Child's play

No-one really knows. However, the Government is demanding that schools must embrace mobile phones, games, podcasts and social networking, and break away from traditional classroom and curriculum models.

The world's biggest educational technology show, BETT, took place in London's Olympia last month, with several Oxfordshire companies showing their wares.

They included RM, of Milton Park, near Didcot, which supplies many of the computers used in UK schools. Its latest innovations include a digital graffiti wall, a virtual learning environment, and a touch-screen whiteboard.

Visitors could see 3D virtual classrooms and face-scanning systems for registering pupils who are late. Clever computer systems allow parents to see what their children have had for lunch, or check on their progress with coursework.

But, with public spending cuts looming, will schools be able to afford all this new technology?

At BETT, many companies tried to show educational buyers how their cutting-edge systems could cut costs in ICT (information and communication technologies).

European Electronique, based at Eynsham, is one of RM's main rivals, and was Oxfordshire's 2009 Business of the Year, making history by scooping three trophies.

It won Business of the Year and the Large Business Award, while managing director Yolanta Gill was named Business Person of the Year.

Ms Gill said: "Winning had a fantastic impact on the business. It was a great marketing tool and was wonderful for staff morale."

European Electronique has now won almost half the market share of the extra ICT funding available to schools which transform themselves into academies.

Its display at BETT focused on how schools could save money by using VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) which also ties in with the Government target for all new schools to be carbon neutral by 2016.

To the user, a VDI system seems the same as a traditional networked PC, but the machine on the desk is an empty shell, with the benefit of low-energy consumption and heat output.

All the 'brains' are held in the server. It has the incidental advantage, for schools, of meaning that the desktop computers are worthless when removed from the system, so won't be targeted by thieves.

Ms Yolanta Gill said: “With a General Election looming and public-sector cuts expected, schools’ ICT budgets will certainly be affected. We regard this as an opportunity to help school IT and procurement professionals reduce overall spend.

“European Electronique aims to be at the forefront of this drive to identify areas where new systems and solutions can actually bring down costs, while enhancing and empowering both teachers and pupils.”

She believes the company's success in winning such a high number of contracts from the new academies is because it is much smaller than Milton Park-based RM, and so can be more nimble.

"The nature of academies, who are receiving a lot of investment in ICT, is that they often have a charismatic head teacher and they want to be different, so they are looking for a supplier who can deliver innovation, rather than something standard.

"We are happy to discuss what they want — we don't go in with a box of gadgets. We find out what they want, and generally our solution will be different for each school."

As for complaints that children should not be 'playing games' with electronic gadgets, European Electronique's principal educationist Steve McCorquodale, a former teacher, said: "A lot of people believe that games can bring a big advantage to the classroom.

"One of the things we are providing is the greater understanding of the power of games, and how that can help children become motivated and stimulated, as well as helping teachers to understand how they can use the current crop of games to support teaching and learning.

"Teachers have used games to great effect in their teaching and learning, to the point where children are interested and don't want the lesson to end. That has to be a good thing."