Scotch College Adelaide's Information Technology Project: A catalyst for change

In 1994 Scotch College began the first year of a five year Information Technology Development Plan. An integral part of stage 1 of the program was the contextual use of Macintosh Power Book computers by all students in the first year of their middle .schooling. This notebook project and its computer network support structure has been the most significant innovation and catalyst for change since the college became co-educational in 1972.

Scotch College is a co-educational, independent, R-12 school of approximately 950 students associated with the Uniting Church. The two campuses, R to 6 and 7 to 12 are located approximately 12 kilometres south east of the Adelaide Central Business District. The school has boarding accommodation for approximately 80 boys and girls with students able to enter as boarders from year 7. The college has a sub school structure:

Junior School -	reception to year 6 (approximately 250 students)
Middle School -	year 7 and 8 (approximately 200 students)
Senior School -	years 9 to 12 ( approximately 540 students)

The Junior School is on a separate campus but within walking distance of the Middle and Senior Schools which share a geographically common campus. Each sub school has its own Head of School responsible to the Principal of the College. The Head of the Senior School is also the Deputy Principal of the College. A second Deputy Principal is the school Psychologist, staff and student counsellor and Head of the Special Education Department. A College Administrator is employed to assist the Principal and the sub school Head with the financial and infrastructural management of the college and the appointment and deployment of non academic staff. The Director of Studies has an oversight of curriculum from R to 12 with specific responsibility for the curriculum management and time tabling of the Middle School and Senior School campuses. Heads of Departments are responsible for syllabus development and programs of work within their areas of subject expertise.

Information Technology Project

A five year development plan

An integral part of stage 1 of the project included the introduction of notebook computers as a requirement tor all students entering year 7, the first year of Middle Schooling. Parents could either purchase the computer directly from the school or lease it with payments being made as part of the term fees, spread over a three year period. An opportunity to lease or purchase was also given to students in higher year levels on the understanding that no special support structures would be available through the curriculum to students beyond year 7.

The project aims to develop in parallel, five essential and interrelated technological strands across the college and its community.

Strand 1:	Contextual use of notebook computers in the classroom.
Strand 2:	The development of a college wide information network.
Strand 3:	The upgrading and extension of technology laboratories
Strand 4:	The establishment of site access to BBSs and the Internet.
Strand 5:	Remote access for the Scotch community.

Strand 1. Contextual use of notebook computers

The choice of the Apple Macintosh was made on the basis of the in built networking, sound, and graphics capabilities of the PowerBook 145B and PowerBook 165 notebook computers. These features were available at prices that were certainly more than competitive with MS-DOS and Windows capable note books with the addition of the same networking and sound options.

The college already had made significant investments in Macintosh software and computer laboratory hardware over a number of years and the wish to retain compatibility was also a compelling factor in the choice of notebook computers for students and staff.

This year was chosen for introduction because it was a primary point of entry to the Middle School of the college. Although a majority of students follow through from our own Junior School, where students have already received significant experience in the use of computers as a learning tool, it is a significant new enrolment intake point with students arriving from a diverse range of feeder schools and with previous computing experience that spans the total spectrum of prior learning.

It is also a year where the timetable is structured in such a way that students spend approximately thirty percent of their time in an integrated Languages/ Humanities home classroom environment. This gives a specific focus within each day in terms of :

• The learning environment in which the students operate.
• The other staff and students with whom they interact in the learning process
• A geographical and infrastructural locus for the establishment of a computer network support infrastructure.

The portability of the Macintosh notebooks allow students to retain access to computers as they move to specialist areas of teaching in other parts of the college for Applied Technology, Art, Drama, Health Education, Food and Nutrition, Languages other than English, Music and Science. The Applied Technology and Art areas have their own specific software and computer resources for CAD CAM work and graphic design.

The college has provided twenty six notebook computers for the use of those staff members directly closely involved with the year 7 cohort. This represents a significant financial commitment by the college to the professional development of the staff. It also emphasises the conviction that 'access' and 'ownership' are the two criteria essential to the successful contextual use of computers in an educational context.

Strand 2: A College wide network

The five stage plan allows tor the duplication of similar sub networks in each of the major building complexes that make up the total Middle School/ Senior School campus. Each of the sub networks will be connected by fibre optics cable so that on completion all sub networks will be interconnected but major areas of traffic will also be managed within faculty specific zones. The attachment, "Information Technology - Stage 1 1994 and Stage 2 1995" is not drawn to scale but represents the progress made during 1994 and indicates the projected developments for 1995. (The rapid development in the areas of computer networking and communications technology means that detailed planning beyond a period of twelve to eighteen months ahead is not considered worthwhile. Every attempt has been made to allow for an eventual shift in networking to ethernet as the new generation of 500 series Macintosh Power Books are already ethernet capable).

The networking, sound, and graphics capabilities of the Macintosh PowerBook 145B and PowerBook 165 note book computers enabled easy and flexible access for students to this network which extends throughout an area of the school in which they spend approximately sixty percent of their school day. Each of the classrooms has thirteen network connection nodes allowing the students to use their notebook computer as:

• a 'standalone' computer for individual students work either at school or at home;

• a terminal for connection to the network for access to information and assignments, relevant resource materials held in databases on the network and from CD-ROM based resources;

• a tool for information exchange with staff and students across the network using an electronic mail system;

• a tool for uploading completed work as files directly to staff for review and/or marking;

• a publications tool for collaborative group activities to allow the combination of individual files into a reconstructed project.(eg. class newspapers created by an editorial team using files from multiple contributors).

During the first half of the 1994 school year a second administrative local area network was also established. This second network connected senior academic staff, administrative staff and clerical assistants across the three college sub schools via an electronic mailing system. Access to this network was gradually extended to include other staff as network users from inside the college and also 'telecoms' users from outside, including parents, technical support staff employed by the Apple reseller who supports and services the project through an on site warranty repair service, and members of the Council of Governors of the college.

This administrative network and electronic mail system proved to be the most significant catalysts for developing a first hand understanding, by staff, of the potential and extent of the project. It also created the opportunity for trial and error on the part of administrative and senior staff in a controlled environment where adult learning could take place in a non threatening, supportive and collaborative manner.

The linking of the year 7 Middle School network to the administration/senior staff network during term 3 of 1994 represented the completion of stage 1 of the networking strand of the Scotch ITP and represents the first step towards the connection of sub servers across the college.

Strand 3. The upgrading and extension of technology laboratories

Strand 4: The establishment of site access to BBSs and Internet

Strand 5: Remote access for the Scotch community

The use of First Class as the electronic mail system used by senior staff for daily communications relating to management and administration at has also created a model by which it is anticipated that the wider Scotch community will share more directly in the project in the medium term.

The First Class system has conferencing facilities which allow a bulletin board style of service. Newsletters and other communications can be posted in the conferences section, accessed remotely and downloaded by staff, parents, members of the College Council and other friends and supporters of the college. This offers an alternative to information access for the parents of boarding students in the future.

The catalyst for significant change

Pedagogical change

A transitional from an essential "instructivist" to "constructivist" methodology was anticipated and planning was done in order to cope with and manage the change. Although anticipated the new demands of coping with the physical restructuring of classrooms, the preparation of units of work, the installation delays in completion of the network and the stress of learning new and applied skills in the use of computers in the classroom context by teachers created great demands on staff.

Changes to teachers' work

• Less teacher centred 'instructional' teaching and more 'constructional' student learning

• More advising, supervising, commenting, facilitating and monitoring of progress.

• Less instructor and controller and more tutor, mentor, adviser and supporter.

• More preparation and work follow up.

• Expanding the subject matter of the curriculum and experimenting with new forms of curriculum development.

• An increased emphasis on developing students self management and organisational skills. A more responsive rather than directive role.

• More time planning and developing programs, lessons and materials.

• Secondary teachers from years 7 to 10 achieving more diverse and integrated expertise rather than specialised more narrow subject expertise.

• New strategies for maintaining records of students work and their progress are required as students tend to produce greater volume and quality in some types of assignments.

Changes to students work

• More active, autonomous learners in the classroom, responsible for the learning process, rather than being taught a body of material whose responsibility is the teachers.

• Experience success rather than failure.

• A willingness to write more spending time drafting, correcting and improving written expression to produce extensive higher quality work of their own making.

• An increased understanding of the cognitive process.

• Interacting with many different people, teachers, other adults and peers including others throughout Australia and on occasions overseas.

• Understanding the process of information access directly and remotely through the use of modern technology.

• There are significant gender differences relating the ways in which students use computers.

• Problems of gender access to laboratory computer facilities largely disappears an issue for schools.

• The weight burden of the student school bag becomes even more of a problem, especially for the less organised individuals who tend to carry everything, everywhere.

• Many students seemed more focussed on specific tasks.

• Joint projects where the finished product is; synthesis of several different files stimulate interest and raise motivation levels as well as some lateral thinking about presentation.

Changes to use of classroom space

Although the locations of power boards and network connection points are similar within the classrooms the furniture placement, use of working space and location of printers is characteristically different in each of the three year 7 classrooms. Linear placement along walls near network nodes and clusters of desks at power outlet points are common combinations for workspace arrangement.

Staffing allocation changes

The level of previous computing experience varied greatly amongst the staff most directly involved. Some had no previous experience at all and began at the point of turning on the computer.

An additional staffing allocation equivalent to one full time salary was made in this first year. The allocation was divided across three current staff resulting in a reduction in their previous contact teaching load. The three have became a collaborative management team with the following responsibilities: -

• The Director of Studies has assumed the role of Information Technology Manager with responsibility for the planning and implementation of the college wide infrastructure for both staff and student computing. He is also responsible for the organisation and management of the professional development program for staff.

• The Head of Department, Computing is responsible for the management of student and staff notebook computer maintenance and repair, the management of the networks and the computer laboratories in both the Middle and Senior Schools.

• The Head of the Geography Department has developed essential teaching units and materials in the humanities area of the curriculum, contributed significant expertise and prior computing experience in the areas of network access and the use modems for remote access. He has also been a major contributor to the support of other staff by working with them directly in the classroom.

Team teaching within classrooms has become more widely accepted. Students and staff have also come to expect and accept visitors to their rooms ranging from members of the press during the early stages of the project to the regular visits of observers from other schools in South Australia and from interstate.

Syllabus development changes

Accepting technological competencies as a genuine component of the Legitimate Curriculum has been and still is on of the most difficult changes for staff and parents to accept.

Readily accepted are the "Old Basics":

• literacy, numeracy, problem solving and rational thinking.

• information access, discrimination, information processing, observation, task and time management, co-operative and collaborative learning, knowledge reconstruction and analysis.

As a result of the extraordinarily rapid learning and computing skills acquisition by year 7 students during the first term of 1994 an increasing number of staff have come to realise the importance of the incorporation into syllabus statements of skills and outcomes relating to the use of information technology.

A list of Technological Competencies have now been established to which staff and Heads of Departments now refer as part of the process of curriculum and syllabus review. The key competencies in this area of curriculum are in each if the following subgroups:

• Input
• Access
• Retrieval
• Analysis
• Reconstruction
• Organisation and management

  (A list of the Technological Competencies, albeit in draft form, but is too extensive to include in this paper).

Summary

• The characteristics of access and ownership offered through the use of note book computers offers students and staff regular opportunities to use the technology on a regular basis in a real, contextual, working environment.

• The majority of the students in the year 7 cohort have achieved a more advanced understanding of the use of computers and related peripherals in one semester than they would have previously achieved over a three or four year period.

• There is a need accept and identify the outcomes associated with technological literacy so that such outcomes might be more widely recognised as an integral part of the legitimate curriculum. Hence the attempted development of a definable set of Technological Competencies.

• Many of the outcomes for students can be achieved through the use of the increasingly available, low cost but powerful integrated "works" type computing software. The need to wait for, or find specialised "interactive" or "multimedia" teaching software packages is only partly relevant to the use if Information technologies and computers in education.

• The support of a computer network enhances the understanding of the use of contemporary information technologies for information access for staff and students. It changes the way in which both groups work.

• The support of senior staff for an institutional ethos that encourages the use of information technology in aspects of management is a critical factor to the success of such a project.

• Non threatening, non judgmental peer support is essential to ensure staff confidence in the earliest stages of professional development and as they acquire the user autonomy to prepare units of work and alternative ideas for working with students.

• The challenges of learning to use computers and change methodology can be both threatening and rewarding for staff who are prepared to make the effort and spend the time to learn new skills and apply them appropriately to their work.

• The great majority of staff with no previous experience with computers are capable of coping with the significant changes required given sufficient lead time and support.

• A restructuring of staff positions of responsibility becomes an increasingly high priority for management.

• New strategies and management systems need to evolve to cope with the repair and replacement demands of computing equipment. This includes relationships with computer resellers and service personnel, with representatives of manufacturers, (eg. Apple Computer Australia) and with financial institutions for the arrangement of leasing finance and insurance.

• All personnel at the college have been affected in some way including secretarial staff through learning the use of electronic mail systems to sub contractors involved in the provision of power and network cabling.

• The college has established new, formal corporate relationships in order to support the project with:

  Apple Australia through the Innovative Technology Site agreement

  CPM&S as the college's nominated reseller and service provider

  The college aims to establish an affiliation with a South Australian University for purposes of remote access to information services in the future

• The maintenance and adherence to curriculum policies and guidelines must remain a priority. The changes must be carefully managed to ensure that a balanced perspective is maintained on all aspects of the educational process. It is important to retain the best and most effective aspects of more traditional practice and integrate constructively the learning alternatives that information technologies offer.

Attachment 1: Network schematic and file server

Attachment 2: Information Technology - Stage 1-1994 and Stage 2-1995

Author: Malcolm Spargo, Director of Studies and Information Technology Manager, Scotch College, Adelaide, Carruth Road, Torrens Park, South Australia 5062. Phone: (08) 272 7511; Facsimile: (08) 271 7916 Please cite as: Spargo, M. (1994). Scotch College Adelaide's Information Technology Project: A catalyst for change. In J. Steele and J. G. Hedberg (eds), Learning Environment Technology: Selected papers from LETA 94, 318-325. Canberra: AJET Publications. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/edtech94/rw/spargo.html