Technology
Before laptops were introduced into classrooms in 1999, a substantial amount of preparation had taken place. The first computers at Bishops were BBC Acorn machines, and there were Computer Literacy classes run by Marcus Bizony. There was a network in the Computer room, set up by Sinclair Tweedie in a belief that while a free standing computer allowed one to do much, a network of computers allowed so much more.
During the 1990s, the executive was examining how to move from a curriculum that was heavily dependent on rote learning to a pedagogy that required more of a discovery model of learning. Peter Crawley, the Headmaster of Trinity Grammar in Melbourne, Australia, came to South Africa as a guest speaker at the ISASA conference in 1996. He talked about introducing laptops into his school. Peter Crawley came down to the Western Cape and he spoke at a meeting of schools held at Bishops. Following this presentation, Clive Watson and Michael King deliberated on the pros and cons of introducing laptops to Bishops, decided to go ahead, and gained Council approval. Clive Watson announced this project at Prizegiving in December 1996. While Clive Watson was considering the introduction of laptops, he appointed Sally Bowes to explore how staff would best be able to utilise the technology. From the start, the presence of technology was planned as an academic initiative, driven by academic IT leadership. After the decision to introduce laptops was announced, two years of directed preparation set the ground for the presence of technology in classrooms as instruments to assist with the transformation of learning from rote to discovery learning. In the middle of 1998, following the examples of Australian schools, the school decided that there should be a standard common laptop model, made available as a package of laptop, maintenance support, and insurance cover, and Toshiba was the make that was agreed on. The cost of the package was equivalent to 71% of a year’s school fees in 1999. Despite parents not being best pleased with this, the uptake exceeded expectations. Well over two thirds of the Grade 9s arrived at school with laptops at the start of 1999, and about a third of the Grade 10 boys also had laptops.
There were training sessions for staff on how to utilize the power of the networked laptops, to go beyond using the machine as expensive pens. Sessions called Tech Tips were set up regularly for the teachers, and the benefits of collaboration were revealed, often to great excitement. Teachers were introduced to basic apps such as word-processing, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, but also to basic web page creation (html editing, using Netscape Composer). Emphasis was placed on how to use the devices creatively, rather than passively. To ensure that the benefits of collaboration could be harnessed, and in the absence of commercially available packages, Sally Bowes, the Director of IT, constructed the academic intranet, in which the products of collaboration could be stored for shared use. It was a place to make available the teaching plans and resources so that they were accessible as scaffolding for every boy, whether or not they had laptops. The executive had decided that the project would be voluntary to start with, aware as they were, of both the costs to parents, and some ideological resistance. At first, five subjects volunteered, and others joined in succeeding years. Presentations to parents took place, to mixed reactions – some parents completely in favour; others needing a lot of persuasion. It was also agreed that the laptop project, as it was called, would cover the three years of Grade 9 to 11, and the laptops would be phased in, starting with the Grade 9s, but leaving the matrics out of it, as the matric exam was a handwritten exam.
Plans were drawn up to develop the cabling in the College – at first directed to installing a fibre backbone across the academic core of the school, and then distribution to individual classrooms. This was an expensive undertaking and was deliberately designed in a way that would future proof the school. Cabling the classrooms entailed a re-drawing of typical classroom geography. Instead of all desks facing the front, where the teacher’s desk and the blackboard were, desks now were clustered in groups of four with the boys facing each other. Additional electrical power points had to be installed.
The presence of all these devices meant that the school had to come up with maintenance and security arrangements and protocols. The Helpdesk was set up and was staffed by an outsourced technician, the costs of which were covered by the package deal that the parents entered into. When Toshiba withdrew from the market, Dell became the preferred supplier. By 2011, the ratio of cost of laptop to school fees had dropped to about 15%.
At the Prep, classrooms were equipped with interactive whiteboards and there were regular literacy classes in the Computer Lab. The Prep teachers researched the use of iPads at Prep school level, and iPads were introduced in 2016.
As demands for Internet connectivity increased, the existing fibre backbone was extended beyond classrooms to most areas on that campus so that ubiquitous Wi-Fi could be delivered.
As technology matured, teachers used Contribute, and WordPress, to create Intranet content. There was a constant need for training and refresher opportunities, particularly for the new staff.
While the laptop project was essentially an academic project, and the laptop a tool for teaching, there was also a need for administrative functionality such as keeping records of marks, of attendance, of rewards and punishments. These administrative tasks frustrated the teachers because of the amount of time those duties took up. Sally Bowes and Paul Mayers took the initiative and developed a bespoke software package as part of the intranet, called MyTeachingLife (Staffweb), which enabled the staff to write reports on-line, to process marks both for the interim mark reports and for exams, for storing each student’s records from year to year, keeping attendance records, report results and comments, and sports and cultural commitments. As this was developed in-house, additions were constantly being made. This administrative pupil profile freed up time for the teachers to devote more attention to their teaching. As this software’s efficiency depended on the accuracy of data being entered, a Joint Management Forum was set up by the executive which the ‘pillar heads’ (Academic, Sport, Culture, Pastoral and IT) were tasked with ensuring the quality of the data. IT was an essential member of this JMF, rather than just a service supplier on the side.
The next step was to open the pupil profile to the parents, and a portal named MyBishopsLife was launched in 2003, giving parents access to their sons’ records, as well as receiving reminders and notices on a regular basis. This started with the College but was extended to include both Prep and Pre-Prep over the years and has become a central feature of communication between parents and the school.
As the technology settled more securely into place and in the ways the school operated, the software was further extended to provide a digital background for school events like Eisteddfod and Sports Day. Admission procedures were able to shift from paper driven processes to digital. This allowed in turn the transition from teacher-led administration to student-enabled participation, especially in the Eisteddfod.
Bishops portals and administrative system were recognized as world class but the intention was always to use commercial systems when they could provide like-for-like functionality. In the early days of Cloud computing Bishops migrated to an Office 365 environment.
The executive invited Dimension Data to conduct a review investigation of IT use on campus to ensure that best practice was in place and to ensure that security and future proofing systems were in place. The results confirmed that IT was doing a good job. The report did make clear what they saw the role of technology in the school.
However, when all is said and done, a school environment is still fundamentally responsible for delivering the content of the curriculum, and technology should be viewed as a means to this end. It is easy to become caught up in technology for technology’s sake, and this should be avoided. A school needs to strike the delicate and constantly changing balance, of using enough technology to enhance the teaching and learning process, without creating an excessive burden on staff, students and financial resources alike. The Bishops ICT vision, as described in Figure 1 below, makes clear reference to this strategy, while also seeking to create an inclusive environment for parents of students as well. Key to the vision, is the intent to provide students with more than simply content delivery, but to also use the technology being deployed in the school environment to train the younger generations to effectively operate in a technological world. This is a vital component of any teaching strategy, but places a certain onus on the school to maintain a level of technological sophistication akin to what graduates would experience in the business world. Additionally, with the education industry adopting technology in all spheres of operation, it is vitally important that any educational institution ensure the inclusion of technology in all areas of their strategy, both in terms of teaching and business operations. To this end, as with the corporate world, it is important to have technology representation at a decision making level. This will allow for the early awareness, and potential integration, of any new business enabling development in technology.
(ICT System Review, Dimension Data, 2016, p.7)
After rigorous investigation of what commercial management systems were available, the school chose ISAMS (the product of choice in the independent school system in the UK, in particular). ISAMS is a web-based, cloud-hosted, secure school management system that connects every area of school life (marks, absentees, reports, sports fixtures etc.) and offers apps for student, staff and parents. It works alongside the existing in-house developed system but will in time function on its own.
When Covid hit in 2020, the intranet came into its own. First, the school had to enable the shift from in-person to online learning, and the IT department led the development of the approach that was adopted. MS Teams was accepted as the preferred communication and collaborative platform to facilitate the shift. Suddenly staff had to upload large quantities of learning material onto the intranet so that the boys at home could keep up with their subjects. The use of Microsoft Teams enabled teachers to teach remotely and to stay in touch and in control of the learning programme. The fact that all boys already had experience of using their laptops as an integral part of their classroom and learning practice made the transition from classroom to distance learning possible. It demanded a large effort from everybody, but it was an expansion in degree, rather than in kind.
A number of schools have had the resources to bring digital onto their campuses and It would be true to say that not all such attempts have been successful. What the Bishops experience reveals is that Information Technology must be part of the strategic plan for the educational programme of the school as well as being positioned to safeguard and future-proof the organisation. The development of the management systems, both in-house and commercial, were strategic and intentional props to support the learning and teaching activities inside and outside the classrooms.
