I have a feeling the first question will be "why couldn't they give us an xbox instead?"
It will be interesting to see how these are used in schools though. When I was in school the ethos around IT and computers was very much "don't do anything we haven't asked you to do" which seems to be the opposite of how the pi is intended to be used.
It's still like that. Everything is locked down, locked up and entirely filtered. It's like a computing prison. A couple of years ago, my then 8 year old daughter (!!!!) was actually told off for using the Run dialog (to fire up notepad) in Windows XP because they removed it from the start menu and was accused of hacking! I literally fucking exploded like a WWII bomb at the clueless peon who made that accusation.
I'm now a school governor to make sure that these morons don't take over the planet.
The kill pretty much every bit of interest there is straight away for most students.
"I literally fucking exploded like a WWII bomb at the clueless peon who made that accusation."
I'd watch the blood pressure there (I've been teaching for 24 years).
As you are now on the management: Is there (safe, filtered) Internet via wifi and BYOD for the older pupils? Cheap android tablets for shiny media but also hackable? Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) on the PCs? Basically what policy innovation/leadership have you contributed?
Not challenging here, I'd really be interested to know. Having documented examples to point at really helps in situations where you have to be diplomatic with idiots.
Changes so far: stopped mass iPad purchase to use as cameras (!?), different acceptable use policy (which stops people being hung without good reason), open systems policy I.e. no single vendor, fired RM PLC, halfed expenditure on consultants, new smartboards which don't fall over every 3 months, got rid of LGFL Fronter, two new IT staff.
That's very impressive. Although this doesn't effect me directly, I'd like to say thank you for your efforts. I was personally let down by secondary school technology education in the UK. I ended up with a D for GCSE IT, even though I'd been programming on my BBC Micro at home from the age of 10. Luckily I had a decent teacher at tertiary college and ended up with an A at A level.
So it's great to see somebody put their knowledge to use and to hopefully create a better environment for kids to learn and be inspired.
Moodle+exchange (still cheaper than fronter which was £40k+. MS will bend over for educational contracts. Exchange supports the staff better as well. Smoothwall guardian filter
Would be interested to learn more about your involvement - the school, how you pushed for the changes, why these things are being managed at school level ...?
I'll write it all up and post it to HN shortly (will check with other members that they are happy to publicise it first). Its an academy school so they are more flexible and have 3rd party funding. Basically, the governers have a greater stake in the school.
Do you have a financial stake in the company (ie school) then. Does it trouble you in any way that your volunteer effort is going to someone else's profit instead of entirely to the children of the school?
I must have it wrong, whilst I understood the schools could be non-profits in a limited sense (though wages of course can be inflated to extract funds) I had it that 3rd party investors were capable of extract a profit from their lending and other involvement.
If there are no profits to make, how do you convince companies to get involved; most companies don't appear to be so altruistic.
Budget was already available, just misplaced to be honest. I'm sure the state managed predecessors were getting backhanders.
The stupid thing is they did a fund raiser for to fix a hole in the roof!? (£300 cost) and built raised vegetable beds for the students at a cost of £1500 which were never filled and are used for storing games equipment under tarp.
I personally would be interested in your (collective) big ideas about how IT can support and enhance learning. The strategy thing. With as much detail as your colleagues and sponsors feel could be released. A good write up of that would work wonders for the UK perception of the Academy programme in general and your school in particular. Especially if you include staff development and mentoring in that.
Sounds good so far. Good luck with it all. I hope they get their (sensibly priced) cameras (and perhaps a few sound recorders). And Scratch (I teach Maths)
I could certainly tell plenty of stories of our exploits (literally and figuratively) with the RM branded computers that our school used.
The focus from what I remember was very much on the "computers as tools for business" angle. Databases were taught by designing forms in MS Access, not a single line of SQL.
It might be interesting to see how they use the pies though, hopefully they will assign them to students individually and let them change the Window manager/install quake3/install nmap to their hearts content.
> The kill pretty much every bit of interest there is straight away for most students.
What's your opinion of the new CS curriculum they are talking about introducing. From what I've read of it[1], it seems a big improvement over the old "learn to use MS Word and Excel".
I have seen various curriculum proposals, but the main problem is between the department of education and teaching unions. Teachers who can teach that curriculum are just not available. This threatens the teachers who clam up and whinge at the unions, who then moan at the department of education who back down and the cycle begins again. This is entirely self-destructive.
Remove the unions and hire ex industry people on a good salary with training and things will get better, but the current teaching standards across the board is just incompetent dross (bar about 5%). Teaching is not a profession at the moment. It is simply an easy career path for certain types of personality.
I include my wife in that statement as well and she would agree (she is an art teacher and there is very little space for her in society as a traditional creative person).
So summary: great idea, lacking any likelyhood of being executed unless they destroy the unions and hire better people.
In my university, the computers are locked down so much that literally you cannot lock the screen. Which means when you get up to go to the printer or run to the bathroom, there is no way to protect what is on your screen short of logging out completely. The IT director for the school saw nothing wrong with this.
Same a children, when he does something out of curiosity and you tell him "this is bad, do not do", he learns that do not do that in front of you or tell petty lie.
It will be interesting to see how these are used in schools though. When I was in school the ethos around IT and computers was very much "don't do anything we haven't asked you to do" which seems to be the opposite of how the pi is intended to be used.