BYOD Update on Schemes

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It's been a relatively quite period with regards to our current scheme.  It's been unplugged but still continuing in some way with previous years.


So what's the positives recently?

• A lot less insurance claims with less accidents and non accidental damages.
• More reliability on the higher end devices.
• New process in place for chasing (SLT/Teachers involved)
• Classes improved and more Students aware on how to use devices.

Sadly the above I have to say all came too late due to lack of knowledge and understanding that IT devices still need a lot of time and money from the School.


Unfortunately the negative continues:

• Usage has dropped due to full amount of classes rare with all devices (even worse with cancellations)
• Teachers lost faith in the scheme
• Parent frustration has increased
• Parents have pulled out leaving financially liable
• Parents unhappy over damaged cases cost to replace
• Replacements and repair times increased
• Part replacements has increased in difficulty plus price increases
• Same cost device replacements becoming harder to find.
• Websites still not updated to all major browsers - We're still recommending installing Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome to cover every website.
• Websites still using old versions of flash/java/shockwave causing problems

As you can see there is still major issues even though we've run the schemes for many years.  There's still implications that exist that staff at other Schools simply do not realise.


The additional change has really been around "opened eyes" where SLT in particular have become much more aware of what is happening every day.  This isn't just surrounding our hours but the problems faced by teachers.  As mentioned in other blogs and posts, the job of IT is to make it easier for everyone involved.  It's not about being a mission to get "working" and certainly shouldn't be holding back Teaching and Learning in any single way.  There's many reasons why education is struggling and being scrutinised a lot lately and one of them is - Schools are far too quick to take risks in teaching.  This reflects upon Ofsted and results.


Schools need to stop taking risks and focus more on what education is about - Teaching and Learning.  Students will go off to College and Universities to pick up specific skill sets, Schools are not about that - they are about providing the grades to progress.  Young people do not need to know much about IT to proceed in life (anyone who says otherwise, are pretty clueless outside of their profession).  I my self didn't choose IT in School yet a big portion of my career is IT.


The more teachers that are deluded, the bigger education will continue to falter and not be good enough not for 21st Century technology but 21st Century learning.  Considering how many of those teachers criticise the Government for making changes.. it's setting a double standard...