Role, Responsibilities, and Needs of an IT-Coordinator - Report Example

Role, Responsibilities, and Needs of an IT-Coordinator (Primary School) i. Introduction “ICT is just one area of self-development and the support staff and the ICT Coordinator is essential if school staff are going to provide the best provisions for children” (Elston 2007, p.24). Developing skills in ICT is in practice complicated thus schools like any other organization have management structures where staffs have a variety of managerial roles and duties. An ICT Coordinator is a person who is expected to be very well qualified in the field of ICT and responsible for supporting the acquisition of information literacy and the integration of ICT into education in general. He or she is normally expected to cooperate with other teachers and support them concerning the didactics of using ICT in education. Aside from the teaching staffs, ICT Coordinators should provide pupils with practical training and participate in the elaboration and implementation of the future ICT policy of the school. Like any other staff, ICT Coordinators have needs before they can be effective since in times of uncertainty and crisis, they need the willingness and flexibility of their contemporaries in school. The success or failure of an ICT Coordinator depends upon the active consent of colleagues and for that reason, ICT Coordination in a school setting is a very demanding job. To find out the actual role, responsibilities, and needs of these “modern” coordinators particularly in primary schools is the objective of this paper. It will discuss the IT or ICT Coordinators roles, responsibilities, and needs within the primary school setting. Their role in curricular planning and activities and their responsibilities in the construction of policies and inform purchasing plans, their needs and importance of having an independent ICT Coordinator in each school. ii. The IT-Coordinator (Roles, Responsibilities, and Needs) a. The IT and ICT Coordinator There has been substantial misunderstanding between Information Technology (IT) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) chiefly amongst educators in schools where IT coordinator were replaced by the ICT Coordinator. It is therefore vital to be clear about the characteristic more than ever, as both are so central in teaching and learning. IT is the design, study and use of methods for representing physical, hypothetical or human relationships employing the collection, creation, storing, retrieving, manipulation, presentation, sending and receiving of information. ICT on the other hand are electronics and or computerized devices and associated human interactive materials that enable the user to employ them for a wide range of teaching and learning process in addition to personal use. IT was one of the National Curriculum subjects to be taught at all school level but the most recent National Curriculum order now call the subject ‘ICT’. The United Kingdom and other European governments predominantly when talking about schools are increasingly using the term ICT (Nicholls 2004, p.67) and since we are going to talk about primary schools, the term “ICT” will be use in this paper. b. Role of ICT Coordinator and the Primary Schools Almost all primary schools have chosen an IT or an ICT Coordinator to provide significant support, guidance, and cohesion. The role of these coordinators diverges from one school to another determined by the size of the school, the coordinator’s familiarity, and the fluency of the teaching and support personnel. Normally, the coordinator will be involved in distinguishing IT or ICT associate areas for incorporation within the school’s development plan and then undertaking the task to implement or manage any identified initiatives. The ICT Coordinator also acts as a role model, using ICT ability productively within their teaching and supporting activities (Elston 2007, p.20; Plomp 2003, p.191). However, in order to have a clear understanding of the ICT Coordinator’s role and responsibilities as far as education authorities is concern, let us consult the Dfes. Here the coordinator’s typical role includes making certain that every department in the school identifies its requirements for ICT prerequisite. Support features of cross-curricular planning and warrant the effectual use of ICT across the entire curriculum. He or she, along with ICT subject leader, must help other departments to think about how ICT can support teaching and learning of other subjects and what those subjects can add to the teaching and learning of ICT capability. Moreover, an ICT Coordinator is expected to monitor the modification, acquisition, maintenance and replacement of equipment and software, and its storage, access and use by pupils and staff in behalf of the school’s senior leadership. Ensure that reasonable, translucent resolution are made predominantly when there are rival demands for resources and align with the school policy and practice, promote the professional growth of all staff in the use of ICT subjects. Finally, aside from managing technician and network manager, an ICT coordinator must coordinate with partner primary schools, local city learning centre, LEA, and the community. Apparently, the work and responsibilities of an ICT Coordinator is not that simple since “a school is a place of lifelong learning and education is forever evolving and skills need constant updating” (Elston 2007, p.24). c. The ICT Coordinator and the Curriculum ICT is presently only one part of self-development and the support colleagues and the ICT Coordinator is indispensable if staffs are going to offer excellent provision for children (Elston 2007, p.24). Assisting personnel to acquire skills in using information and communications technology is, in reality, a strenuous thing to do. It is likewise hard for teachers to believe that they have a significant part to play in developing extent and quality of the ICT provision in their school. Schools and colleges, similar to any other organization, have management configuration and teachers have an assortment of administrative roles and duties. The strategic person for this is the ICT Coordinator, who is regularly looked up to as the spring of all wisdom and the storeroom of all facts in this field (Florian and Hegarty, p.128). For instance, Haydn and Counsell (2003) explains that some the most productive lessons had excellent access to technical and learning support assistants. In a school where the history and the ICT teachers work extremely close together, history was used as a framework for the advancement of skills in word-processing. The ICT teacher was sentient of history objective, and pupils are doing well; and in a different lesson where pupils used word-processing software, the ICT coordinator intercedes to develop skills. In other words, the learning support assistants are actually making advantageous intercessions, dealing with specific pupils, and so liberating the class teacher (p.46). They added that if a school has no short or long-term targets, and where there are no domestic procedures or configurations to preserve the momentum of ICT training, ‘drift’ can take place. For instance, in quite a few history departments, counting those having ICT enthusiasts, the training has stalled because of individuals had not realized the considerable time and dedication necessary if ICT is to be grasp, exercise, and effectively applied in the classroom. On the other hand, where training has had the most influence, it is often due to excellent use of dynamic experience in the department, or where the history tutor is properly assisted by a superior ICT coordinator or ICT technical support (p.49). Although development is occasionally inadequate and inconsistent, there are heartening signs of school departments coming to terms with benefits of ICT. For instance, at school level, access to accommodation has been provided impartially, and the ICT Coordinator who utilize the subject as framework for teaching ICT ability understands the work of the departments using ICT (p.50). The ICT coordinator more often than not had a very unambiguous perception of the difference between low-convergence and high-convergence activities and he never seems to disparate the former. His role according to Haydn and Counsell (2003) was to make ICT a learning tool, to use it to advance learning across the curriculum. Nevertheless, he will never push the use of some whizzy graphics, fuzz on fonts or to put together application if this had nothing to do with the philosophy that the ICT use was planned to obtain. In fact, he always make it a point to employ some precisely targeted low-level ICT just to sustain some focused aspect of learning, even if the ICT pay-off was not considerable in terms of degree of ICT complexity. Correspondingly, his rising familiarity and perception of learning model and practice means that he is prepared to help spot where there is strong convergence “between direct reflection on sophisticated ICT use and complex learning” (p.88). Moreover, there is evidence from Ofsted suggesting that ICT Coordinators can and recurrently do solve not only hardware and software, and develop ICT skills but curricular matters with joined-up thinking, which begins with the curriculum as the main concern. Although it is a secondary school, a good example according to Haydn and Counsell (2003) is the ICT Coordinator of Hampstead School, which shows that some ICT coordinators can be insightful and effectual curricular thinkers (p.119). “A person who can bring about considerable change in the organization of a school” (Florian and Hegarty 2004, p.140) d. The ICT Coordinator and ICT Resources In the proper use of resources predominantly ICT, Bottle (2005) explains that a new member or staff or a teacher may call on the ICT coordinator the help recognize the resources he or she will require. The coordinator will be able to recommend which resources are suitable given the plans in place. ICT have a propensity to be thought independently to other resources, as it is an emerging area with understood potential to augment teaching and learning. The subject coordinator and ICT coordinator should be able to work collectively to inform the teachers and practitioners as regards to the best use of ICT. Therefore, ICT coordinators have to be conscious of trends, upgrades, new technologies, and user skills and immerse themselves in what is occurring to ensure they can provide excellent recommendations to colleagues, as they become well versed in computers (Leask 2001, p.135). At the start of the term, a class teacher or practitioner who maybe lacks confidence in using ICT may find it constructive to meet the ICT coordinator, and discuss and clarify all possible links to ICT that is obtainable in the school or setting. For instance, shape and space topics in a mathematic subject could be linked to the Roamer (a programmable vehicle that works on the principles of LOGO) or the use of LOGO itself. Furthermore, the ICT coordinator may be able to recognize interactive websites for use with children in specific topics or websites that offer teachers suggestion and ideas. Specific software acquired by the school or setting may connect to other areas on the plan thus coordinators will be able to offer suggestion as to how and when calculators and interactive whiteboards can be best used with the class (p.199). It is crucial for teachers to organize the work and preview appropriate pages in a website since Web research for some students can be extremely exasperating. In reality, there is no value in pupils merely downloading mass of information without understanding the content. Subsequently, when this is effectively managed, pupils can build up higher order skill of autonomous learning and research. It is not an isolated case since almost all teachers are confronted with the same challenges, and most flourishing schools form planning teams for an individual year group or topic. The team often seek the support of the ICT coordinator to counsel them or offer ideas for ICT-based activities that built into a progressive scheme of work for the entire school. When teacher’s familiarity and faith in ICT were low, individual dialogue with the ICT coordinator helped them to appreciate the role of the computer in learning and to identify where the learning of ICT can be identify and supported (Pollard 2002, p.188). Comparable to mathematics subjects, the use of ICT can augment learning even in subjects like geography since it can provide a variety of information sources to improve geographical understanding. It can maintain the growth of a body of geographical facts and supply images of people, places, and surroundings. It could allow pupils to converse and exchange information with individuals in other places and contribute to pupil’s knowledge of the impact of information systems on the changing world. In view of these benefits, the geography of department of any school can communicate with the school’s ICT coordinator to build up geography tasks that can be used to improve pupil’s ICT potential and add material to the school’s ICT collection of levelled work. Consequently, this will give a number of advantages for the department because the function of geography on the school’s curriculum is strengthened if the subject develops into an ICT key player. Apparently, the ICT coordinator has a fundamental role to play in such cross-curricular methodologies and in numerous schools, they generate a simplified classification of the ICT levels for pupils and subject teachers to use (Smith and Gardner 2002, p.15-16). e. Importance of an Independent ICT Coordinator Notwithstanding the divergence in how the facts are presented in different nations, there is a high degree of harmony about what is significant in ICT knowledge, skills, and perception. The teaching of this subject matter was at first intended to infuse the rest of the curriculum as far as possible. It was felt that discrete lessons tended to focus on the technology and how to operate it at the expense of understanding a range of situations to which it could be applied. However, schools found it hard to achieve equilibrium and there was lack of concentration on broad understanding of ICT when teachers of other subjects taught what they needed to achieve their subject objectives. Criticisms by Ofsted led many schools to set up specialist lessons in ICT, although, paradoxically, these were often taught by teachers of other subjects because of the scarcity of ICT specialist teachers. There have been two UK government responses to this problem. One is to set up more teacher training courses for ICT specialist and the other is to introduce the National Strategy of ICT. In most schools, you will find an ICT department with a Head and team of specialist teachers. These colleagues may have a role of helping teachers to use ICT in other subjects as well as teaching their own courses. There may otherwise be a separate ICT coordinator for the whole school, with a headship role in promoting the development of ICT skills, resources, and effectual use in the curriculum (Kennewell 2004, p.13). The school’s ICT coordinator, jointly with assistance from specialist ICT teachers and teachers in departments, which have carried out successful ICT developments, can regularly provide an efficient programme that is carefully designed to meet teacher’s requirements and school priorities. However, if only staff within the school provide a programme of professional development, there is a danger of stagnation. For this reason, participation of separate ICT coordinator is often times suggested (Kennewell 2004, p.189) as it “takes away much of the wastage of ineffective teacher time in the quest to move forward” (Robertson et.al 2007, p.81) f. The ICT Coordinator, SEN, and Low Tech Aid Controversy The much-vaunted term ‘inclusion’ has taken a new meaning according to Florian and Hegarty (2004) as school staff increasingly help mainstream colleagues to appreciate the ways in which ICT can support children with special needs in mainstream classrooms (p.81). In the Blackfriars School for instance, a large professional team supports children who have physical and medical difficulties, some of whom may have “associated moderate or sever learning difficulties, sensory impairment, and epilepsy” (p.81). Information and communication technology plays an essential part in accomplishing the school’s mission. It does this in two main ways: by “controlling over one’s own means of communication and being able to record work independently” (p.81). The ICT coordinator in this school believes that communication through whatever means is the key issue. She believes that the key aim of the school is to allow pupils to have power over their way of communicating, whether using computers, communication device, or any other means. In addition, this must be obtainable, swiftly, instantly, consistently, and reliably (Florian and Hegarty 2004, p.81). However, the implication is that a range of both high technology and low-technology aids need to be available. Controversy can often surround this kind of decision as some people, predominantly parents, think that every costly piece of high technology equipment will be the solution to all communication requirements. In one occasion, the ICT Coordinator’s decision was crushed by a consensus that there is no sense in giving pupil a complicated, multi-level scanning device just to ask for a drink and to find a page with correct symbol when it is far simpler and easier for them to point out their need by eye pointing. This clearly implies that although hi-tech aids are significant, and have a fundamental and vital role in helping children to communicate, they should not be the predestined preference when low tech aid may be economical, faster, more efficient and capable (Florian and Hegarty 2004, p.81). Furthermore, ICT coordinators should always realize that “adding hardware to their inventory might not be the answer to delivering an effective ICT curriculum” (Leask 2001, p.135). g. ITC Coordinator Responsibilities, Needs, and the School Culture In time according to Plomp (2003), each school will be required to assign from amongst its teaching staff an ICT Coordinator. This individual, who is likely to be very well experienced in the field of ICT, will be accountable for supporting the acquirement of information literacy and the incorporation of ICT into education in general and to boost the implementation of ICT in his or her school in particular. Normally, it is expected that the coordinator will cooperate with other teachers and support them concerning the didactics of using ICT in education. Aside in helping to “constructing policy and inform purchasing plans” (Raymond 1999, p.81), he or she should provide pupils with realistic training and partake in the amplification and execution of the upcoming ICT policy of a school. The coordinator should be in charge largely for the choice and acquisition of ICT equipments and for all functioning facet of ICT in the school (p.172). More importantly, ICT coordinator must guarantee that provisions are made for protecting pupils from unsuitable material on the Internet (Jarratt and Shepard, 2001, p.116) and harmful emissions coming from the computers installed (Raymond 1999, p.85). If the ICT Coordinators have roles and responsibilities, they also have needs to be effective thus, coordinators selected from the teacher’s rank or a specialist need to develop some vital skills. These skills should be in areas concerning the implementation of change, curriculum planning, evaluation and school development, in addition to attending courses about the use of computers and specific software (Harrison 1998, p.10). In time, they will soon find out the significance of understanding and working with the culture of the school. They can be effective if individual teachers value and welcome them as individuals in their own right and for their exceptional contribution to the team’s work. Furthermore, they should feel secure and interdependent, as this would lead to sincerity in the expression of sentiments and beliefs. In the same way, colleague’s enthusiasm to be adaptable and accommodating enables coordinators to manage any uncertainty and crisis. However, this is not that easy since in some schools, an artificial collegiality exists and this faces ICT coordinators with a difficult state. Therefore, well-organized use of time is indispensable to obtain the admiration and collaboration of colleagues, who will have their own priorities and challenges to deal with. Apparently, coordinators can only alter and develop classroom tradition with the enthusiastic approval of colleagues (Harrison 1998, p.11). It is now clear that the success or collapse of the coordinator is the accountability of all teachers within the school. For that reason, teachers need to be amenable to a concerted approach and to value and recognize curriculum skills within their own ranks. More often than not, ICT Coordinators should perceive that their own job specification is bendable and demonstrate that the school has different expectations of a newly appointed coordinator than from one who has been in post for some time. An ICT Coordinator must appreciate that it needs a significant amount of their time to promote ICT across the school and yet “time is in very short supply in most primary schools” (Harrison 1998, p.12). They should therefore need to find time to study teaching and learning, deal with administration and work together with colleagues and children in order to achieve change, as time is a dangerous barrier to their capability to work efficiently. The extent to which any specific primary school supports its ICT coordinators is indispensable and ICT Coordinators might consider the character of the “decisions they can feel confident making without recourse to the Head” (Leask 2001, p.135). There should be a flexible mechanism by which an ICT Coordinator is to be monitored. Since the talent of a successful ICT coordinator are “seldom recognized” (Leask 2001, p.135), the depth of the systems in place to sustain them as IT Coordinator is critical. They must be enabled to achieve appreciation and reverence, a model of excellent practice in using ICT to good result, in the classroom and in displays around the school. Colleagues should welcome the ways in which coordinators are encourage to learn personnel management skills and the extent to which coordinators are able to work in harmony with the school’s stated aims. Thus, the culture of the school will characterize its expectations of an ICT Coordinators as understanding that culture will make it easier to any coordinator to influence it and better meet the needs of their colleagues (Harrison 1998, p.13). In general, an efficient coordinator will have to acquire an understanding of the school’s needs and its methods for the implementation of the whole curriculum. He or she should build up the skills essential to manipulate older and more knowledgeable members of the staff and be ready to give time to be on hand to work out the problems of other and in due course pose problems for others to resolve. This will take time and coordinators will find that some part of this work match them more than others do. IT coordinators should keep in mind that they are bound to get plenty of ups and downs and if they “act like a swan” even in the most difficult times they will emerge calm and serene on the surface even if in reality paddling like mad beneath (Harrison 1998, p.35). This is perhaps proper since according to Leask (2001), ICT Coordination demands a huge amount of vigour and multiplicity of skills since the very nature of ICT industry means constant change (p.135). iii. Conclusion ICT Coordinators particularly in primary schools are expected to provide significant support, advice, and cohesion. Although their roles vary from one school to another, a coordinator is always involved in identifying ICT related areas of a particular school’s development plan and responsible for managing any identified initiatives. ICT Coordinators acts as a role model using their ICT skills efficiently within their teaching and supporting activities. They promote features of cross-curricular planning and ensure effective use of ICT across the entire curriculum. They monitor the accommodation, acquisition, maintenance and replacement of equipment and software, and its storage, access and use by pupils and staff in behalf of the school’s senior leadership. Always working in-line with the school policy and practice ensuring that sensible, transparent decisions are made particularly when there are competing demands for resources. Their work is never simple since education is constantly evolving and skills need continuous updating. Moreover, helping staff to develop skills in using ICT is in practice a difficult thing to do since an ICT Coordinator is frequently considered the spring of all wisdom and the repository of all knowledge in this area. There is evidence that where training has had the most impact, it is often due to the support of a good ICT Coordinator as they can be profound and effective curricular thinkers, having an understanding of the distinction between low and high convergence activities, and a person who can bring about change in the organization of a school. Finally, they are individuals who need to be valued and appreciated as people in their own right and for their unique contribution to the team’s work. iv. Bibliography Bottle Gill, 2005, Teaching Mathematics in the Primary School, Published 2005 Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0826472591 Dfes, The Standard Site, online, Date of Access: 12/13/07 http://www.standards .dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/respub/ictframework/responsibilities_for_ict/ict_coordinator/ Elston Carol, 2007, Using Ict in the Primary School, Published 2007 Paul Chapman Publishing, ISBN 1412930006 Florian Lani and Hegarty John, 2004, ICT and Special Educational Needs, Published 2004 McGraw-Hill International, ISBN 0335225039 Harrison Mike, 1998, Coordinating Information and Communications Technology Across the Primary, Published 1998 Routledge, ISBN 0750706902 Haydn Terry and Counsell Christine, 2003, History, ICT and Learning in the Secondary School, Published 2003 Routledge, ISBN 0415305314 Jarratt Roy and Shepard Tristram, 2001, Nelson Thornes Primary ICT, Published 2001 Nelson Thornes, ISBN 0748742700 Kennewell Steve, 2004, Meeting the Standards in Using ICT for Secondary Teaching, Published 2004 Routledge, ISBN 0415249872 Leask Marilyn, 2001, Issues in Teaching Using Ict, Published 2001 Routledge, ISBN 0415240034 Nicholls Gill, 2004, An Introduction to Teaching: A Handbook for Primary and Secondary School, Published 2004 Routledge, ISBN 0415335310 Plomp Tj, 2003, Cross-national Information and Communication Technology Policies, Published 2003 IAP, ISBN 1593110197 Pollard Andrew, 2002, Readings for Reflective Teaching, Published 2002 Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0826451152 Raymond Carole, 1999, Safety Across the Curriculum, Published 1999 Routledge, ISBN 0750709847 Robertson Margaret, Webb Ivan, and Fluck Andrew, 2007, Seven Steps to ICT Integration, Published 2007 Aust Council for Ed Research, ISBN 0864315171 Smith John and Gardner David, 2002, New Interactions, Published 2002 Nelson Thornes, ISBN 0748760776 Read More