Creative ICT
Putting the
creative use of technology at the heart of the
curriculum
|
Case Studies
Building an ICT Suite
1. Introduction
Building an
ICT suite can be a daunting proposition. You
know it’s going to be expensive, you know expectations
are going to be high, and you don’t want to
disappoint. This article looks at the ICT suite
at Crumpsall Lane Primary School and how it came
into being.
2. Project Management
The first
question that you should ask when considering
where to start is whether to project manage the
room yourself, or not. The answer is largely
one of time, experience and cost. A typical ICT
suite
will involve redecoration, recarpetting, possibly
the installation of a new ceiling, blinds,
security, furniture, data cabling, electricity
supply, choice of computers, whiteboards,
software etc. It is undoubtedly cheaper to
source all these different items yourself,
however, lets assume you follow sensible
procurement guidelines and get three quotes
for each aspect; you could end up contacting
30 different suppliers! You then have the
unenviable task of co-ordinating all these
different people in order to hit your
completion deadline. Finally, there is all the
invoicing to consider…
will involve redecoration, recarpetting, possibly
the installation of a new ceiling, blinds,
security, furniture, data cabling, electricity
supply, choice of computers, whiteboards,
software etc. It is undoubtedly cheaper to
source all these different items yourself,
however, lets assume you follow sensible
procurement guidelines and get three quotes
for each aspect; you could end up contacting
30 different suppliers! You then have the
unenviable task of co-ordinating all these
different people in order to hit your
completion deadline. Finally, there is all the
invoicing to consider… Initially
I felt I ought to look at the option of costing
each item individually, indeed it was actually
quite hard identifying a company that was prepared
to take on the whole project. However, having
found a company that would do the whole project,
I quickly came to the estimate that I would
save no more than £3000 by sourcing each
item separately – far less money saved than
the amount of time (not to mention stress) I
would use up managing the project myself.
Having said
that, your school may be in the fortunate position
of having access to trades people, through
parental contacts etc. If you have a carpet
fitter or decorator on your PTA, approach them
– a little bit of promotion through the school
website or newsletter can be a nice carrot
here.
3. Choice of Room
Often, the
choice of room is fixed. At Crumpsall, we were
having a new block built and a nice modern
build would be the ideal choice. However, security
considerations meant that we took the first
floor room that was vacated by the staffroom
moving into the new block.
When thinking about a room consider:
• Ventilation
• Light (and aspect)
• How watertight is the roof?
• Security – ground floor or adjacent flat roofs will prove attractive to the unwelcome
4. Layout
There are several schools of thought about the layout of an ICT suite.
First of all
there is the type where pcs are stationed on
benching around the edge of the room with a
communal discussion area/carpet area in the
middle to pull the group into for refocusing.
The advantage of this type of layout is principally
one of cost as furniture and cabling will tend
to be lower than in other layouts. However, if
you have a whiteboard or projection screen, you
will also need swivel chairs in order for children
to quickly look round to listen to a teaching
point.
Secondly,
there is the “island” type where pcs are grouped
in islands around the workspace with a separate
carpet area in front of a whiteboard for teaching
input. This solution often looks modern and can
be very effective. High quality standard furniture
can be purchased “off the shelf” thus avoiding
the need for bespoke furniture. The main drawback
for this type of layout is that it tends to
take up a lot of space for a given number of
workstations.
It is quite possible to combine elements of both these styles by having machines around the periphery and an island in the middle.
Thirdly, there
is the traditional classroom style with pcs
in rows, all workstations facing the front.
We chose this
last option at Crumpsall because it was the
only way to fit in 32 workstations in what was
a standard size classroom. Even then, we had
to go for bespoke extra-narrow benching.
5. Furniture
Ikea or Chippendale?
It is often perfectly acceptable to install
formica or wood laminate worktops with the pc
processors on the desktop at each workstation.
If you opt for this, you will need quite wide
worksurfaces to accommodate processor, screen
and keyboard. If space is at a premium, most
pc manufacturers supply security cages that
can be screwed to the underside of the
worktop. This vastly improves security and
tidies the whole room up. Holes will need to
be drilled to allow cable access to the
screen, keyboard, mouse etc.
It is also
possible to purchase standard benching and
islands in various degrees of quality of finish
– most suite fitters will specify this type
of furniture.
Lastly, you
can have bespoke furniture built. This can
sometimes be the only solution if space is
at a premium. In our suite we ended up having
to go for a bespoke solution in order to get
desktops narrow enough to allow plenty of room
for children to get in and out. We chose flat
screen monitors and lockable cabinets with ventilation
drilled in the base of the units.
6. Cabling
Cabling routes
are usually dictated by the layout of the room.
Islands are often the hardest to cable, unless
you have a false ceiling. You could consider
wireless, but the number of pcs in the room
will mean that you will need lots of wireless
base units in order to achieve decent levels
of internet performance.
Electricity cabling is a key element in any
ICT suite – by doing quick sums, 30 workstations
will need 60 powerpoints, add switches, printers,
whiteboards etc etc and you will quickly see
that an ICT suite is a highly complex affair.
As well as getting enough power in to the room,
consider the quality of the power supply. Often,
an electrician will set up a separate circuit
for the ICT suite; ask about a power supply that
is protected against surges and brown-outs. A
clean power supply will result in longer life
pcs, a dirty one will result in power supplies
blowing on a regular basis. The last point
to consider is the suite administrator’s workstation
– a block of eight sockets should do: whiteboard,
speakers, printer pc, spare socket to plug
in digital camera - you can never have enough
spare sockets in an ICT suite! Consider whether
you need to have spare sockets next to each
workstation so that you can plug in
peripherals such as sensing equipment or
control boxes (much of this sort of kit runs
on batteries these days, but not all).
workstation so that you can plug in
peripherals such as sensing equipment or
control boxes (much of this sort of kit runs
on batteries these days, but not all).7. Hardware
Buying pcs
for an ICT suite will inevitably be one of
the largest costs involved in the project.
Ideally you will want these to last five years,
so pay attention to the specification. Be very
wary about buying in batches – all machines
(including the suite administrator’s pc) need
to have an identical specification (including
such parts as the motherboard and network card)
so that you can take advantage of imaging software
to manage the suite.
Consider what
you hope the children will be doing in your
ICT suite in two or three years time. Multimedia
presentation? Music editing? Even video editing?
All of these are achievable using standard pcs
providing they are specified correctly.
• Pentium 4 (fast Celeron or AMD Athlon will do)
• 256k RAM minimum (512k is much better)
• 40gb hard drive
• Windows XP Professional
The pcs in
our suite are 256k fast Celerons, and I have
taught 30 children editing their own videos
in Microsoft Producer – a few machines ran out
of memory – hence 512k is better.
Inevitably,
scrimping and saving at this stage will severely
limit what your children and staff can achieve
later on.
It is often
accepted that an ICT suite requires a whiteboard
– this is not the case. In actual fact in our
suite, many teachers actually teach while seated
at the admin workstation with the children
watching the projected image of what they are
doing; very rarely is any flipchart function
used. I like to stand and teach at the board,
but if budget is tight, save the £1000+
that you will spend on the board and use it
elsewhere. Remember to install speakers on the
wall with your board – we forgot.
Assuming that your suite is networked it makes no sense to use local or shared printers – invest in a decent network laser printer and dedicate it to the ICT suite – you don’t want children wandering in to your ICT lesson to collect their printout every five minutes. We started off with one network printer in the suite, and very quickly added another in the library for classrooms to use.
8. Software
One of the massive benefits in our ICT suite is the management software that allows the teacher to control the whole room from the front. The teacher can simply turn all the machines on and off at once; she can display any child’s work on the whiteboard; she can lock all the workstations at once to deliver a teaching point and scan around the room to drop in on each workstation as they are working. For the really young, she can launch applications and websites on all workstations from her admin pc.
In short, a good suite management system will have a huge impact on the quality of teaching and learning in your flagship room.
9. Air Conditioning
This is always a tough choice – 30 computers generate a lot of heat. For a large classroom a proper air conditioning unit will cost around £5000. For most (including us) it stretches the budget too far. Don’t be tempted by those portable units – they are noisy and ineffective. However, there is no doubt that a nice cool atmosphere will improve concentration among children and staff alike, as well as prolonging pc life.
10. Security
The most obvious method of getting into an ICT suite is through the door. Pcs locked in cases will deter the wandering opportunist, as will a door lock (swipe card, keyfob controlled, PIN system are all effective). Depending on the height from the ground, you may need shutters. CCTV may also be worth investing in, as well as an alarm system that is not based on a land-line telephone. At the higher end of the security spectrum you can include smoke-cloak systems and IR beams.
At the end of the day, telephone lines can be cut, shutters carjacked, internal walls broken through – the level of security that you require will depend upon where your school is located. At the very least, use the construction of an ICT suite to review your level of security.
11. Conclusion
Careful thought and planning will undoubtedly pay dividends in the long run. We found that the installation of an ICT suite with a screen for each child in the class has had a huge impact on children’s confidence with ICT. They are becoming more and more demanding as their horizons and ambitions rise. The machine spec that we chose is only just adequate to deal with what we are now starting to do, and we may well need to upgrade the memory next year.
Don’t be put off – our suite still has the “Wow” factor two years on, and it is no coincidence that ICT is the most eagerly awaited lesson of the week from reception to year 6.
Suppliers:
Project management, hardware and suite management software: Viglen
Electrical and data cabling: Wainwright and Gibson (Mowlem Group)
Furniture: Steve Birchall Furniture
suite, many teachers actually teach while seated
at the admin workstation with the children
watching the projected image of what they are
doing; very rarely is any flipchart function
used. I like to stand and teach at the board,
but if budget is tight, save the £1000+
that you will spend on the board and use it
elsewhere. Remember to install speakers on the
wall with your board – we forgot.Assuming that your suite is networked it makes no sense to use local or shared printers – invest in a decent network laser printer and dedicate it to the ICT suite – you don’t want children wandering in to your ICT lesson to collect their printout every five minutes. We started off with one network printer in the suite, and very quickly added another in the library for classrooms to use.
8. Software
One of the massive benefits in our ICT suite is the management software that allows the teacher to control the whole room from the front. The teacher can simply turn all the machines on and off at once; she can display any child’s work on the whiteboard; she can lock all the workstations at once to deliver a teaching point and scan around the room to drop in on each workstation as they are working. For the really young, she can launch applications and websites on all workstations from her admin pc.
In short, a good suite management system will have a huge impact on the quality of teaching and learning in your flagship room.
9. Air Conditioning
This is always a tough choice – 30 computers generate a lot of heat. For a large classroom a proper air conditioning unit will cost around £5000. For most (including us) it stretches the budget too far. Don’t be tempted by those portable units – they are noisy and ineffective. However, there is no doubt that a nice cool atmosphere will improve concentration among children and staff alike, as well as prolonging pc life.
10. Security
The most obvious method of getting into an ICT suite is through the door. Pcs locked in cases will deter the wandering opportunist, as will a door lock (swipe card, keyfob controlled, PIN system are all effective). Depending on the height from the ground, you may need shutters. CCTV may also be worth investing in, as well as an alarm system that is not based on a land-line telephone. At the higher end of the security spectrum you can include smoke-cloak systems and IR beams.
At the end of the day, telephone lines can be cut, shutters carjacked, internal walls broken through – the level of security that you require will depend upon where your school is located. At the very least, use the construction of an ICT suite to review your level of security.
11. Conclusion
Careful thought and planning will undoubtedly pay dividends in the long run. We found that the installation of an ICT suite with a screen for each child in the class has had a huge impact on children’s confidence with ICT. They are becoming more and more demanding as their horizons and ambitions rise. The machine spec that we chose is only just adequate to deal with what we are now starting to do, and we may well need to upgrade the memory next year.
Don’t be put off – our suite still has the “Wow” factor two years on, and it is no coincidence that ICT is the most eagerly awaited lesson of the week from reception to year 6.
Suppliers:
Project management, hardware and suite management software: Viglen
Electrical and data cabling: Wainwright and Gibson (Mowlem Group)
Furniture: Steve Birchall Furniture