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Gazing Into My Crystal Ball

Recently, an interesting question has been raised separately by two ICT co-ordinators. The question they both asked me was, "Will Hwb+ still be here in three years time?" Not being privy to the discussions that could be going on in Welsh Government, I was unable to give them a definitive answer. I certainly have my own opinions of the platform in question, one that is also regularly echoed by almost every ICT co-ordinator or head teacher I talk to. Let's just kindly say that this Microsoft Sharepoint based learning platform is probably not the most intuitive of systems for teachers to use. For example, digital leaders employed by the Welsh Government spent about three days training myself and colleagues on using it, and at the end of the three days I still didn't feel confident that I could insert a Youtube video into a page, or photo, without having to refer to a 140 page book. This was no reflection on the digital leaders who were delivering the training, it was in my opinion a problem with the complexity of the product. The training we had was the same as the training that school ICT co-ordinators from across Wales experienced. This in turn, I believe, affected schools view of Hwb. There was a confusion between the Hwb+ platform (created by Learning Possibilities) and the Hwb platform created by CDSM. In October I wrote about the confusion I was encountering when speaking to schools about this. I also believe that the Hwb 'brand' was tarnished by the Hwb+ training episode. Perhaps that brand is now slowly recovering? Going back to the initial question raised by the co-ordinators, I did ask what they had heard, and was told that they believed the Hwb+ contract wasn't going to be renewed. I did say that all I knew was that the LP and CDSM contracts were aligned and that in about three years both contracts would be looked at again for renewal and that I hadn't heard anything about what may or may not happen. Three years is still quite far away, and lots can change.



However, after reflecting upon their question, I'm going to gaze into my crystal ball, make a wild stab in the dark and come up with a prediction (or two). In three years time I believe the Hwb+ contract won't be renewed, but the Hwb element will be. It would make sense as CDSM who as I've said develop the Hwb platform, have a background in online learning platforms. That platform would then be more integral to the rest of the Hwb tools. However, an alternative prediction would be that Microsoft come up with a freely available and easy to use, classroom delivery solution of their own. This would need to be integrated with O365 through Hwb, in a similar way that Google Apps for Education has done with the excellent Google Classroom. This last solution could save the Welsh Government an awful lot of money. Who needs Mystic Meg? :-)

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