ICT Sept 2011

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The latest updates and developments in school technology

soft The

approach Why choosing the right software can make or break your school

update 54 ›› ict news The latest updates and developments in school technology

IN PRACTICE 58 ›› Room for interpretation Hinchley Wood School uses data to improve attainment

FOCUS ON 62 ›› The soft approach Why choosing the right software can make or break your school

HELP DESK 66 ›› Techno Geek When to pay for software and when to get it for free

Shar with e me IT m your anag er

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ICT NEWS & ANALYSIS NEW GUIDE HELPS SCHOOLS WITH LEASING AGREEMENTS A new guide has been launched by a collaboration of education groups to help schools get the most from leasing contracts A new guide by the National Association of School Business Management (NASBM), the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) and the Department for Education has been published to help schools avoid the potential pitfalls of leasing agreements and making costly mistakes.

William Simmonds, chief executive of NASBM, which supports the training, qualification and professional regulation of school business managers, said: “The association [has] received many requests for assistance from schools who have been coerced by equipment suppliers into taking out new leasing agreements that were either not fit for purpose or rolled the previous outstanding value on the current lease into the new agreement.”

NEWS BYTE SCHOOLS WARNED AGAINST CUTTING CORNERS ON INTERNET SECURITY The adoption of sub-standard approaches to the internet in schools, as a result of cost-cutting, will negatively impact the users, Icomm Technologies warns. “With the current economic environment, establishments are now faced with some serious challenges of service provision,” commented technical manager Mark Allbutt. “Concern is emerging that security and quality of internet delivered services is under threat due to cost reduction.

This could be a major blow to furthering technology education and attainment.”

FAST FACT

AVOIDING COSTLY MISTAKES The new guide, ‘Tips for Successful Leasing in Schools’, gives schools a useful checklist to help them to avoid potential mistakes when entering into a lease agreement.

The issues schools currently face include not fully appreciating how to specify the terms of their agreements and not checking the terms and conditions or understanding that a previous balance would be rolled over and not written off. The guide was created to help schools identify the areas in the lease agreement to check and help combat these problems.

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TOP OF THE AGENDA Philip White, chair of the FLA’s working group on the guide and CEO of Syscap, commented: “Schools are facing a very tough budget balancing act at the moment, but they are determined that this should not affect pupils’ access to up-to-date technology to support their learning.

“This is putting financing methods, like leasing, at the top of schools’ agendas making this new guide particularly timely.”

Simmonds added: “We are pleased to have been able to develop a useful guide in response to our members’ queries and also hope that this guide will provide great assistance to all schools entering into lease agreements across the country.”

It is available to download through the NASBM, FLA and DfE websites.

OF LOCAL AUTHORITY STAFF EXPECT ALL OR MOST NEW ACADEMIES TO KEEP USING THEIR IT SUPPORT TEAMS (Source: Capita Sims)

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TEACHERS VICTIMS OF CYBER-BULLYING Academic calls on schools to give staff more support and protection Teachers are the latest group found to be at risk of cyber-bullying, according to a recent report by Professor Andy Phippen that found several instances where teachers had been targeted for abuse by social media users on websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

One headteacher interviewed for the study said she had a breakdown and was left feeling suicidal after suffering a year of abuse by a parent at her school who used a Google group to post libellous untruths about her and her school.

“I eventually had a mini-breakdown in the summer holiday, needing an emergency doctor to be called out as I had become suicidal,” she told researchers.

GROWING ISSUE While cyber-bullying among children is a well-documented problem, Professor Phippen has uncovered alarming evidence that the trend is spreading to adults.

Researchers surveyed 377 professionals and analysed 35 helpline cases. Of those, 35% said that either they or their colleagues had been subjected to some form of online abuse, ranging from postings on Facebook to campaigns of abuse on Twitter.

Most of the abuse came from pupils, but in 26% of cases parents played a role. The researchers also uncovered cases where parents abused pupils online.

“Some parents view teachers as fair game for abuse,” Professor Phippen told the Western Morning News. “They use online technologies to hide behind while posting lies and abuse about their chosen victim.

“It seems that, to a subset of the population, the teacher is no longer viewed as someone who should be supported in developing their child’s education, but a person whom it is acceptable to abuse if they dislike what is happening in the classroom.”

Given the potential impact of this kind of abuse, Phippen calls on school leaders to take these matters seriously and have a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of their staff and said schools should not be afraid to involve the police.

Laura Higgins manages the Professionals Online Safety Helpline, which is set up to deal specifically with these issues and commissioned the research as part of the UK Safer Internet Centre. She commented on the EdExec.co.uk, saying: “While the statistics were not surprising, we feel this is just the tip of the iceberg.” The service is available for all professionals and volunteers who work with children and young people and can be contacted via helpline@saferinternet.org.uk, www.saferinternet.org. uk/helpline, or 0844 3814772.

PUPIL HACKS INTO SCHOOL’S DATA SYSTEM Sensitive information on 20,000 individuals linked to Hampshire school leaked online by pupil after teacher’s password is discovered The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has disciplined a school in Hampshire after an inadequate password policy allowed a pupil to hack into the management information system and leak the personal details of 20,000 people linked to the school, including pupils, staff and parents.

The incident happened in March at Bay House School and Sixth Form, an 11-18 mixed comprehensive school in Hampshire, when a pupil discovered that a member of staff had used the same password to access the school’s website and data management system.

Information on 7,500 pupils, including their names, addresses, photographs and medical history, was subsequently posted online, along with personal information on school staff and parents.

The school had advised staff to avoid the use of duplicate passwords; however, no checks were in place to make sure this policy was being followed.

The problem was identified shortly after the hack occurred and the security of the website was restored immediately afterwards. The school then reported the breach to the ICO on 17 March.

Sally Anne Poole, acting head of enforcement at the ICO, said: “While it can be difficult to remember lots of different

passwords, it is vitally important that individuals do not use the same password to login to data systems that are supposed to be kept secure.

“This is particularly important when the systems allow access to sensitive information relating to young adults.”

The headteacher of Bay House School has now signed an undertaking with the ICO to ensure that all reasonable measures are taken to encrypt and separate sensitive and confidential information held on the school’s management system.

The school’s website will also be regularly tested to ensure that the personal information they hold remains secure.

The ICO has produced guidance, titled ‘Protecting your personal information online’, on the use of passwords.

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School: Hinchley Wood School Type: Mixed 11-18 foundation school LA: Surrey Specialism: Music college Pupils: 1,158 SIMS system manager: Gill Pearson

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Room for interpretation At Hinchley Wood School in Surrey, teachers are using data to identify students who are falling behind in individual subjects and investigate whether there is a link to poor attendance or behaviour so they can act on this information and improve achievement. Julia Dennison speaks to SIMS system manager Gill Pearson to find out more

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ike most people who work behind the scenes in education, Gill Pearson wears a number of hats at Surrey’s Hinchley Wood School. On the one hand she looks after admissions, but it is her role looking after the school’s management information system (MIS) that is becoming an increasingly significant part of her job. As SIMS system manager, she is tasked with analysing and cross-referencing data from all corners of school life, “because,” Pearson adds, “everything is stored on the SIMS these days” – everything related to data and statistics, that is, from attendance to medical records, classroom participation to ethnicity and whether a pupil is on free school meals. “[Data analysis] started out as a small part of my job and it’s now become the largest part of my job,” she explains. “I’ve worked in the school now for 10 years, and to begin with, it was the sort of thing that was tagged on to the head’s PA-type-role.” While some schools have ICT specialists to look after their MIS, Pearson insists she’s not a “technical person”, rather someone who is good at interpreting the data the system produces. “It’s a very interesting role as it’s ever-changing,” she adds.

Pearson is on the senior management team at the school, which means she’s able to bring the capabilities of the database, as it evolves and gets better, to the table at their regular meetings and present the data to the school’s leaders to help them do their job better. “[Data] is extremely important,” says Pearson, “particularly as it is used to inform the school, parents and the government about what’s going on in the school across all levels.

We’re always looking at how we can use the data to improve teaching and learning.”

The admin staff at this mixed 11-18 foundation school work in teams and Pearson heads up the data and curriculum support team. To have a group of people focused entirely on interpreting the MIS may seem a luxury to some schools stretched for budget, but it’s becoming necessary for schools that wish to truly invest in interpreting data to the best of their ability – and this can pay dividends when it comes to improving education.

Room for improvement

Pearson relishes every update to the MIS Hinchley uses and a recent upgrade to the system has made it more user-friendly using a graphics-driven interface with a plug-and-play simplicity reminiscent of the iPad or iPhone, so it’s even easier for other members of staff, who are not necessarily experts in interpreting data, to use the system. This is ideal for teachers who Pearson says often “don’t want to learn another thing”.

“I’ve shown [the new system] to the headteacher and the senior leadership team and we are now discussing how we’re going to use it [to the best of its ability],” explains Pearson. “It doesn’t replace some of the other ways that we interrogate and analyse data, but it is going to be much more useful for the non-SIMS specialist – so for teachers themselves it’s a very easy way of looking at the groups of children. So instead of having me produce reports, because I know how to, they can actually go in and learn very quickly how to interrogate the data in a very easy, user-friendly way.”

In the right hands

This not only saves Pearson time, but gives heads of department and other frontline staff ownership over the information, since

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they’re working where it matters – with the children. “One of the problems in schools is you’ve got all this data and by the time you’ve extracted and analysed it, time goes on,” she explains. “At least the more accessible the data is to the people who make the difference – the teachers – the quicker they’re able to look at it and put [initiatives] in place.”

This also gives Pearson the time to focus on the behind-the-scenes task of making sure the school’s MIS is in good working order and interpreting the right kind of data tailored to the right people. For example, the head of year might be particularly interested in the pastoral side of education, so when children are starting to misbehave, they might look at how often they are late or absent to see if there’s a correlation between their bad behaviour and attendance and whether it’s affecting their performance in the classroom.

Using the MIS, Pearson also helps staff members create bespoke test groups, for example if a particular group of children are underperforming in, say, the autumn term, she can track their progress the next term to see if any intervention strategies put into place actually worked. “Using the data to inform us as the children go on has been quite useful to see where “One of the problems in schools is you’ve these children need help got all this data and by the time you’ve and if it has made a extracted and analysed it, time goes on. At difference, then when they’re back on track, we least the more accessible the data is to the can look at other people who make the difference – the children,” explains teachers – the quicker they’re able to look Pearson. “So if a child at it and put initiatives in place” has met their targets and is doing OK, rather than continuing to give them support, we can invest in giving it to another child who is slipping behind.”

The system can even dig deeper to look at certain teachers and whether their groups are performing better or worse than others. “That’s something that perhaps is not always looked at [in other schools],” comments Pearson. “When you’ve got new or young teachers in their first year of teaching, it helps make sure they are fully supported.”

The school also uses the system to automatically produce three reports a year for parents. “Where you’ve got a piece of data that is a figure, our MIS translates it into a comment,” explains Pearson. “So if a child is working three levels below their target it will appear as a figure in our database but will come out to the parents as a statement, so they don’t have to understand figures to understand the report.”

Indeed, the intelligent use of a data management system means a school like Hinchley Wood can make decisions based on hard evidence, rather than wasting time on finger-in-the-air interpretations. For Pearson, this makes all the difference: “As soon as the data comes in we are able to analyse it at the touch of a button.” In some ways it means a busier role for Pearson, but at least it’s a kind of busy that gets results.

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The

approach Choosing the right software can have a huge impact on the smooth operation of a school.

Matthew Jane considers how the right solution can bring benefits across the board

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he modern classroom is now awash with the latest hardware devices, with interactive whiteboards, projectors and other hardware ensuring lessons are engaging and pupils are given the best educational experience. While this equipment is certainly helping transform learning, any investment will mean nothing if the systems running them are not up to the job. Ensuring schools have the best software installed can bring benefits across the board, from easing the administrative burden on staff to helping monitor the academic progress of students.

Like putting lemonade in an Aston Martin, if the systems you invest in to run the machines are not fit for purpose, the performance of the equipment could be severely hampered.

Software solutions are one of the key areas for investment in many schools, as investment is channelled towards getting the most out of hardware, rather than investing in new equipment.

“Schools are investing heavily in technology, both in and out of the classroom, and it therefore makes sense that they would want to ensure they have the means to effectively manage this investment,” says Chris Lovesey from Net Support.

Within the scope of this investment is the demand for a wide range of solutions, from management information services (MIS) and learning platforms, through to entire managed services. Schools are realising the importance of good software and its potential to free up time and allow staff to focus their attentions on their core duties. “The right software will deliver information in a way that makes it easy to understand and relevant to the job,” says Graham Cooper from Capita SIMS. “For a teacher, this could mean revealing there is a developing problem with literacy in white working class boys from Year 5 onwards or highlight which Year 11 students are truanting. For a business manager it could be modelling the impact that an extra member of staff would have on school budgets. And for the timetabler, it may be the impact of a new music class on room availability.”

Having the correct software can have far-reaching benefits throughout a school. Cooper points to one school he worked with that saved 370 hours, or 10 weeks, of administration time

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by entering behaviour and achievement information directly into their MIS rather than using paper systems. “A school that introduced lesson-by-lesson attendance monitoring software reported that within two years, persistent absence had dropped from 7.4% to 4.9%,” he says.

Employing the correct software could also bring benefits in terms of IT asset management (ITAM), which is particularly prevalent as schools attempt to improve product efficiency and get greater returns from investments. “Without comprehensive ITAM processes in place, school leadership teams will not have the information to be able to make informed decisions about upgrades or the rollout of new technology,” says Lovesey. “The initial purchase price of ICT assets pales into insignificance when compared to the annual cost of supporting the IT infrastructure.”

One of the emerging trends in software provision is for hosted solutions that have the scope to deliver efficiencies at every level, from single schools through to federations. “The rise in the use of web 2.0 and cloud technologies is also widening collaboration opportunities, creating more effective communication between schools,” says Mohamad Djahanbakhsh from Serco Learning. “Time is money and hosted solutions can help to dramatically reduce staff time spent on managing applications. There is no local software to install, upgrades and back-ups are undertaken by data centre staff and servers are kept protected and up to date.”

MONITORING PROGRESS

Another area where appropriate software is having a positive impact for schools is tracking pupil progress. The solutions available allow users to analyse real-time data at the click of the button. “There is a rising demand from schools for online technologies that perform such functions and provide detailed analysis of assessment data to help teachers plan and prepare for lessons,” says Djahanbakhsh. “Next generation MIS and learning platforms convert raw pupil data into meaningful knowledge and push it back to a teacher’s computer screen at log-in, enabling teachers to focus on teaching and not the technology.”

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This software is becoming increasingly important for schools, especially in the light of recent policy that dictates schools must publish more data on pupil performance.

“Software can play a key role in enabling schools to produce reports on each child’s progress quickly and easily without adding significantly to teacher workload,” explains Chris Scarth from Prime Principle. This ease of data production can also help schools deal with pupil transition, whether between classes or year groups as it will allow staff to have a comprehensive picture of attainment straightaway.

Schools could also consider online profiling tools in order to analyse strengths and weaknesses as part of a strategy to engage students in learning. “Such technologies provide a complete toolkit to support teachers in a mixed learning environment, helping them to tailor lesson delivery and assist in preparing lesson plans to provide truly personalised learning to students,” says Mary Blake from ePace. “Understanding the learning profile of the whole class, with the facility to organise groups with similar skills accordingly, greatly enhances opportunities to teach effectively and also helps young people to become better independent learners.”

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“The right software will deliver information in a way that makes it easy to understand and relevant to the job. For a business manager it could be modelling the impact that an extra member of staff would have on school budgets”

With a host of software available to suit a wide range of educational and administrative needs, it is important to consider how the solution will be used in order to get the most out of any investment. “To achieve maximum return on investment for technologies, schools must work with suppliers to simplify the ways staff and students access solutions,” suggests Djahanbakhsh, who recommends the use of technology that allows for quality communication and collaboration, such as Microsoft Live@edu, which is a hosted e-mail solution that is available free of charge to schools.

As with any purchase, schools should consider the total cost of ownership of IT software investments. “Solutions may appeal purely because the upfront cost is affordable but look under the bonnet and you may find that they quickly become outdated or that for enhanced functionality you have to pay extra,” says Lovesey. “Clearly identify your requirements and be aware of what different solutions offer as standard, make sure there are no hidden costs.”

With software, one of the most important considerations is how often the package will be upgraded and whether this will form part of your initial investment. “Most software suppliers release regular updates as part of their software development programmes,” says Cooper. “Make sure that your supplier is committed to ongoing maintenance of the product that goes beyond support.

A software programme that is static will never last in the school environment, which is constantly changing and adapting.”

Choosing the right supplier that will be able to cater to a school’s individual needs is imperative to ensuring any software investment is successful. “Ideally schools should be able to rely on their suppliers to regularly enhance products and if the customer has taken out an annual maintenance agreement with the supplier, they will qualify for upgrades during the period of cover,” explains Lovesey. Most vendors will also be happy to provide services on a ‘try before you buy’ basis with a free trial to allow schools to rate the effectiveness and operability of software solutions.

Such is the range of products in the market that whatever challenge a school has, there should be a software solution available to fit the need. As companies invest more in research and development and constantly help pioneer new approaches, it seems the only limitation schools will have to worry about is the capability of the hardware and the funding for investments, and with the emergence of the cloud and an increasing range of cost-free options available, even these limitations may soon become a thing of the past.

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G follow edexec on Blogging www.edexec.co.uk/ technogeek Tweeting twitter.com/edexec Podcasting and news www.edexec.co.uk

Follow us on twitter.com/ edExec (@EdExec) for the latest news updates and insight into the issues that affect the role of the business manager

Free Software for Schools Vs Premium Techno Geek stands aside to let legal expert Chris Cook of SA Law guide you through how teachers should use social media

Its been a year since we began our exciting venture into the world of techno geekery, I have tried to bring you the inside track on all things online and for the classroom. This month we are looking at free software vs premium; do you need to invest in software or can you get away with getting it free?

First of all lets get our terminology right: Premium: or proprietary This is software you pay for, from a company. They sell you a number of licenses to run it on certain machines, think Microsoft.

Free: Or Open Source, usually developed by a community of programmers, for the benefit of people. Why do they do it? It can be for a range of reasons from not wanting to pay huge fees for premium and being alturisitic.

Freemium: This software that’s initially free, sometimes supported by advertising, and then you can buy premium services from them. This is a model used by mobile phone applications So we know our options, what are the Pros and Cons of going free? This could apply to software for Staff at the school, and to programmes used with pupils:

Some free software examples, from @Doug_Patterson on Twitter: Jing: Jing is great for fast and easy creation of professional looking screenshots, so it’s mainly a teacher tool. (http://www.techsmith.com/jing/ ) Sumo Paint: Sumopaint is awesome for photoediting. It has alot of functionallity and is webbased, which I love, no installation needed! (http://www.sumopaint.com/home/ ) SEND US YOUR TWEETS technogeek@edexec.co.uk www.edexec.co.uk/ technogeek/

Xmind : Xmind is great for mindmapping which I used alot as a teacher and is great for the students to organise there work. (http://www.xmind.net/)

PROs  Its Free!  You also get the freedom to copy and redistribute the software on all the computers in the school  Upgrades are also free!  Not tied to one company for maintenance.  If its not exactly what you want, vote with your feet and uninstall it and just more on to another one!

CONs  As its free, some free or ‘open source software’ can go under (so can premium) and there is no clear source for help or updates.  Sometimes you need to search for support, rather than have one point of contact.

Free software can be a great option for a school, particularly with classes working on particular projects, though for larger scale implementations there is a lot of piece of mind that goes with using proprietary software.

TG Recommends: Google Docs: Did you know the worlds biggest search engine has interests outside of search? They provide excellent free software to replace Microsoft Office, which is more its all stored in the cloud and free! http://docs.google. com, not to mention some pretty nifty email as well (http://mail.google.com) It can be setup for large organisations, like a school as well, but this carries a fee.

Also check out: Schoolcomputing.wikka.com Bee-it.co.uk Schoolforge.net

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