With the abolition of the British Educational and Communications Technology Agency (Becta), the quango responsible for “leading the national drive to inspire and lead the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning,” we chat with one ICT teacher who’s about to start a new job in a primary school, about Becta’s role, the value of open source software, and some of his ideas about teaching ICT in the classroom.

Firstly, tell us a little about your background?

I’ve worked inside the Learning Technologies Group at the University of Southampton for about eight years, and spent about four years teaching inside that group, teaching foundation year students, introducing them to computing, making sure their computing skills are up to scratch. I don’t have any current experience teaching inside schools, so my comments are made from the perspective of looking at other people’s research and analysing current reports.
But I am about to start work as an ICT teacher in a junior school.

In your view, will the abolition of Becta make a great difference?

In 1998 when Becta was first formed, educators were not so well informed about ICT, so some of the work they did in that area was probably more relevant or needed. As well being able to block negotiate for hardware and software nationally, they also promoted good quality ICT teaching and laid out guidelines for best practice.

The National Curriculum now has quite detailed requirements on what students should achieve from ICT, based in part on the reports Becta has published. That function has been achieved now. So I can see how there might be good reason to say that a lot of their function has gone. It does mean that education authorities need to replicate the national procurement function in some way, however.

Can moving over to open source software help cut schools’ costs?
In some areas open source software is making inroads into schools, often partly because the people who are implementing the technology are very interested in it, and they work with very limited budgets. Open source is not going to go away, and that’s always going to have to be in the back of the minds of people selling the software – that they have to compete with people who are giving it away, and they have to provide better service that doesn’t necessarily come with open source unless you pay for it.

Given that computing underpins so much of what we do these days, are children simply learning particular office suites ready for some workplaces, or are they able to use computers as a tool for what they want to achieve?
The National Curriculum doesn’t constrain schools in the type of software they teach. Children should be capable of using ICT to communicate and collaborate. They should understand how to use ICT to manipulate information and explore ideas. The difficulty is that teachers have experience of a particular range of software – very often office suites plus whatever their personal interests in computing are. Often this boils down to the Microsoft Office suite.

And that’s fine: so they end up teaching children using those bits of software because those are the ones they understand. It works to a point, but the trouble is children can very easily end up using similar pieces of software and looking for identical features which aren’t there, and then feeling like the software isn’t actually doing what it is they want it to do. Or getting confused between a goal – for example of writing a report, and of demonstrating they can use the functions of a particular piece of software, for example by making the report look snazzy.

In this example, the children are using an office suite for their experience of ICT. If this is all they use computers for, there is a risk that their view of ICT is limited to its application in an office environment.

But teachers can’t be expected to be an expert in every application?

I agree. But user interface design has got to the stage now that a lot of software is very intuitive to use, so what children need to learn is not how to learn software package A or B, but how to understand the concepts of the task that it is that they’re trying to perform – for example, if you’re using an audio editor, you expect to be able to cut sections of audio, splice them, maybe loop sections, things like that. Once you understand those concepts, then regardless of the package you’re using, you can look for those features. If you only ever learn how to do your audio editing using one piece of software, there’s a much greater danger that, instead of understanding the concepts, you get bound to the functions of particular software, and you can’t cope when those buttons are taken away.

From what you know, is this general approach largely adopted in schools?

I think any efforts for it to be varied or for children to experience different ways of doing the same thing are accidental. I can’t see why a school would bother to install two word processors and give children the opportunity to use and compare both. There are obvious cost implications, and for children that are just starting out, this approach might be quite disorientating, so there’s a conflict between learning the first time how to perform a task using software, and understanding generically how to perform that task using a number of different applications.

What have you got in mind for your students when you start your post?

Obviously there’s a curriculum that’s given to me, but I would like to add some features into it – it doesn’t seem there are any lessons at the moment which mix music and ICT; I’d also like to better integrate some art ideas – I’d like to implement some sort of collaborative art creation idea, so rather than using a computer to draw something on the screen, which is actually easier with a pen and paper, the idea of doing something collaboratively where the whole class can work on the same drawing at the same time – I’d like to see what that produces, and whether the children end up collaborating or sabotaging each other!

Thanks very much, and good luck with your new post!

Will the abolition of Becta make a difference to ICT teaching in schools? Should more schools be using open source software? And is our current method of teaching ICT simply training pupils to use particular pieces of software? Over to you…

For the last four years, Helen Thorogood has been working at Priestley House Junior School in West Yorkshire, where she taught Year 5 and was a KS2 Coordinator. But this month she’ll be flying off to America to take up a post she landed through Eteach at the British School of Washington. Here she tells us why she wants to work overseas, how her preparations are going, and how she’s feeling in the run up to starting her new post.

Firstly, could you tell us what made you decide to look abroad to work?

To seek out the new challenges and experiences of living and working abroad! I want to travel, sight see, and sample new cultures and customs.

What made you choose America?

Having worked in Europe before, I thought I’d travel further afield. I’ve visited USA and was pretty bowled over by New York.

And the school in Washington specifically?

I chose DC based on the criteria in their advert; I felt that my skills, knowledge and experience were just what they were looking for!

Can you tell us a bit about your new job, the school, and the area where you’ll be living?

I’ll be joining the British School of Washington which is on Wisconsin Avenue near George Town in Washington DC. It’s a school which caters for children from the age of 3-18. They follow the National Curriculum and use an International Primary Curriculum. I’ll be teaching Year 5 for two years, and I’ll be living in Maryland.

This will be my first visit to Washington DC and Maryland so I’m afraid I can’t really tell you much about the area yet. I can tell you that the school organised the accommodation, which is an area in Maryland called Silver Springs. The apartments are called Lenox Apartments which is where the school puts new staff and it is where some existing staff live. It has a pool and a gym, and there are shops, bars and restaurants nearby. I might even have a walk in wardrobe – I’ll confirm that in my next update! I will be able to get the metro or a bus to school, and I think there may be a school bus.

What do you think the major plus points will be?

I think the key pluses of working in the US are that it will enable me to broaden my horizons, gain new experiences, travel, see the sights and sample culture in another country.

And the minus points?

I think the minus points will be being away from my family and friends!

When do you start, how is the preparation going – and how are you feeling about ‘upping sticks’?

I fly to Washington DC on Saturday August 14th 2010. Once there, I have a two-week itinerary of events, including sight-seeing (getting to know the area), a session on how to use the metro, shopping, a baseball match, barbeque, time in school for preparation, meeting colleagues, induction for new families and sorting out paper work, opening bank account, etc. School officially starts on Monday August 30th.

Preparations have been going well, although there has been lots of paperwork – for example my visa application, and appointments and courses in London.

I’m well on with my packing – I just hope I can fit everything in my case! The good news though is that I can ship more goods out.

Overall I’m feeling excited about my move – it’s just what I was looking for!

Why did you use Eteach?

I had already registered with Eteach online, and I just sent an initial email enquiring about overseas appointments, which is how I got in touch with the international team at Eteach.

Tell us about the process you went through to find your job?

Well after browsing through the ads on Eteach, I came across one for the British Schools of America. I had to complete quite a lengthy application form. Two weeks after sending it off, I was invited for an interview at a hotel in Heathrow, London.

What was it like, using Eteach International to find your placement?

It’s a good website, which is easy to use. I had the option to contact schools directly, or to go through Eteach, which was extremely useful as the Team know the heads/schools. I’d definitely use Eteach again, as the help and support I received throughout was extremely valuable.

We hope to catch up with Helen over the following months to find out how she gets on in her new post, so stay tuned to your weekly Eteach Newsletter

The Government has announced the scrapping of England’s national school redevelopment scheme, which will affect some 715 school revamps, with more to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Shelving Labour’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ (BSF) programme could save billions in harsh economic times – but do you think it’s the right thing to do?

Education Secretary Michael Gove cancelled the BSF scheme, which was designed to replace out-dated buildings with modern facilities, telling the BBC that “…throughout its life [BSF] has been characterised by massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy.”

He described the scheme as “dysfunctional” and “unnecessarily bureaucratic”, with nine “meta stages”.

Waste
The BBC reported that some 180 schools have been rebuilt or revamped since the programme was introduced by Labour in 2004, with building about to start in 231 schools: “But 1,100 schools have already signed up to the scheme, investing time, energy and money into drawing up plans for redevelopment, but have not reached financial close,” said the Beeb.

The Guardian reported a Whitehall source as saying that the whole process of deciding how much of BSF would be scrapped had been “bloody chaos”, and that weeks of uncertainty had cost schools, LAs and the construction industry dearly.

‘Tragedy for teachers and parents’
Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls was reported by the BBC as describing the decision as a “tragedy” for teachers and parents who would have benefited from new facilities.

Meanwhile Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers commented: “Michael Gove uses arguments against bureaucracy as a cover for massively reducing the BSF programme. Of course, there are always better ways of achieving major building projects but there is no excuse for leaving schools which were promised new buildings swinging in the wind.

‘Return to crumbling, inadequate schools’?
“Cutting the budget to rebuild schools, particularly primary schools, will be a huge blow to those that have been promised the sort of facilities you would expect in a modern school. We are in real danger of returning to the crumbling inadequate schools that were a signature of the last Tory Government,” said Ms Blower.

But The Guardian reported the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, as saying that he’d identified £1.54bn in spending commitments made in the dying days of the Labour Government that were not properly funded.

Cleaning up the mess?
“The reality is that these unfunded spending promises should never have been made, because the money was never there to pay for them. We did not make this mess, but we are cleaning it up,” Alexander told The Guardian.

What’s your view? Are we living in such harsh times that these measures are essential to balance the nation’s books? Will this signal a return to “crumbling, inadequate schools”? Is yours one of the hundreds of schools likely to be affected? What’s your story?

The Daily Telegraph reported last week that applications for teacher training courses have risen by more than a third, amid fears of job shortages because of the recession. And it seems record numbers are applying to teach maths and science.

The Telegraph reported that applications for teacher training courses are up by more than 10,000, after the new Lib-Con Government said that funding for front-line teachers would be protected.

“It is believed that the majority of the extra applicants are from ‘career changers’ attempting to break into the profession from other jobs”, said the paper.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) says that record numbers of candidates have been applying to teach maths and science; its figures show that applications are up by 40 per cent and 33 per cent respectively, although the Agency also stresses that there’s still an urgent need for high quality science and maths teachers, with around 6,000 required each year.

“Move into teaching was one of the best decisions of my life”
The TDA points out that the quality of the incoming maths and science teaching pool is also high, with 53 per cent of those enquiring about teaching since the start of the current recruitment cycle (September 2009) having a 2.1 or better. More encouraging, it says, is that these top quality graduates are moving on to application stage. The latest available figures from TDA for 2007/08 show that 91 per cent of postgraduates on a teacher training course have a 2.2 or better, and 59 per cent have a 2.1 or better.

“Making the move into teaching was one of the best decisions of my life. I’ve progressed to be Head of Physics in just a few years and hope to rise further as I become more experienced,” said Frances Wing, who is Head of Physics at Nonsuch Girls Grammar School in Sutton. “It’s great to see that there is a rise in people wanting to teach maths and science given how vital these subjects are in giving future generations the skills they need to succeed.”

Science and Maths “key to economic prosperity”

TDA Chief Executive Graham Holley said that the increasing appetite for teaching maths and science is really encouraging.

“However, there is still a huge job to do in getting high numbers of quality teachers into these priority subjects. I’d urge anyone thinking about becoming a teacher to begin the process today. Good quality science and maths teaching will be key to our future economic prosperity,” he said.

See also our earlier post: Teaching: “A first class career with second class perceptions”

Academies were the brainchild of Tony Blair and originally designed to replace failing schools. Now new Education Secretary Michael Gove has said that all schools should be given the opportunity to break away from local authority control and become an academy. But will this drive up standards, or create a two-tier system?

Originally called city academies, the Labour Government wanted them to replace failing schools in inner cities – and, latterly, in rural areas too.

Michael Gove, the new Lib-Con Government’s Education Secretary, hopes academies will become “the norm”, and, according to The Guardian, has even said that the Government has “no ideological objection” to businesses seeking profits from the new generation of academy schools and free schools.

Changing the face of education

Dan Moynihan from the Harris Foundation, which runs seven academies, told the BBC that academies would change the face of education in England. He said that getting academy status meant schools could be more flexible and therefore more able to meet the needs of all their pupils. He said the change would free schools from having to “implement endless local authority initiatives”.  And he added that teachers who worked in academies liked the pay and conditions.

Critics say the plan will hand over resource and power from the local authority. “The losers from the complete free-for-all he is proposing will be the majority of schools, those children and parents who deserve a better deal but will see their budgets cut,” former Education Secretary Ed Balls told the BBC.

Dogma

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT said: “These proposals are not about providing high quality education for all. They are purely political ideology and dogma. They are about the break-up of state education, which was the stated aim of the Conservatives before the General Election.

“It is essential that those who care about social justice, fairness and equality, who value public services and care about the future of state education, do not allow this to happen.”

• What’s your view on academies? Over to you….