Before the summer holidays we asked teachers and school staff to complete a survey about the use of ICT in schools. We had more than 600 responses, more than half of which came from teachers. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to the survey; your views will help us create a representative, forward-thinking ICT strategy for schools to use in 2018-23.
Survey headlines
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- There was a good respondent representation from every ASG Area (Buckie 15.3%, Elgin Academy 15%, Elgin High 10.5%, Forres 15.8%, Keith 9%, Lossie 10%, Milne’s 7.6% & Speyside 11.1%, with a further 5.8%)
- 9 out of 10 respondents believed there were barriers to the use of ICT within Moray schools
The most common barriers were:
- Poor Wi-Fi
- Insufficient number of PCs and reliability of equipment
- Lack of training/support in use of equipment
- Lack of innovation
- The number one priority was improved Wi-Fi – more than a third of respondents chose this as their top priority. However the responses were grouped into ASG groups, five ASGs stated more equipment was their top priority.
Data, comments and themes
We’ve analysed all of the data collected, and your comments, and signposted these against five themes. Below are the themes, a summary and example comments which were received.
- Hardware
There were numerous comments regarding both the lack of equipment, suitability of equipment and concerns concerning budget to purchase equipment. There are repeated request to allow students/ teachers to utilise their own equipment on the network.
“Very outdated – other authorities have class sets of ipads, while Moray only has very old, unreliable netbooks. We need to think about the direction in which technology is moving and meet the needs of our learners more appropriately.”
- Software
The majority of the comments were concerning frustrations with smoothwall and the blocks to sites considered suitable and poor Wi-Fi/ slow network. Many of the comments mentioned the delay to get sites unblocked, confusion as to why these sites are blocked and the belief that teachers should decide or control access.
“Insufficient bandwidth to support the number of laptops, computers and devices – to the extent that we have had to restrict use of mobile devices whenever the ICT suite is in use as otherwise around 40% of users in the ICT suite can’t get on to the network. “
- Communication
These comments related to the communication between Education and ICT.
“ICT needs to sit down with practising teachers to listen to them with regard to their needs. The draconian bans on access to certain sites, the failure to allow personal devices to access the internet via wifi, the blocking of emails with potential dubious language all reflect a total lack of understanding to what goes on in a school. Bluntly, professionals feel that they are not trusted.”
- Training
Many comments referred to teacher confidence limiting ability to engage with technology with limited opportunities to develop.
“Teacher confidence in changing practice”
“Lack of training /support and lack of training and support.”
- ASN
Comments related to the lack of suitable hardware/ software and support required to fully support those students with additional support needs
“Lack of laptops and the ones we have are very old. Software such as Clicker and Ivona could be installed across all computers to allow access for everyone. Read and Write Gold would also be helpful at secondary level. Individualised laptops (if available) could be used to support pupils who have barriers to their learning. A/shire has a very effective ICT programme to support pupils. It is very different in Moray.”
What happens next?
We’ll use the findings of this survey to inform the revised strategy. Currently the ICT strategy group for schools, which has representatives from all ASGs, meets regularly and they will be the first to have sight of the updated strategy. We’ll use any further feedback from this group to refine the strategy, before it’s submitted to committee for approval by the end of this financial year.
