"INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) - WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN CHOOSING A SCHOOL"
by Bill Tagg
You have made a short list of the schools you and your son or daughter would like to consider and have taken into account what you can afford, whether it is to be single sex or co-ed, locality and religious denomination but to arrive at your final decision, there are a number of other factors and an important one these days is the quality of Information Technology at the school - practice and provision. What should you be looking for?
Hardware
Of course, when you go round the school, you will look to see how many PCs are around, whether they seem to be well used and if you know anything about IT, what kind of computers they are. In general, there are three different kinds of computers (different platforms) you can expect to find: Acorn - the Archimedes series, the Apple Macintosh and the IBM compatible PC. All have the potential of offering quality support to education so it does not matter too much which the school is standardising on unless you are seeking compatibility with your own equipment. More important is the age of the machines because all schools find it very difficult to keep their hardware up-to-date. Undoubtedly there will be machines in the school that are more than three years old and some more than five years old but you would be hoping to find a good proportion that had been bought more recently and therefore capable of running more powerful modern software. You will need to ask about that and at the same time you could ask if the school had a replacement policy (unlikely).
CD-Roms
Not all the machines will be capable of supporting a CD-Rom but the extra cost of providing a CD-Rom drive on a new machine is not high. Computers in the library will need to be so equipped and there will need to be a good supply of CD-Roms available too. Some, like this one provide data (text, diagrams, photographs, sound and possibly moving pictures) which is structured rather like a catalogue, a dictionary or encyclopaedia but with much better search facilities. Although the data they contain costs as much to collect as it does for print, the medium costs - the discs themselves are much cheaper which gives them greater appeal. Discs of this type provide very valuable reference material.
Another category which has wide curriculum application is the reprints of daily newspapers. All that has been said in the Times during the last year provides first class evidence in a range of subjects and again it is the opportunity to search for anything (not just what the compilers thought might be appropriate) which gives this resource its power.
Some CD-Roms are structured to teach as opposed to just being a resource for learning and the best of these, in the hands of good teachers enrich the curriculum in a host of ways.
The Internet
The school will probably have access to the Internet and if you are an Internet user, you will be able to look at the school's web pages and judge the quality for yourself. The school should provide access to the Internet for at least some of the pupils but perhaps only for older children and telephone costs might be a factor which reduces access. Possibly Internet will only be available under supervision, or via an Internet provider who accepts some responsibility for ensuring that unsuitable material is locked out. However, it is difficult for any school or any provider to guarantee one hundred percent security - especially for those children who rise to the challenge of breaking through any security system.
IT management
In a bigger school, you can expect most of the computers to be linked together to form a local area network. This will make the computers easier to manage centrally and will provide cost savings - particularly for software. Ask about back-up. Are children expected to back up their own work to make sure it is not lost by accident or because of machine failure or does the school undertake to back-up the whole system on a regular basis (e.g. twice a week). Clearly, reliable back-up becomes especially important when children are developing work for assessment as part of a public examination.
Schools are particularly vulnerable to computer viruses. At best these are a nuisance which demand time and effort to contain them and at worst can disrupt the whole network and result in the loss of important data. If the school is running its own school administration on the same (or a linked) network (not recommended), it will be particularly nervous about computer viruses and may feel obliged to restrict access to the network via pupils' own floppy disks for fear of contamination.
The Curriculum
It is not sufficient for pupils to learn about IT, they have to be taught to use it as well. This involves commitment from all the staff including senior management who must provide more than lip service. It is difficult to judge the extent of the school's dedication to IT across the whole curriculum during a visit but there are signs to look for and there are questions you can ask. To start with, some schools will show you their computer room with pride, but what about computers in the library, the laboratories, the Art room and in the English classrooms? Does the school have an automatic weather station and are there displays of children's use of computers in Maths for example? Does the school desktop publish its own newspaper occasionally or perhaps even regularly? Is there evidence that references have been looked for on CD-Rom or the Internet as well as from books in the library?
Integrated learning systems
Such systems are only mentioned hear because they are relatively new (and expensive) and because a school which has invested in one is almost certain to mention it in its publicity. ILS as its name implies is a complete learning system but only for a restricted part of the curriculum. It has been quite widely developed in the States and has sometimes achieved significant learning gains in elementary mathematics. However, it is still experimental and you should receive the claims made for it with caution (reference 2).
Staff expertise
Staff expertise is related to all these aspects of IT and is even more difficult to judge on a single visit but it is worth noting staff enthusiasm or conversely guarded or defensive replies to IT related questions. Certainly, staff expertise does not come cheaply. IT related course for teachers are expensive and it is time consuming to learn on the job. Additionally, teachers have to work hard at exploiting the technology in relation to their particular curricular expertise, it is not just a matter of being technically competent.
Using your own computer
These days it is often appropriate for children to have their own computer. Children who are already using a computer for school work will want to go on using it at their new school. They will expect to be allowed to use a computer for their prep and if they are residential they may find it more convenient to use their own machine - in the evening perhaps when the school network may not be available. Children with dyslexia or other learning difficulties may find that the use of a computer transforms their literacy skills. Some schools will encourage children to use their own equipment (whilst not accepting any responsibility for it) and might even supply dedicated printers for children to use with their own computers. On the other hand, there may be problems associated with transferring data from a child's computer onto the school network - the school can be justified in taking precautions to avoid virus infection but the school may still be helpful.
The school software is controlled by licensing agreements with the suppliers and in most cases is not available to be freely copied onto the child's own machine. If the child uses a different word processor on his or her own machine, there may be compatibility problems. These are usually quickly overcome but is the school willing to help? Alternatively has it come to an arrangement with the software suppliers so that copies of the software used at school are available for purchase at a discount?
It would take too long to advise on what sort of computer to buy, but it is worth asking the school. They may have negotiated discounts or they may be in a better position to be helpful if your son or daughter is equipped with a particular model. In the absence of other advice, give higher priority to robustness, portability and battery length rather than to top performance.
Finally
The use of IT in education is developing very rapidly. This inevitably means that even the best schools are unlikely to be able to exploit all these developments to the full at the moment. What matters is that they have a properly thought out policy so that they know where they are going and they have counted the cost in terms of effort as well as hardware.
Bibliography
1. Bill Tagg - editor (1995), 'Developing a whole school IT policy', Pitman Publishing, London
2. (1996), 'Integrated Learning Systems - phase II evaluation', National Council for Education, Coventry
3. (1995), 'National Objectives for IT in Schools', National Association of Advisers for Computers in Education, PO Box 5101, Warley B69 4PB
About the author
Bill Tagg has worked with computers in education for over thirty years. He served on the SCAA IT working group when the National Curriculum was revised in 1994. After many years as a local authority adviser, he now works as a consultant and is the Honorary Secretary of the Society for Education Consultants, a searchable directory of which is available on this CD-Rom.
