Title: IWB Journey part 1
Core purpose: to inspire whole-school innovation that relies upon the notion of “maturity”. This whole school scenario puts great emphasis on scalable and sustainable processes of technological integration especially in EU countries where “practitioners are working at different stages of IWB integration. Some have had their own IWB in their classroom for years, whilst for others, this is an embryonic idea which has yet to be realised”. (EUN 2010) http://moe.eun.org/web/iwbworkinggroup/iwb
Draft narrative overview: Mrs P is headteacher in a busy secondary school. After several meetings with teachers and a number of visits to trade shows and to other schools where IWBs are already an established reality, she thinks the time might be right for her school. However, before embarking on an expensive journey likely to have many implications for the whole school, she decides to carry out a formal assessment of readiness, to ensure that all choices reflect the actual needs and aspirations of teachers, and are underpinned by a clear pedagogical vision. Mrs P uses [iTEC resources] to access advice and guidance, both at an international level and specific to her country. For instance, she downloads a publication full of useful tips and finds the email address and the telephone number of a person working at the ministry. Mrs P develops a checklist of everything that needs to be evaluated before purchasing the IWBs. The checklist includes questions such as:
- How many teachers will act as early adopters within the school? Will they be willing to put up with the initial hurdles and issues while still maintaining enthusiasm and helping other teachers embrace the innovation?
- How much training and support will be needed to enable teachers to use the new tools as pedagogical enhancers, rather than to replicate old practice in new ways (e.g. as screens for Power Point)?
- Are the spaces within the school fit for purpose? Is there enough room in the classrooms to host such a large piece of technology? Is there room on the walls for mounting the IWBs correctly? Would mobile IWBs be more suited to the nature of the school? Have all health and safety aspects been accounted for?
- Does the school have an adequate level of ICT infrastructure to satisfy the power requirements of a number of IWBs, and to enable basic functionalities such as internet connectivity? Are there additional costs to bring this infrastructure up to speed?
After having assessed the level of maturity within the school, Mrs P gets in touch with a number of suppliers and arranges for demonstrations and trials. She takes advantage of all free services offered by suppliers in this respect. She also attends another large trade show, making sure she has time to try and test as much as possible, and to talk to specific suppliers, exploring in detail a number of key issues, e.g. the level and depth of after-sale support, warranties, training provided free of charge and so forth. At the same time, she uses the [iTEC resources] to get in touch with headteachers who have recently gone through the same process, to know as much as possible about lessons learned and mistakes made.
Once the decision about a particular supplier has been made, Mrs P finds out all she can about the proper form of contractual arrangement. She finds out that there are frameworks and templates (and in some cases specific types of support and guidance) to ensure that deals between schools and suppliers are formalised smoothly and with all the guarantees and protections in place for inexperienced schools. Examples include the OJEU (e.g. the Official Journal of the European Union) compliant framework contract.
Finally, the IWBs are purchased and, after a few weeks, delivered to the school and installed in a number of classrooms.
