Is ICT integration proving harder than you thought?
We can help.
ICTPD.NET provides online resources and professional development to support the successful integration of ICT in learning. We can also help you with the development of a learning portal, online courses for teachers, students and professional groups and planning for ICT integration.
Home Page - Information Leaflet - email bj @ ictpd.net
How to Do I.T. -1990
(but still useful)
A beginner's guide to policy and
planning for Information Technology
in educational institutions.
ELEVEN practical hints based on 13 years of often painful and sometimes bitter experience at the silicon chalk face.
This humorous (but ultimately very serious) presentation is based on a session that was originally developed in 1990 to aid staff in High Schools and was presented and well received at 2 Australian conferences and one in the U.K. It's a bit old now but still worth a read. If you find it useful, a more serious approach can be found in the ICT Integration Guidebook
This guide assumes that you are charged with the responsibility for IT coordination in a school and for staff development both for their personal use and to improve the learning of students.
It also assumes that you are overworked, under resourced and totally bewildered by the increasing expectations facing you.
The Short Guide
- Perform a needs analysis for YOUR school not someone else's
- Identify strengths and weaknesses in YOUR school, not mine
- Plan three years ahead and you might get there. Don't and you won't
- Prioritise your goals and attach them to a timeline
- Go with the flow. Floating downstream beats swimming upstream
- Learn to say no! Often.
- Strike a balance between needs, expectations and resources
- Stop feeling guilty - its not your fault
- Avoid bigotry and prejudice - life's too short
- Forget about money - that comes last not first
- Be prepared to resign.
The Long Guide
Perform a needs analysis for YOUR school not someone else's
It is crucial that your policy reflects the needs of your school not some other school and that it is not some generic policy that is good for all schools.
The needs of an academic school with high tertiary entrance expectations will not be the same as the needs of a school in a poor socio-economic area with a serious literacy and self-esteem problem. Your priorities for the use of IT around the school should reflect your school's needs.
You will get more support from the school community if your needs and goals are harmonious.
Your needs analysis and your subsequent policy development should include the whole school community:
Administration
Clerical
Departmental administration
Teachers personal preparation and record keeping
Computer Studies and Business Studies
Curriculum applications
Document production
The wider community
A needs analysis might make use of the following strategies:
Questionnaires
Meetings
Discussions
Workshops
Seminars
Guest Speakers
Exhibitions
Demonstrations
Informal contacts
Behind the scenes manoeuvering!
Produce some facts, percentages and figures. It makes it harder for anyone to oppose you.
Make the Inertia Principle work for YOU! (see Monkey on the Shoulder)
Identify strengths and weaknesses in YOUR school not mine
Every school has its strengths and weaknesses and you may well be unaware of many of them. We are often more aware of our weaknesses than our strengths.
Categorise strengths and weaknesses under headings such as:
Human resources: teacher; parent;
student; community
Hardware
Software
Locations
Special projects in the school
Your policy should aim to build upon your strengths and rectify your weaknesses, but not all at once. Possibly some of your weaknesses could be ignored initially as rectifying them may be too difficult.
The strategies outlined for performing a needs analysis will usually help in identifying your strengths and weaknesses
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Plan
three years ahead and you might get there.
Don't and you won't
"It took me five years to realise that it wasn't all going to happen this year.
Once I realised that it was going to take at least five years, it all started to happen very quickly." (Ancient Zen proverb)
Make the Inertia Principle work for YOU!
Prioritise your goals and attach them to a timeline
Identify short term goals where you have:
Some clearly defined need;
some strengths to build on;
some chance of quick success
an obvious benefit to some part of the school community,
(preferably the teachers)
You need some successes in the early stages, people like to be part of a winning team.
A high quality document production system for teachers together with adequate support and training could be an appropriate short term goal.
(But only if it fits YOUR school)
Identify and prioritise longer term goals
Have specific ones for each year
Set realistic, achievable goals
Quantify your goals
Be modest in your goals
e.g. 5% of teachers using a word processor by
1995
Don't try to do everything at once - significant measurable progress in one area is much more rewarding than imperceptible progress along a 1000 km front.
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Go with the
flow.
Floating downstream beats swimming upstream
If the Manual Arts teachers have all got a computer at home, are dying to learn CAD and have $5000 saved up to buy a computer system but want a bit of help getting started
and
The twelve English teachers would rather slash their wrists than touch a computer keyboard:
Who will you make a short term priority in your policy?
Think carefully before answering!
Often.
Practise the following responses until they become automatic:
"I'm sorry that isn't one of our priorities for this year. Come back in 1995"
"We don't have the resources to move into that area at the moment perhaps you would like to write a special submission to the Finance Committee for it."
"The school development plan does not see that as important so I'm not given time to deal with it"
"That's an interesting proposal,
perhaps you'd like to consider it more carefully and submit
it in writing to the School Development Committee."
(The Monkey
on Your Shoulder Principle)
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Strike a
balance between Needs, Expectations and
Resources
It can lend a lot of momentum to your policy implementation if you can get two (senior) teachers to fight in the staff room about who gets to use the school's only computer.
It is very difficult for the Finance Committee to then argue that there are already plenty of computers in the school.
Don't you be the one to organise to put a computer in each staff office,
because you'll get the blame if no one uses them.
But by all means make yourself available to any department that needs help in writing a submission to the Finance Committee for a computer for their office
because then it is their fault if they don't use it.
Even better if they are prepared to pay 50% of the cost because then they will feel really bad if it doesn't get used.
Stop feeling guilty - its not (entirely) your fault
There are monumental forces ranged against you:
Apathy
Ignorance
and
Fear of the Unknown!
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Avoid
bigotry and prejudice - life's too short
The aim of your policy is not to become a Mac school or a DOS school but to become a good school (or a Better School)!
There are horses for courses.
Variety is the spice of life
and remember
Go with the Flow (but not too much - you might be better informed and more intelligent than everybody else)
Uniformity of hardware and software across a school is NOT a "GOOD THING". It all goes out of date on the same day!
Much better that we have:
delivered on a multi vendor hardware platform
with a high level of connectivity!!"
That way people learn a lot!
Money comes last not first
People often think that there is no point going through the steps above because they will never get the money anyhow
But the truth is:
They will never get the money because they didn't go through the steps above.
People will give you money (lots of it) if you have a sound educational programme which you cannot implement because you do not have the resources.
They will not give you money because you have a big shopping list, want to buy lots of things and are not sure what you are going to do with the things when you get them. (which you won't anyhow because they won't give you the money!)
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Be prepared to
resign.
If you have followed all the hints and tips in this guide and you are still getting nowhere then you might as well think positive and resign.
Remember:
Go with the Flow!!!!
and
Stop feeling Guilty!!!!
There are some good jobs out there!
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Is ICT integration proving harder than you thought?
We can help.
ICTPD.NET provides online resources and professional development to support the successful integration of ICT in learning. We can also help you with the development of a learning portal, online courses for teachers, students and professional groups and planning for ICT integration.
Home Page - Information Leaflet - email bj @ ictpd.net