What can schools do to help level up the digital playing field?
Despite it being an integrated part of the majority of learners' lives, there are still many issues with digital learning that are yet to be resolved. Research from communications regulator Ofcom estimates that between 1.14m and 1.78m children in the UK don’t have access to a laptop or device, and seven per cent of households can only access the internet through mobile connectivity. Parents were worried that not having digital access would be detrimental to their children’s education. We look at what schools can do to support pupils and level the digital playing field?
It would be very easy to simply answer the question by saying schools should give all pupils a device that they can use in school and at home too. 1:1 devices have massive benefits to schools as well as enabling the learning to continue at home. The pupils will have access to all learning resources at all times and will be kept safe online wherever they are using the device. The Keeping Children Safe in Education update of September 2023 contains a strong focus on monitoring and alerting designated persons of all activities that pupils carry out online. How do you monitor what the children are doing at home if they don’t have access to a device that’s safely managed and monitored. The affordability of devices to parents is one of the main issues that prevents the children from having a device at home. The cost of living crisis has made this a much larger problem. The knock on effect of reduced budgets and increased costs for schools has also meant that the possibility of issuing 1:1 devices to children has been restricted further.
Throughout the pandemic, the DfE rolled out devices to schools, many of which were older devices that were surplus stocks and are now starting to become unusable. This scheme was a great idea at the time but has created an unsustainable scenario where schools cannot afford to replace them.
The only way to 100% solve this challenge is to completely rethink resources and teaching methods in schools. When you conduct a simple cost exercise based on 1:1 Chromebooks for pupils from Year 3, including device management and a cloud based filtering / monitoring solution the cost per pupil, per year would work out at around £65. This annual cost per pupil seems miniscule compared to the total amount of funding received, however, with all the other increased costs that schools are facing it means that every penny of income doesn’t go far at all. On the flip side, many schools have made the decision to go 1:1 from Year 3 and have embraced a variety of ways to do this and in doing so have seen massive benefits in reduced workload, increased engagement and a reduction in other cost areas such as paper & printing costs.
The ofcom research focussed on around 7 percent of households only being able to access the internet on mobile devices. There are still solutions such as Google Classroom that will work on smartphones and tablets. Google Workspace for education is a fantastic option, especially for primary schools. Google also offers a free tool called Google Flex that allows anyone to convert older Windows laptops and desktops into fully functional Chrome devices. Throughout the pandemic and even today this is the goto choice to enable as many people to have the access they need. This is also great for the environment as it brings new life into redundant hardware that isn’t up to running Windows any longer. Here’s something that I do feel would be a great way to help level things up. There are thousands of devices every year that businesses dispose of after 3 years of use when they buy new devices. If these devices could be donated for children to use this would be an amazing way to solve the problem. Maybe the government could create a scheme where these devices could be donated and recycled for pupils to use.
Many of my previous articles have touched on how schools can be more strategic to allow technology to be better supported. The only way that any sort of leveling up for pupils can happen is if schools develop a strategic IT plan to ensure the correct infrastructure is in place along with more cost effective solutions to enable collaboration across the school. The main barriers preventing this are the key people involved in the IT Projects. Doing what’s always been done has in many ways led to this digital divide. It's so difficult for many schools to catch up with the current economic climate. High staff costs, increased energy bills and all other cost centre budgets showing a rise have potentially made it impossible for most schools to be able to offer a 1:1 solution to help level up pupil access.
Without trying to be too controversial, there is an argument in favour of schools to throw the responsibility back on parents to ensure that the children have access to suitable devices at home. A common scenario, as a parent myself I understand the demands of providing for your children. Device selection needs to be thought about at home too. Many children as young as Key Stage 1 age will have at least one games console that is used to play inappropriate games, a tablet or mobile that they use to access Youtube, TikTok etc, again, age inappropriate content. School provided systems such as Google Classroom do work on consoles such as XBox and Playstations with a USB keyboard and mouse attached. One thing schools can do is to work more with parents to offer guidance and support if they are struggling with technology for their children. I apologise to schools who are already doing what can be done in this respect, however if you don’t do anything due to not having the confidence yourselves, things won’t change.
There will always be a minority of families for various reasons that won’t change what they do to enable the children to access online content. Again, as to not cause any offence I won’t discuss in this article many other real world scenarios which if handled differently could enable children to level up. The one hope I would have for the future is that the DfE recognises that there is an obvious need for every child to have the same access to their learning wherever they are. The only way forward is to ensure that each child has a device to do this.
I welcome any feedback that you may have. As I always say, everyday is a school day and we all learn something new by listening to others and openly discussing ideas and experiences that we all have.
Nigel Milligan
IT Director.
