I spent Wednesday at this get together of some of the key players in the UK school MIS world, plus a few others such as myself obviously, and thought folks here might be interested in my impressions. Apologies for cross-posting with the schoolforge-uk list. Of course, most of the really interesting bits were in the individual conversations, or the table discussions, but here are a few general impressions and observations. I have copies of the presentations and papers in advance if anyone's really interested.
Most folks seemed happy to take a pragmatic view of the use of data, looking at ways of enhancing and developing existing systems, rather than a more blue-skies, ‘what do we actually want the systems to do’, approach that might be a more powerful lever for change. Whilst the commercial suppliers do seem to have taken on board the interoperability message, they still seem to be thinking in terms of interoperability within their own portfolios of packages, with some sort of import/export mechanisms for compatibility between products. Genuine integration between components from diverse suppliers seems some way off! Becta are still eager to pursue a UK SIF, but there’s not much support from the leading MIS provider for this, and I think there are concerns that Anglicization may be non-trivial. There is, perhaps rightly, a risk averse culture in which data integrity is prioritized over the benefits that would follow from opening up databases. Privacy issues were a concern, and I think there needs to be some clearer thinking on this. I was somewhat taken aback by Colin Hurd (DfES) saying that developments need to be business led, rather than being determined by educational aims and values, however he recognizes the need to move from managing data, via information to knowledge, which had been the theme of my own paper in preparation for the meeting, and his enumeration of key principles seems fairly sound, with the possible exception of the last point, as I’d like to see the role of teachers be prioritized: "• collect once, use many times • rationalise data collections • automate collection and sharing – common standards for interoperability etc • core data items – needed, kept up-to-date, by a well-run organisation (school); or – exceptions justified with a business case understood by the suppliers of data" Furthermore, whilst he mentioned a citizen-centred culture, and relevance to personalized learning, pupils were curiously absent from his list of key partners – personalized learning and promoting learner autonomy surely implies that the pupils should have at least some voice in what data we keep on them, and how it’s used. There was a very clear message of taking the MIS procurement out of schools' control, because of perceived problems with ‘fragmented, devolved authority and funding’, schools wasting ‘time and effort on managing technology’, and ‘insufficient economies of scale’. His intention seems to be that schools will ‘only procure and manage at the margins’. Oh, and interestingly now that VLEs have been replaced by Learning Platforms, it looks as though MLEs will be renamed “integrated learning and management systems”, I think on the grounds that there are too many TLAs (four letters good, three letters bad). This highly centralized message was somewhat contradicted by Mike Rumble’s (QCA) presentation on the future National Curriculum, which is, it is hoped, to be based on aims and principles rather than subject shopping lists. Broadly speaking he envisages a curriculum which would • “help young people to enjoy learning, make progress and achieve to their full potential • enable young people to live a healthy, safe and fulfilling life • develop young people who will look after the needs of present and future generations.” Unlike Colin Hurd, he sees the locus of control moving away from central government towards a balance between schools, communities and learners, with schools being given genuine freedom to innovate, ‘We know that schools and colleges are most effective when they have the autonomy to innovate …..and adapt to their local circumstances ..’ (White Paper, 11.32). This implies that each school will have the freedom to develop its own curriculum, subject to an overarching national curriculum design standard. Implications for MIS development include: • “Adaptability – no preconceived models for the curriculum • Flexibility – Personalisation – what, where & when • Usability – providing quick and visible information for all • Accessibility – Accessible by anyone anywhere • Accountability – capable of managing and exploiting a range of measures” It was good to hear Paul Shoesmith (BECTA) again. His presentation was essentially a summary of the BECTA report on “School Management Information Systems and Value for Money” (http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/documents/mis_%20report(revised-for-web).pdf). Of particular interests were his observations on interoperability, which he sees as key to learning services as well as MIS; I hope that the consulation process on the approach to interoperability will be able to include input from schools and the open source community. The commercial framework will encompass a list of approved suppliers; it would be exciting to see some open source projects represented on this list, although LAs and schools will be able to shop outside the framework if they can demonstrate better VFM. Within the area of effective support, it might be worth exploring peer support models, such as we see working very effectively in large open source projects such as Moodle. There was a consensus that the benefits to pupils will only really follow once teachers are using MISs as a core part of their role, yet there seems some reticence in trusting the teachers with specifying MISs, developing functionality, or having ownership of the data. It was particularly disappointing to hear this message coming from those in LA support roles. If schools are to be transformed into evidence-based institutions, and teaching into a research-led profession, then surely it’s the schools and the teachers that need to be the owners and users of the data. -- Miles Berry Depuity Head St Ives School, Haslemere (schooltool partner) www.stiveshaslemere.com _______________________________________________ Schooltool mailing list [email protected] http://lists.schooltool.org/mailman/listinfo/schooltool
