SBT1: Blog 2 - Setup of ICT in the school

In September, every classroom in this school had an interactive whiteboard installed. Every teacher also has a laptop, courtesy of a government give-a-teacher-a-laptop initiative a few years ago. These are for the teachers' use but belong to the school so must be returned on leaving.



I have been considering getting a laptop of my own but, aside from the fact that the 4 grand we're given to live on for a year won't quite stretch to it, I've been put off by my optimism that by September I will not only have been given a job, but also a computer. The problem with this is that I find issues of ownership complicated when I work on a computer that is not mine, whether it's saving something to a drive, which is quite abstract, or a memory stick, which I will potentially lose. I wouldn't be happy doing a lot of work in a notebook that I then had to give back to someone else to look after.

The school also boasts a computer suite, where there are enough computers for a class to have one between two. This seems like a natural arrangement, and typical of each primary school I have seen, but I would argue that, while 'one between two' is adequate for a text book or something children are only referring to, this should not necessarily apply to computers. They are active tools and the equivalent of an excercise book, which children are not expected to share. The computer suite itself is discussed further by Muirhead (ICT reading 6).

Elsewhere in the school, apart from the teachers' laptops, which are not available for pupil use, there are 5 computers in one of the year group shared areas. These are mostly used by teachers and TAs. There is also a portable set of laptops for class use, again one between two, which can be booked out by class teachers for use in lessons where IT is incorporated in another subject area. The children seem quite motivated when using these, or at least more so than a trip to the ICT suite. This is, again, reminiscent of Muirhead's findings. It is an issue of language, but the area is called 'the ICT suite', or 'IT suite', rather than a computer suite and perhaps this implicitly indicates a view that this is the only place that ICT can be used.