Digital Lead / ICT Coordinator Post in Schools

[Stephen McFarlane]

Hi all,

Not sure if you spotted this... 

"Senior Cycle Redevelopment // Implementation Support Measures"

https://www.tui.ie/_fileupload/senior-cycle-reform-implementation-support-measures.pdf

6.4 Digital facilities (Page 32)

• The Department will engage further with teacher unions and other stakeholders to understand the proposal for a dedicated post to be established in each school for IT/ICT to assist with contract management, liaison with suppliers and maintenance contractors, oversight of IT provision capability, administration of support grant and general supervision of equipment and use, identification of CPD needs. Such further consideration could also include reflection on the experience in other jurisdictions where an IT Coordinator role also facilitates or recommends professional development, peer to peer learning and other responsibilities.
• With regard to proposals for a dedicated IT/ICT administrative support role in schools, the Department believes that further consideration is necessary to define the most appropriate model through which this support could be provided.
• With regard to IT facilities required for the implementation of SCR, ongoing discussions are taking place between the DOEAY and the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform regarding the National Development Plan (NDP), including funding commitments to the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027.

I think many of us here would only be delighted to be supported with more time and responsibility managing and leading digital technologies in our schools!

Steve

[Reddin, Nuala]

Hi,

What might that mean for those of us doing all of the aforementioned. If they employ a dedicated IT post, I presume we would lose our role?

Kind regards 

Nuala Reddin

Art & IT Teacher - IT Co-ordinator - Creative Schools Co-ordinator - Peer Education Co-ordinator

Crana College-Buncrana-F93 D568-0749361113

nuala...@donegaletb.ie

www.cranacollege.com

Excellence in Education, Care, Equality, Community and Respect

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[John Heffernan]

They should go the full hog and do a Ed Tech Coach/ an ITRT or a TOSA type role separate from a teaching post role

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[Tim Lavery]

I think this is would be a welcome step in the right direction, IT resources managed by an IT professional, supporting teaching staff and admin.

Tim

[Stephen McFarlane]

Now we just need to define what could be meant by the term "IT Professional" ;) Particularly in relation to staffing currently in place in schools and systems and support available from external providers. 

Even though "it is very clear that there is no one size fits all solution to this complex issue." (Digital Strategy 2027, Page 47) I do wonder if anyone has tried to outline what such a role could be, what the scope of the role would be, what skills such a role would have etc. 

I have my own skills set but I rely on others (some of them external providers) to complete the full picture as a complimentary group of internal and external people all cantered around the goal of effective use of digital technologies to support teaching, learning and assessment. And every school does this different for we are all like little republics, with our own approaches and supports in place. 

So, while the issue might be complex, surely this does not mean that we cannot at least try to solve it? 

Steve

[Imogen Bertin]

Although I'm old, and so still largely an AI sceptic (I don't see enough practical application that reduces end-user time or improves experience yet...), I think this use-case is a classic for someone to sort out a school-specific AI chatbox for standard and time-consuming support queries like lost passwords / new device needs setup. 

School plugs in details for chat box, then parents/non-IT teachers use the school-specific chatbot to find their DIY solutions, filtering the ones that need human intervention/education time or where contact with an external provider is required? So using the AI functions to maintain the little republics as required, while making best use of any new human resources? And tracking the queries to look at what needs to be improved.

Just my 2c... Of course, it's only as good as the chatbot design. But could a good chatbot infrastructure be centralised/bulk purchased perhaps?

Imogen

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[John Heffernan]

This is a topic ( definition of roles) that comes up regularly within my ISTE and CoSN groups.

I noticed they referred to other jurisdictions which is in previous experience is usually the UK. Schools and school trust there tend to have IT technicians in schools rather than ed tech coaches/ Digital leads etc. although Apple, Google have developed their own coaching certifications and I spot a few of those certification within the UK education system. US schools tend to have ed tech coaches drawn from teaching staff, more tech roles are formal tech roles where they have the numbers to justify it. The techy teacher in a US school responsible for fixing stuff is rare but they do exist. 

To do it right, requires investment, when I left Albemarle who had 14000 students we had 12 ed tech coaches (1 for every 150 teachers) , 1 tech person per every thousand students  and about a dozen backend staff. We also had a student tech team in each of the high school and most of the middle schools

One of them is coming over for a few days next weeks I might come back with a more exact number.  

This is a topic I bore people with at dinner parties!!!! 

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From: cesi...@googlegroups.com <cesi...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Stephen McFarlane <smcfa...@cco.ie>
Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2025 10:11 AM
To: CESI-list <cesi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [CESI List] Digital Lead / ICT Coordinator Post in Schools

 

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[Danny Murray]

As much as I'd love a permanent tech in our school (we had 2 in England for a school of only 600 students) What I'm afraid an external IT service at a school will become is:

- One guy between multiple schools who comes every Thursday morning but then your SSD dies on Friday and you're stuck for a week.

- Someone who is going to add a layer of bureaucracy for trying out any new software or hardware and an annoying ticket system.

Below is our current system. Yes, it occasionally involves students or staff knocking on my door or emailing but at least they get most things fixed right away without a ticket system:

Step 1: We always have two TY tech team students on duty so they wheel the tech ambulance over and have a go at fixing it. 90% of things are loose cables or swapping out an SSD. 

Step 2: I have time on my timetable for ICT support so I schedule it in if they can't figure it out. 

Step 3: If I can't figure it out I'll email Computex to do it when they come out for their next clinic. 

I can't overstate the importance of the TY tech team. They're the best idea we ever stole from Malahide :D

On Fri, 16 May 2025 at 08:55, Stephen McFarlane <steph...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Mags Amond]

Danny you've made my day by just typing "tech ambulance", nee naw 🚑

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[Stephen McFarlane]

+1 with the TY Tech Team Danny, and like you say, a lot of teachers' problems can be resolved with local skillsets.

 

And I think both you and John have shown that different schools, towns, regions, countries have all tried this and have adopted different approaches. 

Danny, I would say my role would be most like yours in teaching time, ICT Coord time. We do work with an external partner who is very skilled and we'd be lost without them but I think there is problem with outsourcing ALL of your digital tech management externally. 

Why? Local needs are not always a priority (or meet a criteria of priority) for external partners. So while I feel that a non working machine is impacting a lab's use, I might not get a site visit until a few other pressing matters moves it up the list. I get it, why should technician A drive to school B for 40k and back just to remap a network port or add a motherboard? On balance the sums don't work but this is not a sum game. Every facet of the system needs to work, particularly a lab, and students are staff lose interest in technologies that let them down. I can't let that happen.

Fraser Speirs (https://speirs.org/archive/) spoke about not outsourcing the things we need everyday so I feel a model that relies on solely site visits and external partners is ineffective if we see ineffective as meaning that we cannot wait 27 working days for you to come out to fix this hard drive because apparently if I fix it, I'll invalidate some policy. 

Ultimately, there is huge power in working with external expertise and there is huge power in leveraging local skills. Any future model of supporting digital learning in schools needs to create a bridge between these two rather than the chasm that seems to currently exist.

Steve

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[Shane Fleming]

A fascinating thread, I would be interested to know what kinds of time people are given on their timetables to facilitate their roles as ICT coordinator. I was afforded two but then also given additional roles to do during this time. 

Shane

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[Laurence Cuffe]

I’ve seen the other end of this,

Tech support is an external company, who only come on Mondays.

 Asking for software to be installed, had a four week lead time for one of my classrooms, because the classroom was scheduled for a full timetable on Mondays, so they had to wait for the mid-term break.

For that particular class, I was teaching graphic design, and an important part of what I was trying to empower students with, was the Idea that there are a F*ck ton of excellent programs out there, which don’t involve buying in to the Adobe subscription model.

Best

Laurence Cuffe

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[Danny Murray]

You're right Stephen about keeping things in-house. 

Schools should invest in their own staff and make sure they can handle 90% of the daily stuff. Even the best external tech services can't make a profit driving out to schools just to reboot a PC. This is not the business they want. 

If Computer Science is going to be phased in to most schools anyway, surely it'd make sense to give that teacher (or other) specific hours and training as they literally TEACH hardware and networking. You will already have an expert in the building full time. They just need the time on the timetable. 

Yet I hear a lot of Computer Science teachers are not even in the IT role due to AP1/AP2 politics and often have no access to their own network. It's nuts.

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[Stephen McFarlane]

So seems we are all experiencing similar issues: 

1. The time available during the school day to deal with issues as they arise

2. The role, or potential role, of school staff managing digital systems and the skills those individuals have

3. The modality that role takes in terms of timetabling of hours all within the context of current middle management structures currently

4. The outsourcing of day to day technologies resulting in low turnaround times on key pieces of digital services that impact teaching and learning

5. The growing need for digital services in schools being key infrastructure particularly in context of ongoing curriculum reform

6. The balancing act between external partners and ICT coordinators in allowing or disallowing access (admin) to key parts of the digital infrastructure or systems

7. The freedom for schools to explore systems, apps or workflows to meet their needs constrained by restrictions from external systems

I've probably missed a few key points there but feel free to add to this list or maybe reframe some of the ideas. 

And, if all else fails, we can dial 999 for Danny's Tech Ambulance ;)

Steve 

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[quigle...@gmail.com]

Hi all

As others have said a very interesting thread. I would also be interested in hearing in what local arrangements others have in place for carrying out these roles as I strongly need to consider my role going forward.

 

In my case we have an external crew that we call in when needed, no scheduled visits and me.

 

I am the ICT coordinator and Computer science teacher.

 

I manage all our Office365 from installs to account creation to issuing/ resetting passwords. Manage all our teams usage as well on top of this.

I also maintain all the hardware onsite which has grown exponentially over the last number of years. This includes regularly fixing issues such as replacing hard drives power supplies wiping and reinstalling os and software. We have 4 full labs of computers if you count 2 DCG rooms, 2 trolleys of sub par laptops and every staff member has their own school issued surface pro. On top of this we have a wide variety of different overhead projectors and smart boards.

I also troubleshoot and usually repair any issues in our physical networking or wifi network as needed.

Our external support are very rarely called in and only when it is something I cannot solve.

 

I hold an ap2 as ICT coordinator for this role and until recently I also had a number (usually2 or3) classes unfilled on my timetable to allow me to get some of this done. However in the past 3 years those classes have instead been filled with SEN classes and the IT needs have grown massively. They are only going to grow again with the senior cycle reform as there will be more projects etc needing computer access.

ICT coordinator was an ap2(or b post) when I started in my school 19 years ago and is still ap2 despite an exponential growth in ICT usage in schools since then.

We had 3 separate AP1 posts advertised this past year and I interviewed for all 3 but was unsuccessful seeing those who do far less work in their ap2 posts promoted ahead of me and was even criticised in feedback for overreliance on IT skills and scenarios in the interviews despite IT pervading every element of teaching and learning nowadays.

 

As a result I need to strongly consider my role going forward and was just wondering if anyone else was willing to share what they do in their roles and what their arrangements are (ie free classes, ap1/ap2 etc) before I speak to senior management.

 

Thanks as always

Regards

Barry Quigley

 

 

From: cesi...@googlegroups.com <cesi...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Danny Murray
Sent: Friday 6 June 2025 08:00
To: cesi...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [CESI List] Digital Lead / ICT Coordinator Post in Schools

 

You're right Stephen about keeping things in-house. 

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[Shane Fleming]

Hi Barry,

In my school I manage the wireless, if I can’t fix it, we have a company we can call in (probably about once per year).

I manage all devices in the school, (when I took over it was about 18 10-year old Macs that were in pure maintenance mode) now it is a windows computer room with 28 devices, a DCG room with 24 devices and 3 laptop trolleys with 82 laptops. I manage them all through InTune for updates and installs, then physically if it is a hardware issue.

I manage the schools phone system which has now gone IP phones. Again, an outside company manages most of the more technical issues but I can manage most of the week to week issues. 

The admin staff has moved to iSams which I now manage accounts on but that is pretty limited. 

I also manage all of M365. And then everything that comes with that. And then all printers, the server and odd devices around the school also. 

I am about privately by the school at a current rate of around 60% that of an APII, but they have agreed to increase that to an APII rate recently. I have argued that I believe the role to be as big as an API role given what roles the APIs have in our school and the amount of work involved. 

Realistically, at this stage, it is about time more than pay in my eyes. As previously mentioned, I was afforded 2 periods a week off my timetable but also given the role of procurement for the SEN department along with install and maintenance off all devices for them. So the time goes straight away with that also. 

My biggest problem is, I love doing that work! 🤣

Shane Fleming

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[Danny Murray]

Here’s our school’s situation:
We've three computer labs, 1000 student iPads, 100+ staff devices, Windows Server, RFID door systems, Papercut, Apple TVs, and WiFi management. For the first few years I did this while teaching a full timetable! After getting an AP2, I did get two extra class periods to help.

The extra hours are a trap though. Because I’ve extra hours, if I were to get an AP1, I can’t have year head hours on top of ICT hours. It’s one or the other. So I’m now locked out of AP1. I'm often called in over midterms and holidays to work full days while the last AP1 position went to “policy document coordinator” which, let's face it,  is just a sub bench for being a year head :)

I’m okay not being a year head, but wow is this a structural oversight. ICT coordination has gone from “minding the keys to the tape recorder” to easily a full time position, but the existing post system doesn't reflect that. Without a separate funding stream or dedicated structure, schools rely on goodwill and unpaid overtime from teachers to keep things running.

And I get it. I'd probably do the same if I were a principal. There is no incentive to give an IT post holder an AP1 because the school gets nothing out of it other than them being less likely to quit due to the crazy workload. (I've certainly considered it)
In our school, as a compromise, they added a second teacher to take the iPads off my plate which I'm very appreciative of and she does a really great job. That means I have more time to handle the more unusual iPad issues and do all the other stuff.
On the positive side, there is lots to love about my job. All the problems I work on are usually problems of my own creation. Google Drive admin is huge BECAUSE I've been successful in getting everyone to use it. I'm very well supported (emotionally) and the principals and deputies are very kind and helpful. I think they're doing their best in the system we live in.

It’s the system man…. the system..

So yes, ICT post should be on a totally separate funding stream and a teacher (if they are a techie person) is still the best person to do it. 

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