Copyright ©2016Bill Harpley

EDUCATION

WHAT / BENEFIT / TIMESCALE / VALUE
Sensor technology in schools /
  • Children learn vital hardware and coding skills.
  • Teach basic physics (e.g. electromagnetism, waves)
  • Engage with technology such as BBC Microbit and Raspberry Pi
  • Learn how sensors can be used to monitor activity and wellbeing within their local community

Data literacy in schools /
  • Children can use local data sets to tell stories about their community
  • Engage in making digital maps of their local area
  • Discover Big Data and data visualisation
  • Help to teach Statistics, Mathematics and Geospatial analysis
  • Inspire more children to pursue STEM courses
  • Scope for schools to collaborate on data projects with other schools and universities

Future work and further education /
  • All children will learn vital skills in data literacy which will be essential to their future employability and prepare them to be active citizens.
  • Older children will be better prepared for the types of skills which will be part of the future higher education curriculum

Child safety in schools /
  • There may be scenarios in which it would be appropriate to track children on their way to/from schools or on local school trips.

Community /
  • Students can build data sets which can help to identify economic, social and environmental problems in their local community

Professional practice /
  • Help teaching and lecturing staff acquire and practice leading-edge technology, data analysis and data visualisation skills.

Industry outreach /
  • Engagement with IoT may enhance eligibility of schools to participate in industry outreach programmes such as
    GE’s Build My Future schools programme

University /
  • Vital tool for teaching and research tool for a wide range of courses. Examples:
  • Electronics
  • Software Engineering
  • Environmental Science
  • Biology
  • Urban Geography
  • Scope for universities to engage in outreach activities with local schools

Reputation management /
  • Scope for schools to earn higher Ofsted rating through teaching of data literacy
  • Higher satisfaction ratings from fee-paying students
  • Publish progress of data projects through social media
  • Helps institutions aspire to becoming centres of excellence for STEM teaching
  • Employers will have high regard for school-leavers and graduates from these institutions

How to Critique this document

The best way to look at this document is to empathetically view it from the perspective of stakeholders (and competitors).

  • If I was a School Governor, I would …
  • If I was a Teacher, I would …
  • If I was a potential Employer, I would …
  • If I was an Ofsted Inspector, I would …
  • If I was a Head Teacher (budget holder), I would …
  • If I was a Local Authority education officer, I would …
  • If I was head of an Academy school, I would …
  • If I was a fee-paying parent of a private school, I would …
  • If I was a school pupil, I would …
  • If I was a university student, I would …
  • If I was a business development manager from a rival service provider (e.g. Capita), I would …

You get the idea? So your task is:

  • Try and identify any other stakeholders which I may have missed
  • Think about what you would do differently
  • Try to identify any further needs, from the perspective of each stakeholder
  • Try and think how we could value each benefit in cash terms (and over what time scale)