It’s time education slowed down and became consistent once
more. The last time education had the
least amount of problems, high staff happiness and generally things ‘prodding
alone well’ was when we had consistency.
General current issues:
- Fear of being critical of education from within
- Self-ambition and opportunism is more important
- Teachers only knowing education and nothing more
- Getting younger and younger – University fresh
The above could be good or bad but I am going to rate them
as issues.
Fear Factor
This is an issue being raised by quite a few tweeters. There is a general fear of criticising
education in general or certain types of schools/people but why is there? Why
should some be afraid to say something bad just to get their job hanging over
their head – it’s disgusting. It creates
a deluded culture among staff in schools that we can’t make mistakes and
everything is perfect. The fact of the
matter is behaviour, uniform and general problems exists in schools. So why is there such a grey area where
nothing can be said about schools? We do
it a lot to our own Government. We
criticise politicians all day and every day – even the Education Secretary who
we all effectively work for.
Ambition
I’m often seeing people who want to move up the chain as
quickly as possible. This creates a culture
of those who in all honesty – kiss ass.
They may not be good at the job, they talk the jibba jabba and may not
even be qualified. I once witnessed
someone become a Head Teacher in a Trust that had no experience in being a Head
Teacher but because she was in a circle – she got the job. This job was not advertised externally or
internally but because this person spoke the right way to the Head of that
circle.. the job was given.
Teachers
I’ve known so many teachers over the years and many of them
over a certain age of 40+ had previous experience of all kind of jobs. You name it – I’ve probably known them. They were: ex-military, police, doctors,
fireman, miners, business owners, engineers and so forth. Now the majority of them even those in their
late 30s have all lived one life – University > teaching. They’ve not gained experience in other jobs.
And to top it off the teachers are getting younger. We’re now seeing them not much older than
sixth formers which creates less respect for the position and also a more
‘friend’ culture among the kids.
Students are not your friends they are learners.
Now the IT
There’s no consistency between schools and nor is there in a
trust let alone one year 7 leading to the Year 11s. I’ve often spoken to students through the
years and asked them if there’s a consistency – no it changes all the time. An opinion that is echoed from the
staff. All those sales reps I talk about
play a part in this – promising the world but never give you the whole story.
Education: Salespersons, Seminar providers and
Trainers. Check out the link if you want
to know more.
The kids need consistency and so do the adults. A system that changes the least while still
providing the usual updates is the system that works. It becomes reliable, with the least amount of
problems and it creates a consistent approach from staff which translates down
to the children. They may not love it,
they may not like it but it means you can’t blame grades or performance levels
on IT.
We seriously need to consider aiming for a consistency. When you purchase a device stop looking for WHAT
you can do with it but instead KNOW what you plan to do with it before
you purchase it. This is the common
mistake. You also need to think can it
make your life easier, can it cut costs and provide a better school
environment.
I’m a member of multiple forums and follow a lot of staff in
education. You kind of get a pattern
that people don’t like IT. Do you
realise that the majority of decisions are not made by us? They’re made by the Deputy Head and Head
Teacher – often against the advice of IT.
I always say test, practise and trial with any purchase of
software. I often tell people to ask
teachers what they think. With upgrades
to Windows 10 I know our choices are little – Apple, Linux (Free), Google
(Free) or Windows. I may not like moving
to Windows 10 but I know we’ve got little choice.
So how can we keep it consistent? Stick to the basics which
I’ve covered in other posts:
Post about Costs of ‘Free of IT’ – A useful post to see what
you should have with IT
Bit more about that post:
Bit more about Education needing to open it’s eyes:
Some costs regarding IT
The University Model
For anyone that’s been to Uni or spent time there it’s
interesting to see how things have changed.
Universities stick to what works with lectures and assignments with one
major difference. A lot of these
materials are accessible online through a simple portal. This portal gives access to class
assignments, materials and email. Some
portals even provide access to software.
None of this is innovation in 2017, none of it is creativity
or about interaction with students. It’s
all about providing them with 24/7 access to everything they need to complete
their work. So why are schools not
focusing on this? Instead they spend tens of thousands on ‘pretty’ ideas that
offer no learning benefit. What’s the
learning benefit of having 24/7 communication with the tutor? Or the ability to
email them throughout the day? What’s the benefit to learning when students can
access their entire course and assignments online anywhere in the world?
It’s all simple and basic but all about one thing – Making
things easier for learning. Then again
in schools you have more younger teachers who want to get that promotion or pay
rise which goes back to my previous statements of ambition.
Universities have to cut costs and stick to what works. Not go down the route of being fancy it’s
also another reason why laptops/PCs are still being sold because students will
tend to buy productivity for their work over an expensive Apple Mac or cheap
tablet.
Stick to the basics.
