Skip to main content

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? :-)

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Defining Digital Competence

In a couple of previous posts I looked at what was meant by the term digital literacy and what this could mean in the Welsh education context. These were written in response to a recommendation from the ICT Steering Group report , proposing a new statutory Digital Literacy Framework for schools. I attempted to define what digital literacy meant using definitions from groups such as The Royal Society, Becta, Futurelab , Jisc and Common Sense Media. It was very difficult to pin down exactly what it meant but there were certainly commonalities between all of them. This week however, Prof. Graham Donaldson published his report on the curriculum and assessment in Wales, "Successful Futures" , and in it referred not to digital literacy , but to digital competence (which is a term I'm far happier using).  I therefore feel it's important for me to try in this post to understand what is meant by this term, look at some definitions and find out if there are any differences ...
2 comments
Read more

Digital Literacy: The Context for Wales & Definitions

At a time when England have introduced digital literacy elements to their new Computing PoS, and with the recommendations from the ICT Steering Group report for a digital literacy framework alongside the new subject of Computing, I’ve been attempting to look closely into what exactly is meant by the term ‘digital literacy’, and ultimately what this could mean for primary and secondary schools in Wales. I intend to put together a series of blogs on the topic, mainly as a way to help me with my understanding around some of the current thinking in this field, but hopefully it will still be of interest to teachers and others. I'd welcome any of your thoughts or comments on this topic. The Context In June 2012, Leighton Andrews, the then Minister for Education and Skills, announced “an additional £3m of funding over the next three years to support a range of measures to improve computer science, digital literacy and ICT in schools and colleges across Wales.” This announcement came ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Safer Internet Day 2012

If some of you weren't already aware, next Tuesday (7th February) is Safer Internet Day . The theme of this year's campaign is Connecting Generations with the slogan "Discovering the Digital World Together Safely". We are encouraging our schools to take part in this event. In fact we are suggesting to schools that they use could use this event to raise the issue of e-safety across the whole school community for the whole week. I'm going to one school next Tuesday to talk separately to both parents and to staff. We have, alongside a group of ICT coordinators, put together a series of assemblies for primary schools for the whole week, and should also have ready a brand new interactive esafety resource aimed at teachers and school staff on how to keep themselves professional online. I'll blog telling you more about these resources shortly. If you go to the UK Safer Internet Centre you will also be able to download a school pack containing an assembly, a s...
Post a Comment
Read more