January marks one of the biggest and most exciting events of the computing calendar: the BETT show at the ExCel centre in London. For years, BETT has been like an extension of Christmas for the technologically minded, an opportunity to try out some of the latest innovations being showcased by businesses.
One of the ways in which companies do this is to offer free trials or limited access to their products. Some firms may even offer their resources for free, in exchange for your school data. In an era of reduced budgets, it is easy to see how this could be an attractive option. However, it is important to ask yourself this question: “If we’re not paying, what does the business get out of it?”
I don’t want to dispute the quality of free resources, as I have come across some fantastic ones in the past. But if there is no monetary price to pay, what is the real cost of these materials?
We live in a world where we can access many services online for free - but with a catch. These can range from the mildly annoying, such as the advertisements that play when you try to watch a video, to the downright infuriating, where you have to sift through a stack of advertising emails from affiliated partners in order to reach anything of relevance to you.
Trap 1: the marketing list
This is also true for free educational resources. By reading the fine print or doing your research, you often find that the providers are connected to bigger fish in the pond, and that by signing up to their resources you and your school will become linked to a multitude of different companies, all eager to sell their products.
For example, the free app you are interested in may be affiliated to a certain tablet manufacturer. While the app runs perfectly well on the hardware brand of your choice, you may be subliminally coaxed into investing in a rival’s product.
Be warned that this may also lead to slightly exasperated office staff continuously deflecting phone calls or a pile of telephone messages on your desk from eager marketing personnel.
Trap 2: the systems upgrade
Another consideration is how these resources work with other systems in your school. You can risk getting locked in to something that doesn’t necessarily communicate well with your other software. Sometimes there can even be an expectation that you change systems in order to make everything work more cohesively. This results in major upheaval and having to retrain staff to cope with the changes.
Beware the potential costs here: the resource itself is totally free, but the infrastructures and hardware needed to make it work effectively are not. In a world where technology is continually evolving, it can be easy to get swept up in current trends and find yourself investing in hardware that either may not be as intuitive as you wished or gets shoved to the back of a drawer once the fad passes.
If you need to invest in hardware to run a set of free resources, you need to think about the longevity of the product you will be investing in. It’s certainly a trap I have fallen into myself, when the set of free classroom tools I’d signed up for - and bought the necessary additional hardware to use - were, after initial enthusiasm from staff, quickly consigned to the top shelf of my classroom.
Trap 3: the data sharing
There is also the issue of the kind of data that companies can access. There are limits to what they can do thanks to the Data Protection Act, but information makes money and can be sold on. Be sure to read the fine print, which can reveal how your data will be used. And take care when you are signing up: the classic “click here to opt out of marketing” clause can just as easily be “opt in”. A cheeky rewording of tick boxes can lead you inadvertently to agree to other companies receiving your data.
I shouldn’t finish without emphasising the great work being done by educationalists and affiliated partners to share a variety of fantastic resources at little to no cost. Many of these carry no sinister motives and are genuinely good products.
But I want to highlight the need, when you are considering signing up for a free resource, to be smart and weigh up your options in order make an informed decision. What is the real price and what are you willing to pay? It is important to look at the bigger picture and ensure that you are getting the best deal for you, your school and the young people with whom you work.
Dan Cumberland teaches at a primary school in Cambridge and is a Computing at School master teacher. The BETT show takes place from 24-27 January at the ExCel centre in London