"What are you hopes for the future of ICT in NI schools?"
A very popular topic this week which arose out of this announcement made at BETT last week.
The contract awarded to Northgate to deliver ENNI (education Network Northern Ireland) will see a shift in emphasis from hardware to cloud services.
The proposed service will involve My School portal which will require a single login to access a range of services including such things as school folders and a VLE . As this is cloud based it can be accessed from anywhere.
Schools will have flexibility in terms of devices. Students will be able to connect to the network via any browser therefore smartphones, laptops, tablet PCs, ipads etc will all be able to access the managed service. This was warmly welcomed although there was some discussion around equality of access and what provision if any would be made for schools in areas of high deprivation.
The issue of teacher training was also addressed. There was some agreement that the cascade training model was probably not very effective. ICT specialist and enthusiasts were sent on training courses but met resistance when they returned to school. Other approaches were mention and the example of online training shown by #edtechcc was given as a possible example of how things could be done.
Key messages from the discussion
The contract awarded to Northgate to deliver ENNI (education Network Northern Ireland) will see a shift in emphasis from hardware to cloud services.
The proposed service will involve My School portal which will require a single login to access a range of services including such things as school folders and a VLE . As this is cloud based it can be accessed from anywhere.
Schools will have flexibility in terms of devices. Students will be able to connect to the network via any browser therefore smartphones, laptops, tablet PCs, ipads etc will all be able to access the managed service. This was warmly welcomed although there was some discussion around equality of access and what provision if any would be made for schools in areas of high deprivation.
The issue of teacher training was also addressed. There was some agreement that the cascade training model was probably not very effective. ICT specialist and enthusiasts were sent on training courses but met resistance when they returned to school. Other approaches were mention and the example of online training shown by #edtechcc was given as a possible example of how things could be done.
Some concerns were raised over how schools in areas of disadvantage would compete with schools where all children could bring a mobile device to school.
On the whole this was a very positive night on #NIedchat and there was a definite vibe that we could be on the cusp of something really big.
I'm excited to hear/read ENNI's vision for ICT in NI Schools in the next few years. @dmurray742
Well it's nice to hear that the use of smart phones will be allowed in a protected environment! @stiofanoc
Are there equality issues re access? Not all kids have smart phones. @dmchugh675
How ready are teachers to embrace change in their ICT? what would make the transition easier? @not_out_97
I think many teachrs feel o'whelmed by tech & think they need 2 B doing everything, I sugg starting small & evaluate benefit 2 T&L @medv2
Can I move conversation back to mobile devices? Why r we focusing on kit in classrooms when kids have powerful tech in pockets? @dmurray742
Schls will access a range of apps and educational resources through N'gates My-School learning portal." Anyone experienced this? @dmchugh675
Portal will be personalised "way in" to pretty much everything - from MIS
to Apps; datastore to VLE @not_out_97
That's were we need to be investing money! Better wifi - more bandwith. Let the kids bring the tech to the room. @dmurray742
Much has been learned from the past & much of past 10yrs was necessary to get everyone up to a level... @not_out_97
New service will be browser agnostic @not_out_97
Daithi Murray wins TOTW for this contribution but to be honest he could have won it for any one of ten posts in the chat.
The man’s a machine!
“Why are we focusing on kit in classrooms when kids have powerful tech in their pockets?”
Jargon of the Week
On the whole this was a very positive night on #NIedchat and there was a definite vibe that we could be on the cusp of something really big.
Selected Tweets
I'm excited to hear/read ENNI's vision for ICT in NI Schools in the next few years. @dmurray742
Well it's nice to hear that the use of smart phones will be allowed in a protected environment! @stiofanoc
Are there equality issues re access? Not all kids have smart phones. @dmchugh675
How ready are teachers to embrace change in their ICT? what would make the transition easier? @not_out_97
I think many teachrs feel o'whelmed by tech & think they need 2 B doing everything, I sugg starting small & evaluate benefit 2 T&L @medv2
Can I move conversation back to mobile devices? Why r we focusing on kit in classrooms when kids have powerful tech in pockets? @dmurray742
Schls will access a range of apps and educational resources through N'gates My-School learning portal." Anyone experienced this? @dmchugh675
Portal will be personalised "way in" to pretty much everything - from MIS
to Apps; datastore to VLE @not_out_97
That's were we need to be investing money! Better wifi - more bandwith. Let the kids bring the tech to the room. @dmurray742
Much has been learned from the past & much of past 10yrs was necessary to get everyone up to a level... @not_out_97
New service will be browser agnostic @not_out_97
Tweet of the Week
Daithi Murray wins TOTW for this contribution but to be honest he could have won it for any one of ten posts in the chat.
The man’s a machine!
“Why are we focusing on kit in classrooms when kids have powerful tech in their pockets?”
Jargon of the Week
"Browser Agnostic" via
@not_out_97
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