PROBLEMS AND FRUSTRATIONS

During the period of this Project, various issues/problems arose.  The resolution of these difficulties was discussed at our monthly cluster meetings, where remedial interventions were proposed, discussed and adopted.  The following is a description of general difficulties or impediments encountered.

Lack of Time
All schools in the Project considered the “Lack of Class Time” as the single most frustrating difficulty.  Interruptions in the school week and busy times during the school year (e.g. Christmas & Confirmation) impeded progress in completing Modules. Various solutions were recommended:
1.  Timetabling of our Project must be practical, workable and acceptable to teachers.
2.  Deleting 5 minutes per subject to accommodate the inclusion of the SIP Project  in the classroom timetable.
3.  Deleting time blocks from  subjects.
The implementation of the above recommendations depended on teacher choice and preference.
With the introduction of the Revised Curriculum, timetabling will be more flexible and  consequently of benefit to our Project. 

Lack of Resources
Most of the schools in the Project have one Personal Computer per class.  Pupil access to the Personal Computer was on a rota basis, but the Modular work was often very detailed and time consuming.  This also lead to class teacher frustration as the Personal Computer was not free at any point during the week for other activities, not SIP related.
The ICT set up in one of our Project schools revolved around a computer room to which the pupils were taken once or twice a week.  Allowing each pupil access to send emails and to carry out other tasks was difficult to manage time-wise.  For the purpose of activities where typing was a large element of the work, and emailing especially, an additional computer in each classroom would provide a more readily available resource.

Other resource difficulties that arose of a more practical nature concerned teachers running out of ink for the class printers, which were very expensive to replace.

E-mail Partnerships
Few problems were experienced in locating a French Partner School.   Initially, it proved difficult to contact schools in German & Italian speaking areas willing to communicate with the pupils in Ireland.  Many contacts were pursued, the leaders of the MFL pilot project were approached, the Goethe Institute, Léargas, MOL and various databases on the World Wide Web, such as partbase.com, epals, tandem etc.  Finally, perseverance paid, with all Project Schools eventually enjoying the benefits of international key-pals.

Hardware Difficulties
In one of our schools, computers were networked and running on an ISDN line.  Despite this fact, the Internet connection was fraught with problems:  computer crashing, password set up failing, slow to connect, timing out, etc.   As a result, the pupils had a much more limited access than anticipated.  A rota system was necessary to allow each group to work at a time, considerably restricting their time on the World Wide Web.
In all schools, common hardware problems that arose were computer breakdowns and printers developing faults.

Teacher Preparation
Class organisation and lesson preparation and research was much more time-consuming than originally anticipated. To complete work after the school day, regular home access to a Personal Computer was required.  Unfortunately a Personal Computer was not readily available to all teachers on the Project.

ICT Skills – Lack of Familiarity and Knowledge
Some class teachers lacked the skills necessary to continue computer work, when the Staff IT Co-ordinator had departed e.g. knowledge of Databases.

Curriculum Balance
The Primary difficulty in initial stages was deciding the balance between IT skills and language skills.  Advice was sought and a best practice structure was implemented, as structured in the Project’s Modules.

 Staff Training in ICT Skills
As part of the SIP Project, staff of the participating schools were entitled to basic and specialised computer skill training.  However, in most cases,  inordinate delays were experienced, primarily due to the unavailability of trained tutors.

Classroom Management

 Using a Computer Room.

Hardware and Software
Given the number of pupils involved and the limited hardware resources, the pupils generally worked in groups of three or four especially for the emailing and the Internet activities.  They also worked in groups for databases, desktop publishing and patch studies.
In conducting the word processing Module, it was felt that it would be of more benefit for each pupil to work individually and thus ensure each pupil had acquired basic skills.  At this time there were only 8 Personal Computers in the computer room.  As each pupil worked on their own, only one third of the class could work on a computer at a time. This involved organising supervision and other activities for the remaining pupils.

 Internet and Email
A school Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) was compiled for Internet Use.  Parental permission was requested prior to the use of the Internet.  Various precautions were put in place to ensure maximum security for the pupils.  Scoilnet was set as the default homepage, the password was not disclosed to the pupils, a teacher was always present when email and Internet activities took place, only small groups had access at any one time, and all incoming and outgoing emails were first checked by the teacher twice daily.  With regard to Internet and email activities, a rota was necessary to timetable each group of pupils.

Using Stand-Alone Computers
Time management was crucial to the successful operation of each module.
Hardware access was limited to one Personal Computer per class of 30 pupils.
Each class teacher operated a strict rota to ensure that all pupils gained equal access to the Personal Computer.
Software access was operated in the same way.  However, use of software was inhibited, as computers were not networked.

Internet and e-mail were even more difficult from a time management point of view.  This was particularly true of Internet usage.  As only one Personal Computer could access the Internet at any given time, a school Internet-access rota was devised.  This worked reasonably well, but time constraints stunted pupil access to a certain degree.  For practical reasons, two or possibly three pupils worked together on the Internet at a time.

Hours Per Day
Full and complete daily on-line access was required to enable each school in the Project Cluster undertake the E-mail & Internet Module. This was necessary, irrespective whether the school was equipped with stand alone computers or a computer room.
As e-mailing and Internet research were on-going activities within the Project, daily access to the Internet was a necessary and fundamental requirement, with the number of hours varying depending on the activity concerned.

Groups
Groups were usually of mixed ability to enable more competent children to help those less able (for example in word processing activities in the early weeks).
Class lessons were given to initiate the use of various language software packages.
Other school problems specific to particular schools within the cluster, e.g. lack of hardware, hardware difficulties, staff issues, unavailability of ISDN line, delay in the provision of funding for capital expenditure, classroom accommodation for computers had to be resolved by the respective school cluster members, for which they deserve great praise.

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