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Objective 5: Strengthen position on hardware and associated infrastructure
Update: The Cabinet Secretary has expanded on this objective and set the context in a post on Engage for Education.
Benefits: an increase in the number of devices in use in schools; a reduction in the cost of maintenance of devices for local authorities; an increase in the connectivity for schools and local authorities; an improved awareness of connectivity speeds around the country; published research on the impact of connectivity on education, social and community services; a reduction in the cost of centrally procured or managed services; an increase in the sharing of good and interesting practice; an increase in the involvement of the education community in forming a shared understanding of excellence.
What do we need to do:
- Open up access for privately owned devices.
- Encourage uptake of national procurement frameworks and leasing schemes for devices
- Continue investment in high-speed broadband infrastructure by reviewing the conditions of use of the Interconnect 2.0, increasing its capacity and considering how we can improve the “final mile” to the school desktop.
- Collect robust research on the benefits of improved connectivity and its impact on education, social and community services
- Openly share data and make recommendations for broadband connection speeds for schools based on school roll.
- Discuss with telecoms companies how they can improve open access to wifi.
- Implement the next generation of Glow, built upon freely available tools and services, and open source hosted solutions
- Scottish Government’s online presence should model best practice, and should be a place that brings together discussion, promotes a cost-effective approach to resources, and signposts high quality content.
How will we do this:
- Have a robust and upgradeable network backbone that reaches into every school in Scotland procured nationally work closely JANET(UK) experts in public procurements of this kind and linked to educational backbone of Further and Higher Education.
- Schools and Local Authorities should have some basic standards around ICT access and infrastructure. There are lots of models around the world from institutional kite marking to local auditing systems - all aimed and open up networks and improving services for teachers and learners - one example http://uat.generatorfeandskills.org.uk/
- Formally complete the matching exercise of existing Glow tools that are available to schools to the identified list of free or cost effective alternatives that has already started on this wiki.
- Access to Glow has been a problem for some people in the past simply because they have not had their login details issued to them by establishments. This has been a particular problem in initial teacher education establishments and for teachers who are currently not working, or on career breaks. CPD StepIN has been successful but it may be better if Glow access for teachers was directly linked to GTCS Registration number?
- Scottish Government / Education Scotland should provide policy advice for schools and local authorities on the use of student and staff owned devices in schools. With many LAs keen to allow this model over time it makes sense that some centralised consultancy is provided to avoid unnecessary cost and re-inventing the wheel.
- Scottish Government / Education Scotland should hold centralised information sharing events for education and corporate IT staff to discuss the benefits and challenges of opening up networks to staff and student owned devices. This could include references and sharing from local authorities where this is already going on e.g. South Lanarkshire and Shetland. These examples should also be captured by case study. Virtual drop in session could also be organised for staff via Glow Meet.
- With so many schools and local authorities considering the leasing of devices the Scottish Government / Education Scotland should develop a national procurement framework for leasing devices if this does not exist.
- Money has been allocated to Scotland to improve its broadband infrastructure and schools are specifically mentioned in ‘Scotland Digital Futures’. If we are serious about the use of technology in schools we need to find a way to improve the connectivity to our schools (specifically, the bandwidth for the last part, between the local authority premises and school). This has to start by calculating how much it would actually cost to improve school broadband in Scotland and by comparing Scotland’s current position to international comparators (e. g. South Korea).
- There needs to be industry engagement with Scotland's main telecoms companies (BT, C&W, Virgin, O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile/Orange and Three) regarding open access wifi in schools. We may also benefit from investigating the expansion of edu-roam (eduroam.org) or a similar product in schools. This was briefly mentioned at a recent Scottish ICT Development Group (SICTDG) Meeting.