Win Android Tablets or Chromebooks! - Portsmouth Schools staff please tell us your ICT experiences.

The University of Portsmouth IT Shared Services are running a competition for school staff.

Entry is open to staff from Portsmouth schools. To enter all you need to do is complete the following survey and submit it. You could win two Android Tablets or Chromebooks for your school!

Please feel free share this competition with your school staff.

Our second pilot school, St Georges Primary

We are pleased to announce that St. George's Primary School will be working with us on our second pilot.

We will be helping them implement Google Apps for Education. They will be using lots of Google Apps including Classroom on 30 loaned Chromebooks for pupils in years 3 and 4.

Our Westover Primary School pilot will be ending soon, so more information on how that has gone during the new year.

Have a good Christmas.

Westover Pilot

The Westover Pilot kicked off on Monday and with great success! The kids thought Santa had come early and the teachers are very excited to learn more and use the Chromebooks to their full potential. We are currently setting up Google Classroom for the teachers and helping source various apps that will meet their curriculum and SEN needs.

Schools investigation update

We have been busy visiting our local schools and colleges in Portsmouth, currently we are gathering information about their ITC provision and support, and doing a lot of listening, to see what hot issues are out there.

Portsmouth schools, If you have not heard from us yet, please drop us a message and we will get right back to you.

This is a really exciting opportunity to do something that could bring real value to education providers in Portsmouth, and ultimately all of our pupils.

Pilot update

Over the last few months the project have been busily working on the first pilot with Westover Primary school.

We begin classes using Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks next week (Nov 10th), more information on that soon.

We have also installed a wifi in a box solution to underpin the Google pilot.

I will post information on both of these as soon as we have completed our investigations.

Westover Primary teachers have their first session on the Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education.

Portsmouth News

A great article about the project in the Portsmouth News.

Our aim:

We presented to the CAS (Computer at School) Hub meeting yesterday afternoon, very interesting talking to IT teachers in the city, and have made some more useful contacts. http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/

Efficiency Exchange

The Efficiency Exchange have posted a short article about the project here.

Westover Primary School will be our first pilot.

Great news :-)

Annie Gunthorpe (Head Teacher) at Westover Primary School is hugely positive about Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks, and we're currently fleshing out the details of a small pilot to be run in the school - potentially after the half term holidays. 

Following successful initial meetings with Westover Primary, work is underway to set up a formal arrangement for the provision of trial Chromebook devices and Google applications to the school. The intention is to pilot 30 devices within two classes at different age groups, so that we can compare the experiences of two groups with very different needs. Alongside this, the project team are identifying metrics and areas of feedback that can be used to compare the IT experiences of the staff and students before, during, and after the pilot.

We're still figuring out the details of what, how, who and when. I'm really looking forwards to seeing how children and teachers react to this technology first-hand and will post more updates as this work progresses!

Remember,  additional pilot schools are still being sought to accompany Westover on this investigation.

Presentation to Portsmouth schools IT managers

Today, we presented an overview of the project and our key aims to the new Network Managers Group, facilitated by the IS department within the Portsmouth City Council, the presentation went well and we are starting to gather more interest from Schools wishing to engage with the project on our investigation.

We really need schools within Portsmouth to complete our initial fact finding questionnaire, link as promised below:

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  Portsmouth IT Shared Services

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Our Hefce bid

More details on Hefce's other Shared Services investigations (including ours) can be found here: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/lgm/efficient/ss/

IT experts help re-boot local schools

Schoolchildren in one of the UK’s most disadvantaged areas are going to be the first to benefit from a novel way of improving their IT, thanks to the University of Portsmouth IT department.

The University, together with Portsmouth City Council, is one of five organisations to have won a share of funding from the Higher Education Funding Council (Hefce) to investigate ways of sharing resources and providing good practice examples for other towns and cities to follow.

The Portsmouth project is not-for-profit and aims to raise the standard and quality of IT across the city’s schools and colleges, while also reducing costs and avoiding duplicating services. It is being managed by Stuart Graves, from the University’s IT Department.

Mr Graves said: “Sharing services and the expertise available within the University is one of way we can help others locally. It’s also in line with the University’s broader aim of widening participation. Portsmouth, historically, has a low rate of people going on to study at higher education.

“This project is particularly important following the withdrawal of the Building Schools for the Future programme which left many schools in difficulty with their ICT.”

The University is working in collaboration with Portsmouth City Council on the project. 

The Council’s head of ICT, Mel Burns, said: “This collaboration between the University and the city for the benefit of education and schools in Portsmouth is a rare and exciting thing. When such key but autonomous influencers come together to try and make a tangible difference, I believe that there is a real commitment to make things happen. Making that difference in educational ICT is a very worthwhile and necessary thing to do.” 

The project will begin with research to identify which local schools and colleges have IT problems or needs the University can help with. The University hopes to be able to employ some students to help, for example, by giving tailored IT training and support, which has the added benefit of helping students boost their CVs.

As part of the research with schools and colleges we will complete two pilot studies: The provision of Google Apps for Education within a school, showcasing its enhanced teaching and learning possibilities, and the trial of a Wifi in a Box solution, allowing increased wifi infrastructure and minimal support requirements for the target school or college.

Mr Graves said: “There are a number of challenges with this type of project, including the short timescale, as well as the challenge of identifying shared services for such a wide range of educational institutions, each with their own IT pressures and requirements, some of whom may be in competition with each other. 

“Our key deliverable is to produce a feasibility report by next February detailing the appropriate company structure and business model for a cost sharing group that will provide world class Information Technology (IT) for educational institutions in and around Portsmouth.”