website you might be forgiven if you can't actually find the information; (its in the projects tab).

I thought it helpful to provide information on how you can access the resources, especially if your first attempts have drawn a blank because unwittingly you tried from a home broadband connection (assuming you found the British Pathe site!).

Its not obvious but you need to use a broadband connection provided by Kent 'Schools Broadband' to gain free access to the resources. The British Pathe web site automatically detects you are from a subscribing authority because of the source internet address, and Kent schools use a fixed range of addresses. This does mean however that you can't prepare lessons from home without registering and paying for your own account or accessing from within a suitable learning platform.

This also means you can't access Keith Harcourt's excellent 'starters for study' helpsheets. If you click the British Pathe Starters for Study helpsheet links on the South East Grid for Learning (SEGfL) website from outside of a school you will briefly see a 'NEN Connecting' badge flash in the bottom right hand corner before the page reverts to the main SEGfL home page (It has to be said that it unhelpfully doesn't tell you why the link isn't working ... but being excellent practitioners you'll intuitively guess what's happening of course).

A great suggestion is to add a desktop shortcut to teacher and learner network profiles, then you won't need all of the above! Trust me its worth it and these great resources will enrich your curriculum.

Oh, and a reminder that there are other great resources from the British Film Institute.(although the creative archive is no longer available despite the links)

Besa bash the BBC!

I find it hard to reconcile the recent press release from trade association the British Education Suppliers Association (BESA) with the BBC Trust Decision it refers to.

Parking the fact that BESA members benefitted from £500m per year through Curriculum Online and e-learning credits, they just don't seem able to let it go! BESA's take on the BBC Trust committee's report is a little mis-leading and its worth stating that the BBC Trust Committee found:

" ... no evidence to suggest that Bitesize and Learning Zone Broadband did not go through the correct approvals process at the time they were introduced."

" ... no evidence to suggest that, prior to 2007, the development of Bitesize and Learning Zone Broadband occurred without sufficient regulation."

They do conclude however that an impact assessment should have been carried out, a somewhat technical point.

I profoundly disagree with BESA's assertion that the BBC has no place in providing a free, universal entitlement to accessible high quality resources for all children. In my opinion this is at the heart of the BBC's public interest mandate. As a body that represents an industry that lives on public money, BESA must recognise that the way the public purse is spent is not its business and the tail shouldn't ever wag the dog. Playing shops by giving schools money in the hope they spend it on the right resources is innefficient, (Curriculum Online was not a success as is proved by the number of BESA's members product CD's we still find buried unistalled in drawers in school departments).

There is of course a legitimate debate to be had about the scope of the BBC's wider activities, but the organisation provides services that are highly valued by educators and recognised as cutting edge.

Capita CS v Bromcom? ... fighting talk!

I picked up a report in the Guardian last week that Bromcom PLC are crying foul at what it sees as Capita CS' domination of the schools Management Information System (MIS) market.

I remember that the Becta MIS and value for money report (PDF) in 2005 made a number of recommendations after concluding that a dominant supplier in any market is not a good idea. It didn't however take up all of the recommendations.

Bromcom's complaint to the Office of Fair Trading (PDF) centres on what it sees as the anti-competitive practices of Capita CS, claiming schools have overpaid by £75m over ten years. The Capita CS practices cited by Bromcom include costs escalating at above inflation and barriers to choice. The first of these is fairly easy to kick into touch as the scope of school MIS systems has increased considerably and (predictably) so has the cost needed to keep pace. Any supplier would have to address the significant changes to reporting requirements. Complaints about anti-competitive practices, including bundling may be more difficult to shrug off in light of the same issues leading Microsoft to being fined in the EU court for similar

SIMS has developed a school MIS ecosystem that has become embedded in school organisation. Its a bit like Apple and its iTunes / IPod where the solution works better when it works together . Like Apple, commentators suggest that interoperable standards are needed to ensure that competition works to keep the dominant supplier on its toes and bring forward fresh approaches. Unlike Apple, where anyone can creat applications, SIMS is arguably fairly closed to developers. Perhaps now is as good a time as any to re-consider the recommendations of the MIS Value for Money report? There is a huge cost to changing a mission critical system across schools, but care must be taken not to block new and innovative products from other suppliers. I think standards such as Services Interoperabilty Framework (SIF) might be considered a serious contender for allowing greater competition. the alternative is for SIMS to have an open Application Programming Interface (API).

A side-note is that Capita CS has been shortlisted (PDF) as ICT supplier of the year in the 2010 BETT Awards (PDF) for its SIMS product set.

Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) ... more information

My colleague Andy Morgan has put together a useful briefing on the new statutory duties contained in the Carbon Reduction Commitment and what it means for schools. I have blogged about this before, but recommend you view the document that went out with last weeks e-bulletin for up to date details.

Key Points

• Each April the council has to pay for carbon (estimated £1.4m for KCC)
  
• This may come back to KCC in October dependent on our position in a 'league table' of carbon reduction.
• All Schools except PFI's count as part of the KCC estate.
  
• Schools account for 56% of KCC's carbon emissions.

I am still trying to find out:

• If a school operates Extended Services, has community use or rents out sports pitches with flood-lighting, and this increases energy consumption, is this a successful school or one failing to meet carbon reduction targets?
• Will each school be recharged for its carbon emissions every April and get money back in October or will KCC manage this?

OPEN ... Amazon for schools?

OPEN (Online Procurement for Educational Needs) is a web portal, a 'marketplace for schools' where schools can compare and then purchase educational products from a range of suppliers. There is a useful YouTube demo video that explains how it works (if you can get YouTube through your school broadband connection!).

OPEN consists of five elements.

• Electronic marketplace
• Purchase-to-Pay transactions.
• Secure access to user information
• Portal for suppliers to upload their catalogues.
• Sales ordering system.

Apparently OPEN allows users to access local contracts and e-catalogues for goods and services as well as opening access to regional and national contracts which might provide better value for money than existing providers.

Anyone who shops online will find the system familiar, with online shopping cart and the ability to make comparisons etc. There is also the feature to directly link with your SIMS FMS. (It does however require you to go looking for your online transactions).

Should schools use OPEN? Well setting aside from the fact that (other than the video demo) its hard to find out what suppliers and products are in it, (and its not immediately obvious how you get an account), its hard to say.

There are a number of niggling questions that I'm sure someone will be able to answer:

• Does Kent Commercial Services support OPEN? - KCS has its own supplies catalogue, but I can't find any information as to whether it has plans to support OPEN. How do local suppliers get on to OPEN?
• The DCSF press release states that schools should contact their Local Authority OPEN contact - do we have one?
• How does this support schools in meeting stringent EU procurement regulations and KCC financial requirements. It seems all too easy for schools to assume they can purchase directly from a web screen comparison.

Too many cooks ... salami-slice anyone?

Following weeks of colleagues trying to get a single Home Access for Targeted Groups ADSL Internet connection working in the home of a needy family, I decided to go to the house and see what could be done (if only to apologise in person to the family concerned).

Armed with test gear and tools, I was shocked at the impact of the salami-slicing of service responsibilities. It results in a culture of passing the buck and avoiding ownership of the problem, resulting in delay, inefficiency and work avoidance on the part of the firms involved, but more importantly, frustration, confusion and delay for the customer. More effort seems to go into shifting blame, avoiding accepting any responsibility and getting the customer to do all of the work for you.

Scenario

• T*****i provides ADSL.service on existing BT line.
  
• Sy*****x operates helpdesk and is our service provider (who sub the ADSL to Sy*****x.
• To date, there have been numerous changes of router, each requiring one of my team to visit and assist the client, and various guesses as to the problem, yet little in the way of logical fault finding from our service provider. The method of fault finding is to keep changing parts until dizzy rather than accept there may be a root cause!
• BT adamant that the line is OK when tested from India (despite the fact that the pole has an A1024 notice on it that means there is a known fault).
• Having tested all internal systems and tried to access ADSL Internet at the BT master socket on a laptop and failed, its clearly towards the exchange. (Yes changed routers, filters etc.).
• BT line has a problem with noise (although unlikley to affect availability, more likely to cause slow Internet speed).
• I can't detect the ADSL carrier so its probably a fault in the exchange DSLAM or T*****i service.

So, BT are at last visiting this afternoon, S******x on Monday ... just need T*****i to join the party and we might get somewhere. Anyway if they can't solve it Monday, I will insist on a temporary 3G dongle until it's fixed!!

How do you explain all this to the poor client?? When firms agree to use each others services there need to be clear escalation processes and a willingness to work together. This is an example of how it must never be done, but alas I fear that this is the dominant model in a commercial age!

Latest Episode: BT engineer called and agreed line faulty - has replaced corroded terminations and master socket - carrier LED now on - need to check Internet availability. Its taken five weeks of BT avoiding doing anything before we got the line fixed - progress at last? let's hope so!!

Closing comment: BT line was the fault. If they had agreed to come out five weeks ago when asked, we would all have been saved a lot of work and grief. How can it be that the first call to BT five weeks ago was met by threats of £200 call-out charges that effectively meant no-one would take the risk? The BT engieer was great, but the BT process that got him there is pretty awful.

Hat's off also to Sy+++++x who sent a dedicated engineer who went beyond the call of duty today!