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The Wales-Wide Web :: Graham Attwell on Learning, Knowledge and Technology Weblog 455 entries 26-October-2007 1 authors
show or hide details for this item How much should we spend on computers? Blog Entry 1 reply3 resources 07-August-2007 Graham Attwell
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07-August-2007 07:48:05
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07-August-2007 09:49:40
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Graham Attwell
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Guardian Guardian [ Go there ]
Guardian
Ray Tolley Ray Tolley [ Go there ]
Ray Tolley
Becta Becta [ Go there ]
Becta
How much should we spend on updating infrastructure for ICt and how much on updating the competencies of teachers?

There's an interesting (sort of) and confusing discussion going on on one of the Becta mailing lists.

Ray Tolley asked of anyone could tell him the total spend On ICT in education in the UK.

The most useful of the responses, he says, "came from Richard Selwyn, Project Manager, Becta ... which, when adding all the separate figures together points up a total spend this next year of £860m for 2007-2008. As a proportion of the
£34bn total education budget reported in the Guardian that makes a 2.53% spend on ICT. This compares with the US in 1998 when the figure was identified by Anderson and Becker as 2.7% ..".

It has been suggested in later posts that the Becta figures may only be spend in england and so for the UK as a whole the percentage would be higher.

My question is what does it mean? How important is the total (and percentage) invested in ICT? Of course computers are useful for computer supported learning. But investment in professional development for teachers may pay a higher dividend for learning than investment in more machines.

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How much should we spend on computers? Discussion Topic 0 replies 11-August-2007 Ray Tolley
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11-August-2007 22:26:53
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Ray Tolley
Government appears proud of the amount spent on ICT in the UK - but is it justified?

My original question asked for a simple fact, "How much do we spend on ICT" - it was simple - on purpose. The answer is as I expected - nobody really knew.

What really concerns me is that if officialdom cannot give a clear answer (there were no references to ICT spending in Hansard as far as I could see ) what chance have we got of defining future spending with radical changes in both hardware and software pricing?

Presently, many schools are locked into long-term lease-hire contracts and site-licencing agreements which may cause considerable grief to those wanting to introduce OSS applications and operating systems. Similarly, the advent of low-cost, solid-state PCs will radically change not only home use, but also a massive increase in pupil:PC ratios in schools - with implications for classroom design, furnishings and fittings etc.

Yes, Graham is right to raise the issue of staff training - and of course, this is not just for teachers, how often do the LSAs get left out! Another concern is that of the maintenance of Learning Platforms. As we move towards ubiquitous computing, as all classrooms become 'ICT loaded', as all teachers will be regularly needing high-quality resources etc, there will inevitably be a massive increase in technician support. How will this be funded?