Strategic ICT decisions

There is really no stationary state in the integration of ICT use in school – you are either progressing or regressing. You, as headteacher, need to ensure that all members of the school have a shared vision of the position you are aiming at, and what you are trying to achieve so that progress is maintained. This will then need to be broken down into a series of targets, not only in order to move smoothly towards the final aim, but also to encourage all involved that the vision is achievable. This section looks at this strategic development planning process and the decision-making involved in it.

Research (such as that from Becta) is beginning to show that ICT can make a difference to the achievement of students. Yet, in some schools, the relatively heavy investment in ICT from the Government is not yet paying off. It is important for schools to move on from trying to adapt their plans to hardware specification decisions made elsewhere, sometimes by the LEA, as though one size fits all. ICT development planning is needed; this must stem from the school's needs and vision, and must be strategically based upon long-term aims and requirements as well as the more evident short-term necessities. Externally-inflicted requirements and specifications must be incorporated but should not lead the process.

If school leadership is primarily about enhancing learning, then the headteacher must be centrally involved in making crucial decisions about improving learning by using ICT. Decisions that have to be made concerning, for example, strategic deployment of staff and budgeting for ICT development are too important to be delegated down the line. As the list of necessary ICT capability for staff and students grows, and as the spending on ICT consumes an increasing percentage of school budgets, headteachers need to understand the effects of decisions to do with embedding ICT into both learning and administration.

Heads of ICT and the technical support team do have to make many decisions about ICT procurement and management. However, they should not be making major budget-related decisions – which will have an impact on the whole school policy for teaching and learning, as well as school administration, for years ahead – because the headteacher has other 'more pressing' things to do.

When the headteacher and the leadership team do not take responsibility for effective ICT planning, large amounts of cash can easily be wasted. Spending and other decisions on ICT need to be based upon a clear ICT development plan covering a period of around, say, three years.

Problems with adopting ICT for student learning and reducing teacher administrative workloads can also occur because the headteacher and senior management team have not realised that they are dealing with more than just the technology. A paradigm shift may be needed, in the ways in which learning takes place in the school, and in the ways in which the school is run. An ICT development plan is thus an essential part of the learning improvement plan for the students and teachers in any school, in any community context.

Crucial ICT decisions that the headteacher needs to consider include:

• What do we want to achieve? (Some ideas for possible ICT provision can be found in the Resourcing ICT section.)
• Which ICT capabilities need to be school-wide?
• How do we provide access for staff? (See the Resourcing ICT section.)
• How much money should be spent each year to expand ICT provision and to maintain its efficiency? (See the Budgets and Funding section.)
• Which areas of the school should be prioritised in order to gain the best return on the investment?
• How good do our ICT support services really need to be? (See The ICT Team section.)
• Where does responsibility for implementing ICT initiatives lie?