Technology in Schools - The full costs

Lately I've seen quite a lot of posts pushing for new technology in Schools, so I thought it was time to scratch on the real truth and the bigger picture.


CPD/Performance Management
Which ever term you use the above with it will be for teachers and support staff - it all means the same.  Proving you are moving forward in knowledge and deserve the pay rise/promotion.


This part - I don't agree with, as a result of this I've seen a lot of new technology purchased because it improved these 'terms' instead of improving the focus of every school - "Teaching and Learning".  CPD/Performance Management should take a second step to this but also - budgets - as a result of Government squeezing.


How much money gets wasted? - I've created a posts regarding these.


New Tech - You must consider:

• The full cost
• Maintenance
• Support
• Fit for Purpose

Education has a habit of ONLY focusing on the "I want now" and forget about long term costs.
The full cost (all the above considerations) - Like it or not technology isn't free.


What technology examples:

• Projectors
• Computers
• IWBs
• Servers
• Networking/Wi-Fi
• Cabling

Now all the above will not last forever, majority of IT is given a 5 year life span which means replacements/parts.


Projectors
An average classroom projector can cost £350-£400 a time, when you have 100 classrooms in a standard secondary school with a projector this means even £3500-£4000 will not cover the School.
What cuts down its life?

• Hot classrooms
• Being left on when not used
• No maintenance

Projectors should be cleaned every 6 months, some Schools have a habit of not doing it at all - we have only recently starting doing this with a 12 month turn around.


Maintenance - Average life cycle can be 5 years heavy usage - meaning the full expenditure per projector in a 10 year period can be £1000 if you include a bulb or two.


Support - Like it or not, every little job, every little piece of equipment adds up the hours required to keep it going.  A projector bulb change can take anything from a few minutes to half an hour depending on location.  Then you add the time to install it (mount replacement?) and the total amount of time including any teacher issues can build up - 3 hours in a 10 year period - that's per projector.


Future development
Bulbless projectors have been popping up for some time but only recently became a decent price.  Except if you are like us you want a decent illumines which means even on a bright sunny day or badly laid out light positions can allow the class to still use it effectively.


All the above, costs time and money.  Are these ever factored in to "new tech" ideas by teaching staff? course not.  They don't see the whole big picture.


Computers
This is the most used technology in a classroom (albeit some Schools opt down other routes with tablets/laptops). They require the least amount of maintenance if setup correctly, require the least amount of repair time and costs. This also requires simple IT Support which can be performed by “ex Students” which Schools have a habit of employing.


A lot of Schools make the mistakes (this includes some IT Staff) of purchasing a PC that costs £400+ now this is a problem I can – don’t do brand name or high specs. A teacher/student won’t use anything big outside of film, music and art. Generally I find it quite poor to spend a lot of money on an IT Suite when you don’t need to (I’ve covered this in other posts). £400 x 30 is £12,000. When some Schools still quote £500+ you are talking about £15,000. I even met someone that quoted equipment that reached almost £20,000. These machines were not going to be used other than day to day stuff. I’ve purchased branded and non-branded – the life of the equipment is no different.


If you shop around you can find a full IT Suite for under £8,000.
Those PCs will do registers, word files, spreadsheets and Interactive Whiteboard software. Generally that is it.


They work, the 1st part failure will tend to be a PSU (£30) or the SSD (£35) and replacement of those parts is a 2 minute job with a new image taking it to an hour. Trainee technicians can perform this task with no difficulty, in fact Students in Year 10 can perform this relatively easy. With SSDs/imaging there is a good chance the life of the equipment can last 7 Years perhaps even more (current specs can handle Windows 10).


Believe it or not PCs actually require minimal support time, even if you had 1000 machines. The biggest problem is coping with constant mice/keyboard damages where Teachers are not supervising classrooms well enough.


Problem with PCs > it doesn't look new even when it is.  It doesn't look very "gadget" or "up to date" like a tablet will but it will be productive.


The Not very New Technology but it has to exist


Servers, Networking and the Wi-Fi
Most people have zero clue about the costs involved in all of this, nor the knowledge. In Teaching terms the knowledge required in managing these is similar to a Deputy Head.
All Staff want it now, fast, accessible and fully customisable – which is why Schools still have Microsoft Vanilla Networks (Windows). It’s generally compatible with most things, software, gadgets and links to external sources.
The required time to setup all of this is incredible which is why systems develop over years instead of months. The costs are very high due to Cloud systems still not providing all the facilities needed nor functions. I won’t go into o detail on this section but it’s standard that one person on site knows the ins/outs of this setup.


Similar to PCs all of this is not very "new" and although everywhere pretty much has Wi-Fi generally it is very expensive to cover site wide access.


Cabling
Every time a teacher decides they want their desk moved, they don’t consider the electric points nor networking. Each reliance on an extension cable adapter is another fault tolerance to deal with (plus more strain on a localised socket). Cabling in Schools generally is very poor because everyone wants their own equipment and their personal fridges, kettles and microwaves. I once had to really string up a staff member who had 6 yes 6 adapters plugged in to one another and wondered why her equipment had blown.
Your PC will plug in to a wall socket, that wall socket will go to a patch panel which connects to a switch. That switch will connect up to other switches.
Each switch socket = 1 PC or 1 Phone or 1 Printer.  So all that equipment will require switches which generally come with 48 ports available.  This section is usually minimal maintenance time but the setting up/installing can take hours > days > weeks.


So as you can see it's quite the minefield.  Remember that.