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I can show you things using technology that can amaze and astound you. Give me a laptop, a Chromebook or an iPad, and after an hour you’ll wish you had stuff like this when you were at school: augmented reality, cloud collaboration, coding, stop-frame animation, podcasting, video editing, music production, 3D modelling, endless paint and pixels, wow moments and a round of applause. Stick me in front of a class, and I can engage them with some of the most amazing tools on the market. They’ll be absorbed and busy, making stuff and developing skills and working together.

Which is great. When you see it all in action, you’ll think “This is what it’s all about”. But you’re missing something. A question that needs to be asked. One that can easily be forgotten when you see all the energy and technology in the classroom.

Did learning happen?

Just because children are engaged and busy does not always mean that learning has taken place. Don’t get me wrong, engagement and enjoyment help a great deal when trying to drive learning, but they do not equal learning. And learning is what children are expected to be doing in a classroom.

The people who know how learning happens are teachers. It bears repeating that tech doesn’t teach children, teachers teach children (It’s a mantra of mine. Forgive me if you’ve heard it before). So, when we introduce technology into school to “transform learning and teaching” we need to pay heed to the people that will make that happen. Devices in themselves are inert, full of possibilities, but powerless when being used by someone who doesn’t know how to use it for learning. The car a wonderful thing but unless you teach people how to drive it, and adequately, it’s about as much use as an inflatable dartboard.

What technology can do is elevate and accelerate some of the things that teachers do to make that learning happen. For example, one of the most potent things teachers do is to model a concept or an idea for children in a way that will help them understand more deeply what it is you are trying to teach them. You’ll remember the diagrams you had to copy in science or the drawings in textbooks showing you what an ox-bow lake is (I’ve still no idea, I was off that day). These are still valuable, but we can extend the range and quality of our modelling by utilising technology to do things which would be impossible 20 years ago. That could include virtual tours of museums, augmented reality objects in your gym hall, a Google Earth tour of dozens of real ox-bow lakes in your area or visiting a double helix in Minecraft – the possibilities are endless and cut across curricular areas. They just might be the thing that makes an idea “click” in a young person’s brain.

What we advocate across all of our transformation projects in education is to match the investment in technology with investment in teachers. Professional learning is so critical to the success here and teachers need to know how technology can support those things that make learning happen – feedback, modelling, guided instruction, creativity, mastery learning among a dozen others – they understand learning, they just need to learn how to integrate technology to drive that learning in ways which are meaningful, relevant and engaging to them and their students.

At XMA our digital learning team are entrenched in using technology for learning. As experienced teachers across primary and secondary, we know how to leverage technology to make learning happen for teachers and students. We have ways of supporting the teacher journey with technology for learning that will help realise the ambition of the school. We’ve delivered professional learning to thousands of teachers and leaders and we will continue to do that and we’ll continue to advocate that teachers lie at the heart of transformation in education. Teachers already deliver great outcomes for our young people but we’ll leave this post with a quote from George Couros, author of “ The Innovators Mindset:Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity”

“Technology will not replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational”

To meet our Digital Learning team and find out more about what they do visit here

Written by Michael Conlon, Education Transformation Consultant @ XMA

Creating a strategy for your organisation’s IT is – and always has been – a complex piece.

Back in March I was asking you to think about the ongoing needs of your business, including how to create agility within systems which are part of your legacy. So where were you on that journey? And how far have you moved from that course?

Innovation within any business will follow a certain direction and pace. Whether it’s incremental (using existing technology to develop new opportunities within your own market) or radical (developing new technologies for use in new markets), for innovation to be successful it needs a strategy. Once that path has been defined, however, unforeseen change can take you off your planned course – what is important is that you recognise the altered direction, knowing how to plot your next steps to return to those original goals.

Is it Transformation or Revolution?

It may be that your current position isn’t that far from your planned destination.
•Your workforce is more agile
•Your communications are happening online
•Your productivity levels have increased and
•Your controls are embracing new levels of flexibility.

But is that a fair picture?

What has been lost to achieve this dynamic change? Are you confident in your processes and security? Those things which were dictating your pace of change last year are likely still a concern and it’s essential your future position takes account of these risks.

Taking steps back to your Transformation Path

Whatever progress you’ve made towards your IT transformation goals, this hasn’t been lost. But to ensure you get the results you originally planned for, it may be necessary to revisit those plans.

Discovery

Review your current business and digital context. Take account of changes which have occurred since your transformation project first started – this is your new starting point. While your digital workspace and processes may have shifted, consider again the overall objectives of the wider IT strategy to ensure you stay in line with plans which will shape the future of the business.

This stage of your transformation needs to take account of those things which are fundamental to your organisation – the values and goals, drivers and objectives of the whole company. It’s essential to keep sight of this big picture to maintain relevance and keep everyone on board.

Definition

Once your ‘As Is’ has been identified, it is time to consider how you would like to shape the future.

Ensure you are working with the right people within your business to identify those areas between your current position and your goals. But don’t miss out on opportunities which will only be recognised by those able to look further afield, seeing potential growth in the future which those closer to the ground may be unable to see.

Only by recognising a broader vision for the future will you create new opportunities, alongside identifying the constraints you face, these are an essential part of defining your strategy.

Development

Having established the plans for your future digital workspace, the next step is to create your strategy.

You may have done this before, and that means you’re able to review and restart much of your previous plan. Recognising here – as you will have done in the previous steps – how far you have come from your original starting point, should provide some positive recognition for everyone involved.

While it may feel that your original IT strategy has been upturned and lost momentum, it is likely you have continued to make progress in the right direction despite changed circumstances. And if you can’t see the way back to your strategy without help, get in touch. It would be great to talk.

Written by Terry Chana, Workspace Solutions Director @ XMA.

Related pages: https://www.xma.co.uk/hybrid-workspace/

Researchers have warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could have a profound impact on the mental health of people globally now and in years to come.

With the introduction of social distancing measures, many workplaces have had to make changes. Whether an organisation have employees working remotely or have taken new safety precautions on site, these adjustments and isolation have the potential to increase stress levels.

Here are some great apps to help boost your mental wellbeing whilst working from anywhere:

1) Headspace App

This award winning app has been designed to ‘Clear your mind’ with the choice of a range of common mental health concerns, the app gives you a bespoke solution based on what you need. With hundreds of meditations to choose from, it’s a helpful tool to quiet the internal chatter.

2) Microsoft Teams

Microsoft have recently introduced new features in Teams and Outlook in order to help boost people’s mental well being whilst working. They have teamed up with Headspace to incorporate a virtual commute experience for remote workers to plan in time to switch off and meditate before or after work, as well as schedule in breaks, walks or writing to-do lists for the next day. They will also launch tools to help colleagues connect more easily, schedule focus time or breaks and see insights and personalised patterns for the individual to have a holistic view of time spent working.

3) Lake App

Mindfulness is seen as an important part to helping mental health. Lake is an app to be used instead of a traditional colouring book. The app is a useful way to spend 5 or 10 minutes away from work, whilst helping decrease stress and anxiety levels.

4) Daylio App

Daylio is an app to help you analyse your day to day emotions and help you keep track of activities you’ve done to see if particular parts of your routine are impacting your overall mood.

If you are interested in discussing how technology can help support mental wellbeing for your workforce, get in touch below.
 

The future of healthcare is changing before our eyes, with investments in digital healthcare technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, VR/AR, 3D-printing, Robotics and Nanotechnology. These technologies are uniting to transform the way patients are treated, and how medicines are created.

We have seen technology transform the world we live in, from the way we order food straight to our door, and the way we consume content through our smartphones. Healthcare is not isolated from this digital transformation; a new generation of emerging technologies are set to change healthcare beyond recognition.

The emergence of big data, smartphone adoption, cloud technologies and the huge increase in data capture has suddenly enabled data to be linked together and processed for new insight which previously was not possible.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is redesigning industries across the world, and algorithms in healthcare are being used to design treatment plans, and even create drugs faster than any current method. Recently, Google’s DeepMind created an A.I for breast cancer analysis, with the algorithm outperforming human radiologists on pre-selected data sets to identify breast cancer by 11.5% on average (Hamilton, 2020)

Nanotechnology

It is estimated that by 2024, the global marketing for nanotechnology will exceed $125bn, and by 2025, the global smart pill market will reach $650M (Routley, 2019). These ingestible capsules containing sensors, cameras are already changing the face of healthcare, with technologies including Pill-Cams, Dose Tracking Pills, Vibrant Capsules, Atmo Gas Capsules and MIT’s Smart Sensor Capsules.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is seen as one of the most promising digital health technologies, with the potential to change healthcare and everyday medicines for patients and professionals alike. A device, such as your mobile phone, transmits a live or indirect view of a real-world environment, which is then augmented by computer-generated sensory input, such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. In healthcare, this technology is being used for various purposes, such as showing nearby defibrillators and assisting in medical training and surgery.

Healthcare trackers and sensors

The future of healthcare powered by technology aims to empower patients and carers. Trackers and sensors are being used to manage weight, heart rate, stress levels and overall fitness.

If you would like to discuss Technology in healthcare with one of our specialists, please complete the ‘Contact Us’ form below.  

References

Hamilton, I, A (2020). Google DeepMind. Available at: https://www.pulselive.co.ke/bi/tech/googles-deepmind-created-an-ai-for-spotting-breast-cancer-that-can-outperform-human/5sc7d8r 

Routley, N (2019). The Future of Nanotechnology in Medicine. Available at: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-future-of-nanotechnology-in-medicine/  

Many higher education bodies have been investigating remote application delivery in order to provide more flexible working options to students and to reclaim the large spaces consumed by public computer resources. Social distancing requirements have forced most to consider accelerating the use of blended learning, with some deploying solutions at pace in order to support teaching remotely in the coming terms.

With a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, can you effectively secure your network, and provide a fully managed solution for your end users, staff and students? This is a complex topic with many contradictory messages being provided depending on which technology you’re reading about.

Download our whitepaper which discusses what you need to consider when selecting the solution that is right for you.

A staggering achievement saw XMA employee Marcus Moore run 315km during the month of September to raise money for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

The equivalent of seven marathons, Marcus set himself the challenge as part of RNIB’s Marathon Mates event. With many organised races currently cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, this virtual event allows pairs to split the distance of a full marathon between each other over the space of a month, side by side or miles apart.

Marcus had this to say:

“I’ve worked with RNIB through XMA for over 10 years, so I know the amazing work the charity does to help the blind and partially sighted community. When I heard about this event, I jumped at the chance to give back and raise money for the organisation.”

“It was also a great chance for me to increase my fitness levels, as I’ve been much less active than usual throughout lockdown and Covid restrictions. I don’t normally run regularly, so this was definitely a challenge, and sometimes I found it hard to get going, but I felt much healthier and fitter after running every day.”

“Right now, it can feel like we’re being bombarded with negative news, and that gets overwhelming. I found it very helpful to have an hour every day to just focus on running and the challenge, and it was really fulfilling knowing that I was raising money while doing it.”

Marcus managed to complete the distance despite having some injuries to his ankles and knees, and continued the daily challenge after his running partner had to drop out due to health complications. He raised over £3,400 for the RNIB which will help provide advice and support to over two million people living with sight loss in the UK during this particularly difficult time.

Every six minutes, someone in the UK begins to lose their sight. RNIB is taking a stand against exclusion, inequality and isolation to create a world without barriers where people with sight loss can lead full lives. A different world where society values blind and partially sighted people not for the disabilities they’ve overcome, but for the people they are.

To find out more about the amazing work they do visit www.rnib.org.uk

The Scottish Government published a Digital Strategy back in 2011, designed to extend connectivity, promote the digital economy, digitise public services and promote digital participation. The ‘Connected Falkirk’ project aims to give children and young people the confidence, skills and knowledge needed to thrive in an ever-changing, fast-paced digital world.

The following plans have been indicated as part of Connected Falkirk:

• Provide a digital device for all Primary 6 to Secondary 6 pupils
• Provide a number of devices to Primary 1 to Primary 5 classes
• Provide a device to every class teacher, supported by an accredited professional learning programme
• Ensure fast, reliable Internet connectivity in all our schools
• Provide families with an opportunity to be digitally connected**

XMA are pleased to confirm that we will be supporting Falkirk Council with their plans for the project, including the deployment of over 17,000 iPads across the local authority and training support services to ensure teachers and learners adopt the technology successfully. These will be supplied through the Scottish Procurement Web Based and Proprietary Devices Framework, helping the council to complete the procurement from XMA with a single contract.

Michael Conlon, Education Transformation Consultant at XMA had this to say:

“I know I speak for everyone in the XMA team when I say how proud and excited we are about our partnership with the council on the Connected Falkirk project. Falkirk Council understand deeply the need to secure the future for their young people in an environment where 13,000 digital jobs go unfilled every year in Scotland and where digital skills for life, learning and work will be paramount in helping them flourish.

XMA bring all of our experience in 1:1 deployments to the project to help make that happen and we are committed to ensuring learning and teaching sits at the heart of what we aim to achieve. We’re more than ready to get started and can’t wait to work with the great staff, young people and families.”

Robert Naylor, Director of Children’s Services, Falkirk Council, said:

“As digital technology continues to revolutionise how we interact with the world around us, it is imperative that we equip our young people, their families, and educators with the digital tools and skills to succeed.

The investment in Connected Falkirk gives increased access to devices, coupled with a suite of powerful digital tools, supported by a dedicated professional learning programme, which will bring learning benefits to everyone.

We are delighted to have XMA as a partner supporting this revolution in learning and teaching, and we look forward to their support in delivering digital learning excellence to our children and young people.”

To find out more about Connected Falkirk, visit the councils website here

References

**https://www.falkirk.gov.uk/services/schools-education/school-life/connected-falkirk.aspx

Brexit Committee News Update – October 2020 Update

Following XMA’s most recent Brexit meeting, we are delighted to submit an update to our customers and suppliers regarding our plans for Brexit. Our preparations are based on the assumption that there will be no European Free Trade Agreement in place by 1 January 2021.

Potential Delays

Whilst it is widely recognised that there will be delays at Channel ports and those heading to Ireland, XMA is working with our major vendors and distributors to mitigate such delays creating new routes of delivery. Whilst this will only be partially successful, together with XMA’s increased warehouse capacity and planning with each supplier – we trust that we can avoid any material delays. Consultation with customers have shown them to be more sanguine about these hold-ups which are unlikely to affect the normal flow of business materially.
Customers with orders due around 31st December should engage with your XMA account manager asap to ensure these can be managed and prioritised to ensure they delivered prior to cut-off.

Tariffs

Our vendors are improving their ability to provide accurate codes and countries of origin. 99% of XMA products now have commodity codes stored in our product database (or the UNSPC code which is a close approximation) and have been looked up on both the UK General Tariff and the EU Common External Tariff with almost all currently displaying no tariff. Some 3D printing products are affected.
These tariffs could change in the months ahead, and we will keep customers informed of any tariff introductions as soon as we can. Any tariffs incurred will be recharged to the customer.

Warehousing

XMA has progressed its discussions and application to have a bonded warehouse within the Andover facility. These preparations are continuing and our systems are being updated. This will allow goods to remain in Europe with the confines of our UK facilities and effectively be imported into the UK at point of order by UK customers whilst allowing European customers/orders to be transacted speedily.

Ireland

XMA can supply into Ireland through our parent company and main distribution partner Westcoast and we are able to utilise Westcoast Ireland’s own distribution agreements to purchase goods direct from our main vendors and then store in Westcoast’s Ireland’s Tallaght warehouse. This may help with large projects, run-rate skus and CTO/bespoke product orders. Please contact us for further details.

International Shipping

XMA are already experts in shipping to the EU – Ireland or Mainland Europe – and are working with a number of freight forwarders to provide services for all UK customers concerned about shipping internationally. Paperwork, tariffs, VAT deferment, regulations can all be handled by XMA’s specialist partners. The EU will be implementing full border formalities on 1 Jan 2021(the UK are phasing them in over 6 months) which means that customers need to be ready.

We will be announcing our standard processes shortly allowing any customer to engage our skills and services. However, if you want a more strategic conversation on how XMA can handle all such shipments on your behalf, engage with your account manager and our team will be in touch.

Other Changes

There are a number of other changes – e.g. the new UKCA safety mark replacing the EU’s CE mark or the recognition of professional qualifications and intellectual property. These internal Westcoast Group matters are being assessed and customers are advised to examine any areas that may be affected.

Two good external sources of information providing a checklist of areas to examine are:

The British Chambers of Commerce: https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/media/get/Business Brexit Checklist.pdf 

EY – 100 Days To Go Readiness Guide: https://www.ey.com/en_uk/ey-brexit/brexit-readiness-guide-for-business-with-100-days-to-go 

All questions or feedback are welcome by email: approvals@xma.co.uk

On the 17th September 2020, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued an alert to Universities and the education sector after seeing a rapid rise in cyber-attacks throughout August. In the run up to student registration which involves new students arriving on campus and moving into halls, the goal of the cyber-attacks is to cause maximum disruption financially and to reputation.

The NCSC stated that a recent spike in ransomware attacks specifically aimed at Schools, Colleges and Universities student intakes has led to issuing this alert.

“The NCSC dealt with several ransomware attacks against education establishments in August, which caused varying levels of disruption, depending on the level of security establishments had in place.”

A ransomware attack will usually involve the cyber criminals targeting your most valuable data, encrypting the data (it has been known for whole virtual servers to be encrypted), and holding your data hostage while they attempt to extort money or information.

So, what can you do?

As an industry, we have moved on from treating ‘security’ as a single item or product. We must continue to critically examine our security capabilities end to end – all the way through to the human being at the keyboard. We must evaluate each component of our technology services:

Internet Edge
Perimeter
Campus LAN
Datacentre services – Production Data
Datacentre services – Backup, Recovery
Processes – Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and Breach Response
Identity
End-User Device
Human Behaviour

What can you do today?

There are many small tasks that you can do today that will start ensuring you reduce the attack space and minimise risk:

• Patching of all devices, end-user devices, network devices, servers, host servers.
• Review all servers running RDP protocols.
• Review all AD accounts with privileges, should the privileges be granted, are there accounts that are old, unused or unknown.
• Review ANY local accounts on servers.
• Review firewall rules and disable old and unknown rules.
• Check your backups, test the backups and check the permissions/accessibility of the backup data and any accounts with access to the backup.

Consider releasing staff and student communications through email, social media and electronic message boards / VLE as a reminder to:

• Alert IT Support to all suspicious emails. If in doubt – get it checked out.
• Do not download any software not explicitly requested from a known source.
• Recommendation for BYOD students to download an approved AV/AM tool.

Andrew Nickson, Solution Architect at XMA specialising in Hyper-converged infrastructure and back up technology had this advice:

“To reduce the impact of a successful attack, in my experience you need to implement a range of strategies. Backing up regularly, use the same categories as your main production, for instance critical applications need backing up more regularly than appliances that don’t change from day to day. Restore, this is often forgotten if you have been running your backups for a year do you know if you can recover from a day, week month ago? Test your backups does the application still work? Document the steps required to remediate, what steps were required to get the application to run correctly.

To provide a resilient backup solution don’t just rely on a single location replicate it to another site creating a secondary copy with different retention policies and if possible to a third the cloud is really an excellent location for long term archives and backups.
Recovery from cyber-attacks and ransomware is time consuming and fraught with obstacles. Once having been attacked have your backups been compromised? To mitigate these potential attacks always keep an offline copy, only expose the backup location to your live systems when absolutely necessary and rotate the backup location if possible, you will always have a backup to go to. Use immutable file systems such a S3 object storage, WORM (Write Once Read Many) drives, Tape will provide a complete air gap between your live data and your backups for a retro solution.

Utilising an air gap will provide protection you can utilise pre and post scripts to enable ports on the firewalls or enable NICs on the servers or backup locations. The cloud can provide an additional physical separation from your live environment and your backup data.
We are always aware that keeping the number of users with access to your live data to a minimum, is the first line of defence, and the same is true about backup keep your systems patched perform an audit of your environment regularly not just the operating systems but appliances and switches as well, as all have had security breaches in the past. Remove any unauthorised devices from the network.”

With such a focus on the need to deliver digital services and online lectures and content in these evolving times, we spoke to Craig Bramley – Lead Educational Technologist for Citrix:

“The consequences can range from losing student coursework, to research and IP data theft, large scale incident investigations, financial and reputational damage. So, it’s really important, probably more important now than ever to place security in the top of an institution’s priorities – if not the top. Especially with users connecting over unknown wi-fi using untrusted devices, the attack vector has dramatically increased, and you can imagine it only takes a single user to open a phishing email remotely, a VPN becomes compromised and that could trigger a substantial cyber-attack.

Moving to a centralised application delivery model significantly reduces the attack surface. Security patching and image management is simplified. With this comes the added benefit of being able to swiftly roll back to earlier image versions in the event of a Ransomware or other type of Malware attack, which if successful can cost a university hundreds of thousands of pounds to remediate. This means that the university has the ability to restore services in a matter of hours, rather than weeks or months, as is the case with a traditional delivery model.

Another advantage of a centralised application delivery model is that all University data is secure in their data repositories, whether on-premises or in the cloud, meaning if a device happens to get lost or is stolen, no data resides on the endpoint device. Universities can also customise university applications and data on mobile devices, even personal devices in the case of BYOD, meaning that the risk of data leakage is also restricted.

Finally, Institutions need to move away from the old-fashioned perimeter-based security model as mentioned above, to a modern multi levelled Zero-Trust security model where absolutely nothing is automatically trusted until verified. Citrix’s approach to security is unique. We address the what, the who, the how and the why of securing all of those resources.

• First, the what. We know what device you’re using. We have endpoint management capabilities and integrations for things like EMS. We understand what the device is, and if it is in compliance or not.
• We also know who is using that device. We broker the identity to a number of identity providers, we give users a single, secure sign-on experience, and we provide multi-factor authentication where it’s appropriate — which is pretty much all the time.
• Then we can see how users are accessing their applications as well. Through the workspace, we can see what virtual app they’re using. We give you control over the environment that is used to access that application.
• Finally, the why. Using our Analytics platform – Why are they accessing that data in the first place? What information are they after? Are they authorised to use it? Is it within their normal behaviour profile to be accessing it? If not, then let’s take automated mitigating actions.

This framework provides institutions with the basis for applying many different types of security policies at many different levels.”

So to summarise:

• Backup Regularly
• Restore regularly; a backup is no good it you can’t restore
• Keep an offline backup
• Patch and update all of your systems
• Review all accounts and privileges
• Lastly, consider security tools for the network. Many organisations will protect the perimeter, the servers, the data permissions, and the endpoints. This may be sufficient, but do you need to consider tools that look at network behaviour across your LAN as well as at the perimeter?

Written by Jennifer Norman, Infrastructure Solutions Director @ XMA

References:

News update:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/alert-issued-following-rising-attacks-on-uk-academia
NCSC Guidance:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/alert-targeted-ransomware-attacks-on-uk-education-sector

No, I don’t have Nostradamus like powers. I only wish I did. Then I’d have seen Covid-19 coming from a long way off and I would have done something about it, but yes; 1:1 is the future of education and it will eventually be as ordinary a thing as having a pen or pencil in class or at home, wherever learning happens to take place.

It’s not an idle claim or one made to challenge or upset the status quo, but rather a clear reflection of the world we now inhabit and the sometimes-inconvenient facts which should help us recognise it as a necessary step, as opposed to a luxury. Just to be clear, we still need to read and write and cut things up and touch real things like paint and textbooks. However, when technology is so pervasive in our lives and the economy facing the onslaught of a virus and uncertainties around Brexit, we need to have a strategic response to ensure every generation can participate in whatever the future looks like. A level playing field is vital.

Let us look closely at some of the things that are driving this approach:

• 1.7 billion students were displaced as lockdowns spread across the world. 1 in 5 students didn’t have access to data or a device. Many more shared the small screen of a phone or shared the family device that was also being used for parents just to keep their job. What it communicated to our young people and families was this: if you can’t connect you can’t participate in your own education.
• The virus will be present for a considerable time and there is likely to be disruptions for individuals, classes and perhaps entire school communities. We desperately need a resilient education system that affords a consistent experience no matter where the learning happens. 1:1 helps build that resilience.
• Over two thirds (67%) of UK companies across the UK have unfilled digital vacancies. Only a third (31%) are confident UK businesses will be able to access the digital skills they need in the next three to five years. Here in Scotland we have 13,000 unfilled jobs every year. Schools shouldn’t be factories for business or FE/HE but we have a duty to ensure positive destinations for our young people and that they are ready for the jobs that are actually there. 1:1 lets us plan a curriculum that regularly develops these across disciplines.
• 1 in 5 existing jobs in UK cities are likely to be displaced by 2030 as a result of automation. Many organisations have accelerated this move due to Covid-19. What our economy will need is a digitally adept and flexible workforce that can create and sustain innovation and services like never before and make us a lighthouse nation for digital industries and inward investment. We can more easily build a pathway of upskilling for our young people when we have a robust 1:1 program in place.

This only scratches the surface in terms of a perfect storm that is building around education, challenging our ideas about how learning happens and asking us to look at what we’ve learned from the past 6 months from teachers and learners. It has developed a sense of urgency about the kinds of transformation our system needs.

What’s even more important, is to spend some time looking at what technology can bring to learners and learning, and how teachers can leverage it to reduce their workload, improve their workflow and make learning happen.

Across the UK we have a rising population of young people with additional support needs. In England alone there are over 1 million students who have a defined SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) profile. That rise is rarely matched by supportive funding. Across Apple, Google and Microsoft, technology can empower young people to take charge of how they overcome their learning challenges and personalise their learning environment. That personalisation is made possible with 1:1 and so important for helping them in their life, future learning and work.

Study after study reports that a creative & innovative mindset, digital literacy and computational thinking are some of the most important skills that businesses desire in their employees. We need to establish those skills as our learners move through their schooling. The breadth of opportunity to develop these through 1:1 is boundless and, in many cases, simply impossible otherwise; Augmented reality, infinite paint, rich coding tools across all ages and the kinds of creative tools that move children away from technology for consumption to technology for creation. All of our young people deserve to be able to grow these skills, to tinker and be curious and creative, at any time.

If we pay attention to how learning actually works in the brain, we can really accelerate learning, using digital tools to deliver high quality feedback to students, use adaptive learning apps, develop mastery and open up the kind of parental engagement that engages with the best home learning. Devices don’t teach children, teachers teach children, and they have a battery of pedagogical approaches that can be enhanced significantly through technology. That works best in a 1:1 environment where consistency of access allows the deployment of new approaches that are built on a strong pedagogical foundation. For teachers, the ability to model knowledge in deeply engaging ways, use self marking assessments, manage and distribute resources, collaborate with colleagues and generate assessments that are authentic and meaningful for their students is only the tip of the iceberg in how technology transforms their job for the better. 1:1 opens up a whole new world – not the usual 1 hour a week in the IT suite but an environment when you can make the very best of a consistent technology approach.

What do we want our nation to look like by 2030? How do we imagine the future for our own children and our communities? How can we come together to solve the problems of tomorrow? These are all questions we need to ask as employers, educators and parents.

A favourite quote of mine comes from Grace Hopper, an eloquent and wise Naval Officer and computing scientist: “The most dangerous phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way’ “. Transformation is challenging and requires rigorous thinking and smart leadership. There is also a sustained financial cost but that is manageable compared to the cost of doing nothing. There are real implications in doing nothing, both for the individual child and the wider society.

The great thing about working for XMA is the support and flexibility they offer in making such transformations happen, understanding the need, and knowing the routes through to that destination. We believe in doing better and making our education system the best in the world. We believe in young people and in our schools’ capacity to turn the page. We’re absolutely ready to meet with schools, ready to have the conversation that begins the new chapter that comes with 1:1.

Written by Michael Conlon – Transformation Consultant @ XMA