This week Glasgow City Council found itself under attack in a way that it perhaps was not expecting.
On Tuesday, it invited the media to witness the beginning of the rollout of the 50,000-plus iPads it was putting into the hands of its teachers and pupils. This was at St Thomas Aquinas Secondary, the school where pupils would be the first to benefit.
The news prompted a storm of criticism, with Tom Bennett, the founder of researchED - which has the stated aim of raising research literacy in education - writing that he would be spending the day “mostly tweeting about how incredibly short-sighted the decision to invest £300 million on iPads in Glasgow schools is”.
Background: Rollout of 52,000 iPads begins in Glasgow schools
Long read: Huge gains in Glasgow attainment rates
Short read: Children’s education in Glasgow rated ‘outstanding’
He went on to say there was “almost no evidence that using tablets adds significant or perceptible benefit to a child’s learning”; that tablets contributed to “skim reading rather than sustained, focused reading”; and that they were “expensive” and required “constant maintenance, replacement and training” and could be “ incredibly distracting”.
Others waded in to criticise the decision - which involves iPads being given to every teacher and every pupil from P6 to S6 - with many, including Mr Bennett, citing the disastrous introduction of iPads in Los Angeles back in 2013. The deal cost over $1 billion and ended with crippling technical issues and the school district seeking a refund from Apple.
Critics also pointed out other disadvantages: for instance, that you could not use iPads to teach coding - or just how hard it was to get a class of dozens of kids using tablets without wasting huge amounts of time.
Will iPads transform Glasgow education?
But there were also those who came out in support of the council. Scottish primary school teacher Blair Minchin, who is based in Edinburgh, argued that unlike Los Angeles, Glasgow had “a thorough plan”. He said that far from there being no research supporting the use of tablets, there was “a plethora of research studies to show the support for tech being used not just to boost learning but to greatly help those living in poverty”.
Responding to a series of questions posed by Tes Scotland - covering the evidence it had to back up the assertion that the rollout would “improve learning and teaching and help close the attainment gap”- Glasgow City Council insisted that it had done its homework. It said its digital learning strategy would result in Glasgow’s pupils benefiting from “world-class facilities and the best technological learning environment in the country”.
The authority said the strategy had been in the planning for “a couple of years”. It added that it had twice surveyed its teachers to find out what they needed “to help aid and complement learning and teaching, tackle bureaucracy and workload... and free them up to do what they do best - teach”.
It also highlighted that it had not spent £300 million on 52,000 iPads. The £300 million contract with Canadian IT company CGI over seven years was for an “all-council IT contract”, it stressed.
The £300 million, therefore, will also pay for the council to be able to conduct more customer transactions online, faster connections in the city’s libraries, and increased support for data analysis to help vulnerable people.
However, a common complaint from teachers is that even if they have good technology, they often do not have reliable internet, or they get handed a new device and receive no training on how to use it to best effect in the classroom.
The council told Tes Scotland that the contract also included “major network improvements, to maximise digital access” and said that before any equipment was delivered to schools it would ensure that “full upgraded infrastructure is in place in the building”.
A council spokeswoman continued: “Glasgow is very experienced at identifying the problems in our city, the barriers that our children and young people face and finding solutions to these. We will not apologise for addressing the equity gap and equipping our teachers and pupils with the resources to give them the best possible opportunities.”
When teachers receive an iPad, they receive four hours of training “in relation to using the iPad for learning, teaching and assessment”, said the council.
Schools also - since 2017-18 - have all had a member of staff take on the role of “digital leader of learning”. These staff will receive additional training on effective use of iPads, and from October to June they will offer a planned programme of professional development to teachers.
The spokeswoman said: “We have been providing digital learning for staff for a period of time already - for the last two years we have provided a significant amount of professional development for digital leaders of learning, including two large-scale conferences.”
Derek Robertson works in the University of Dundee’s School of Education and Social Work, where he is head of undergraduate studies, and is an expert in the use of digital tools in teaching and learning.
In an article for Tes Scotland, due to appear online tomorrow, Mr Robertson concludes that the success of the Glasgow initiative will “surely depend on the educational leadership”
In this respect, Glasgow City Council - which serves areas blighted by some of the most extreme poverty in the UK - has arguably already proved itself.
Earlier this year, the education service was rated “outstanding” by school-inspection body Education Scotland, in large part because of its success in closing the attainment gap between more and less affluent pupils.
Education Scotland’s report highlighted the relentless drive of the executive director of education in improving outcomes for students living in poverty and the authority’s “exceptional progress” in reducing the impact of poverty on educational attainment and achievement. It also commented on Glasgow’s “outstanding approaches” to career-long professional learning and leadership, which had strengthened the skills and knowledge of staff and, as a result, improved attainment.
The progress the authority has made in recent years is also reflected in statistics. Back in 2006 in Glasgow, 26 per cent of S5 pupils gained one or more Highers but by 2017 that figure had more than doubled to 53.5 per cent. Similarly, by 2017 S5s were more than twice as likely to gain five Highers than in 2006.
Teachers may well be tired of hearing about the potential for technology to transform education. There is a sense, though, that if any authority can ensure that its investment has an impact, it is Glasgow.
