mikes web log

This is just my latest report on the progress of the project.

A significant problem has appeared.

The project is linked to the e-learning foundation. This link is the foundation for sustainability. We are asking the families who receive the computers to donate £10 per month to the foundation. This is then returned to the project minus expenses. It is anticipated that this will provide for future support for the project. 

At the start of the project our main concern was installation. We thought the money bit would sort itself out so it was at the bottom of our list. There was no proper link between installation and donations. The first problem that appeared were families having donations taken from bank accounts when their computer had not been installed. This was quickly resolved by cancelling direct debit orders and returning monies. However a more dramatic problem is evolving – we are having to tackle those parents who want to pay and cannot because they have not been given a direct debit or have not been asked to pay. This are now talking to those who have been asked to pay and have paid – as you would expect in the communities we serve. Then there are fears that those who have not paid  will suddenly be asked for not one but three months of payment.

I am relieved that we have now appointed somebody to tackle these problems over the next ten weeks. The message is – this is an area that will not sort itself out. It is a complex area involving mutiple interations, school – family, family – e-learning foundation, project  – family and so on. The dangers are potentially significant.

One of the most noticeable characteristics of my software build visits is the number of mothers I meet who are looking after very young children. This is coupled with the number of people who answer my phone calls who are unconfident in speaking English. The two observations are not necessarily related. They are however both interesting and require further investigation.

Is this part of the European statistics that give Birmingham  the youngest age profile in Europe?

There are many mothers who want to find out what is happening. They look at you  installing the software for the full 25  minutes and you know that they are fascinated by what is going on.

I am excited by the potential of what we are doing. Parents are exciited by the interaction of their families with ICT. In a few it is unconditional. In most it is conditional on the safety that we offer and I am pleased that we can cope with this.

This was a response from a headteacher involved in the project:

I had a very exciting meeting last night which touched upon the project. I had an informal meeting with parent governors focusing on how well we are doing as a school and asked them for their views of the Home School learning project. The response was superb. Two mums have year 3 pupils and enthused for sometime about the impact it’s had on the whole family. Their daughters are finding it highly motivating and are using their PCs every day in a constructive way, but also the whole family are engaging with it. A mum told her how her daughter was teaching her and her father how to use the PC and helped dad create posters to display in his shop.

They see it as hugely beneficial to the community and said that their stories could be repeated by all parents 60 times over.

What was so exciting was that they were able to list the many examples of how we have met key outcomes from the project. They provided a very rich vein of evidence.

We are also undergoing an external evaluation of the project and it is showing continuing positive impacts in ways that were not envisaged in the initial stages

The software updating continues and with it the repair of computer systems. In my visits to homes I find that at least 1 in 3 is not working in some way. I suppose this was inevitable, this was the evidence from the trials that in the initial stages there was a good deal of experimentation by the recipients of the computers. This diminished when they realised that they could not circumvent the internet provision supplied and that messing around meant that there were long periods when they had no computer or internet access waiting for the repair.

This week I have met two classic cases. In the first instance it was not experimentation. The family were using the computer when they suddenly noticed that the screen image had moved dramatically to the right leaving a large black area on the screen. It emerged that this was a common fault in the monitors that we are using. Thinking it was their fault they carefully packed the computer away and decided not to talk about it…..until I asked the year 3 child about their computer because of my software obsession. “It doesn’t work”. I phone the home and cannot get permission to enter the house. It was only after the intervention of a translator and some persuasion that I was allowed to enter and find the boxed computer. What then? The computer starts up and somebody has somehow added a password to the administrator account and they have no idea of the password. “It was an experiment said the sister of the mother”. A re-image is therefore needed.

An observation: The computer was in the sitting room. The majority of the computers are placed in bedrooms. I have found, on quite a few occasions, that when I am installing software or trying an amateur repair that some person is in the bed. It might be a sick child or the taxi driver father. On one occasion I heard a sound behind me and looked around to find grandpa and grandma looking at me (they must have been in their 80’s). Back to the sitting room. As I tried to fix the computer, so that the software could be installed, the whole family was in attendance. Watching me was mother, sister, father and the four children. The computer was obviously important. An observation of the home indicated that there was no way in which this family would have been able to afford a computer with internet access.

The second case is even more bizarre. Something had obviously gone wrong with this computer as Windows need to be activated! We manage to activate windows and then found that the image was not that which was originally implanted. There was Norton antivirus not Sophos, there was no Internet Explorer and so on. It then transpired that something had gone wrong and father and uncles had tried to sort it out. These cases are both negative and positive. There is obviously a fear of admitting that something is wrong. Do they think they think it was their fault? They obviously did. However in the second case there was a sense of desperation and an attempt to right something on their own – even though this dug a deeper hole.

There was a great sense of relief in both families that the ordeal of the broken computer was over.

Because of Eid quite a few schools in Birmingham restarted on the 8th. This was therefore the first week of the New Year. Two weeks of wonderful problems now seem to have surfaced and are gasping for air. Five of these are linked to non-internet access, two are associated with moving, ten are linked to adding software to the computers (self imposed), three are parents who have decided that they don’t want to continue with the arrangement, five are families complaining that they have not been connected, four are linked to things not really working and the rest are the vast array of things that could and will go wrong in a project of this sort.

The week did however finish well as magically Giai, the wireless providers, appeared in the area and began sorting out the problems. Who would have believed that lack of Internet access could have been caused by a poor connection between the aerial and the amplifier box! At last the computer at 259 has been reimaged so I can load the school based software. Why did it need reimaging – the family member who choose to be the computer administrator had forgotten his password.

There are the positives. Training of parents begins on Monday, next week. This is at the heart of the project – it begins the process of the pupils training the adults. There was also the vison in the ‘My Documents’ files of all the dissertation references in one home I visited. Firstly, I don’t deliberately look into these files, one of the software packages has me downloading to the computer and installing from that region. In this case the 6th  former living in the house was using the computer very effectively. I also came across one our teachers introducing blogs to his year 3 pupils – wow.

I am beginning to think that the exciting times are just beginning. Roll on next week.

To contain those who think the project might be in disarray, it is not.  There are some very positive strands emerging from the initial term where one school had all their children with a computer with Internet access at home. There are indications of greater meaningful interaction of parents with children’s work in schools. This was indicated at a parents evening.  There is also evidence of parents interaction with the lack of access to the Internet and the school based software that had been provided.

I am now moving onto the provision of software to one of the other primary schools in the area. This is looking to be a very positive process. Parents are very welcoming and continue to be very positive about the project.

One of the interesting aspects of the VIP discussion in the previous input was a discussion on ‘forcing’ individuals, families etc. down a particular route. We are doing that in Aston. The families are being ‘forced’ to accept ICT and its consequences within their homes through a type of blackmail.

There was a measurable proportion of the families who were ’scared’ of the ICT. “We do not want our children to be able to access it at home.” “It is unsafe?” “They will be able to see things we do not want them to see.” We had to do a lot of ’selling’ to get these families to accept that the ICT was as safe as we could provide. “It is the same as they would get in schools.” Was our persuasive reply. We also persuaded them on the basis of homework. “Teachers would like to give your children homework where they will need to use the Internet”

So are we doing the right thing? Are we moving them in a dangerous direction? We are taking risks. We have little idea of the real outcome. I do believe they are -justifiable -sorry that’s to strong. They are  – acceptable. Children and parents can, within the framework of the project, reject the ICT intrusion. On reflection I reject that suggestion. They do not have a choice at the moment as we are forcing them down this route in the belief that the community will gain tremendously from embracing ICT. Schools have a great potential to influence parents – really have no escape.

We have to prepare ourselves for the result of this intrusion into their lives. How will an Asian ICT skilled community within this country interact with the highly skilled community in their home countries? How will we further enhance the strength of the community when they find that they can develop such stronger communication links with their own, far away, home communities? How will it develop their renowned entrepreneurial capabilities? What happens when the communities really take on the ICT revolution.

We will have to wait and see. I am very optimistic.

Here we are – Christmas and at last a planned 5 week task has just been finished….in 12 weeks. The updating of the 90 computers linked to Prince Albert has been completed. Quite a costly exercise, however I have met all the parents, grandparents, babies, cousins etc that are linked to the Computers in the Home project. Now for the next 100 in the other two primary schools. But it is Christmas so let us not go any further down that route.

Yesterday I was invited to a meeting with some very important people. Birmingham with Shropshire is competing to become the UK’s digital city. There are ten finalist and the decision will be made sometime in February 2007. Seven VIP’s from the judging panel visited Aston yesterday afternoon to examine the Computers in the Home and other projects. The programme was informal chatting linked to a buffet, a short formal input and then more formal questioning. The VIP’s had arrived in a special coach.

The session begins. Onwards to the informal chat. Everyone mingles. Our job is to engage in discussion with panel members. They don’t have name tags. I pick out out one interesting member of the group and begin the process of engaging him. I quickly move onto the trial phase and the number of users (ten per computer). I lead him through the potential employment opportunities of the programme and then into the fun bit of the Barnaby Bear episode (www.barnaby.edublogs.org). Just getting into my stride when Nikki, one of the organisers on our side, comes along side and whispers in my ear………….”He is the coach driver”.

It’s the annual Royal Variety Show on telly this evening. Is it only a year since we saw C Tate saying ‘ I’m not bovvered’ to the Queen? Worth noting that she is not in tonights line-up.

Today I was having a brief workout with one of the year 3 classes involved in the project. I asked them if the computer was behaving itself. Mohhamed was one of five children who raised his hand. ‘What is wrong?’ ‘Internet is not working’ was the reply.

I had ten minutes available so I phoned Mohhamed’s house ‘ Can I visit the computer to see whether it is working OK ?’ ‘No problem’ said the mother ‘ I thought it was working’ she added. ‘See you in two minutes’ was my reply.

I arrived at the house. The computer was working perfectly. Good internet access. As I left the mother said, in a quiet voice, ‘ I think it was me – I wanted him to finish his homework so I said the Internet was not working’. ‘He is always playing this racing game!’