ICT Apps in School Mgmt & Records

ICT APPLICATIONS IN
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND
RECORD KEEPING:
PROSPECTS AND
CHALLENGES
K.O.Oloruntegbe (Ph D, FSTAN)
Science and Technical Education,
Adekunle Ajasin University,
Akungba-Akoko

Working Objectives
At the end of this discussion participant would be able to:
 Explain the various viewpoints on school management;
 Discuss the different modes of technology in management and services, state the
usefulness of virtual services over physical services.
 Explain the use of internet, e-mails, chat rooms, web sites and mobile technologies
in management;
 Explain the creation, the management, and the characteristics of good records,
storage, retention and disposal.
 Discuss safety of records and state the requirements of the 1998 Data Protection
Act in relation to usage of personal data;
 Discuss the prospect and challenges of adopting new technology in service

THEORIES ON MANAGEMENT - CATEGORIZATION
As a starting point the various categorization of the subject field need
be considered. The following categories are sourced from literature.
 Educational change (here we can discuss the reasons for
educational change, and the effects and impacts resulting,
particularly at an individual teacher or manager level).
 Management of change (this is concerned with the conception of
management of change principles, approaches and methods adopted
in order to bring about change, and to consider attitudes to change).

 Management approaches (this category covers specifically the
types of management approach that lend themselves to particular
purpose or outcomes, and the implications).
 Organizational impacts (this category covers the impacts of
change upon organizations, both from an institutional and a
systems viewpoint).
 ICT management (this tells how ICT is managed within
organizations, and the concerns and issues that face managers and
others in respect of ICT).

 Strategic and tactical approaches (these concern the types of approach
that are involved when change and ICT use is introduced into
organizations and systems, and the impacts that this has upon support
and personnel particularly).
 Personnel management (how the introduction of ICT is shifting the
needs for personnel within organizations and institutions, and the future
implications that there might be in these respects).
 Resource and resource development management (this is concerned
with how resources that are ICT-based can both be developed in a range
of ways and by a variety of groups, and how their uses are managed
within educational situations).

 Financial and procurement management (this is concerned with aspects of
finance and procurement that managers in educational situations now need to
consider).
 Planning and project management (this category covers the approaches
and needs for planning and project management when different ICT uses are
being introduced into educational situations).
 Managing sustainability (this category is concerned with the ways in which
managers in educational situations are now considering maintainability and
sustainability, and the implications that arise for the future).
 Monitoring and evaluation processes in management (this category covers
the methods and approaches which can be used within educational situations
to monitor, evaluate and reflect upon outcomes of ICT uses for the variety of
purposes originally intended).

EMERGING GROUPS
The areas which are general non-ICT specific:
 Educational change.
 Management of change.
 Management approaches.
 Organizational impacts.
The areas which are general and ICT-specific:
 ICT management.
 Strategic and tactical approaches.

The areas where more ICT-specific coverage is
needed are:
 Personnel management.
 Resource use and resource development management.
 Financial and procurement management.
 Planning and project management.
 Managing sustainability.
 Monitoring and evaluation processes in management

Technology in Management and Service Encounter
Advances in communications and information
technology are having profound effect on ways we do
services in industry, in schools and other important
sectors. Online services have replaced the trivial face-to-
face interaction of service providers and
customers. Five modes of technology in service
encounter is shown below:

The A mode is called technology-free service encounter,
where the customer is in physical proximity to and interacts with a
human service provider. This mode represents the traditional high-touch
service that we experience at a screening service that the
SUPEB and TESCOM engage their teachers in most times. This is a
very old 19th century fashion where technology does not play a direct
role. Unfortunately, this is type we still engage in leading to time lose
and risk of lives on the death traps we call roads. Most personal care
services fall into this category, along with some professional services
such as law, consulting, and psychiatry.

The B mode is called technology-assisted service
encounter, because only the service provider has access to the
technology to facilitate the delivery of face-to-face service. Many
health care procedures fall in this category such as an eye exam
during the office visit to an optometrist. Traditionally, airline
representatives used a computer terminal to check in passengers
are encouraged to use check-in kiosks represented by mode E.
This is the type used in biometric data capture and analysis.

The C mode is called technology-facilitated
service encounter , because both the customer
and service provider have access to the same
technology. For example, a financial planner in
consultation with a client can refer to a financial
model on a personal computer to illustrate projected
returns for different risk profiles.

D mode, called technology-mediated service encounter, the
customer and human service provider are not physically co-located and
thus the service encounter no longer is the traditional “face-to-face”
contact. Communication is usually enabled by a voice telephone call to
access services such as making a restaurant or hostel reservation or
getting technical help from a distant call center. Consider, also, how
General Motors has bundled a remote monitoring service in its
automobiles called “OnStar” that use GPS (global positioning satellite) to
reassure stranded motorists that assistance is just a call away.

In mode E, called technology-generated service
encounter, the human service provider is replaced entirely with
technology that allows the customer to self-serve (i.e outsourcing the job
to their customers). This mode is becoming more common as firms
attempt to reduce the cost of providing service. Examples are ubiquitous
–bank ATMS, check-out scanning, airport check-in-kiosks, online
reservations, and interactive voice response (IVR) technology in call
centers. This is the type I used to secure appointment (sabbatical) as a
Visiting Senior Lecturer to University of Malaysia. The table below
serves to illustrate a few of the above.

VIRTUAL VERSUS PHYSICAL SERVICES
A comparison of virtual (electronic) and physical services is
shown in Table 2. The features represent general
characteristics that vividly differentiate the alternative
delivery system. Table 3 displays the advantages and
disadvantages of online and traditional grocery shopping,
an activity in which almost everyone participates.
Table 2. Comparison of Virtual and Physical Services

INTERNET AS A SERVICE ENABLER IN
MANAGEMENT
The internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible network of
interconnected computer networks that transmits data using the
standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a “network of networks” that
consists of millions of smaller academic (.edu), business (.com),
non-profit (.org), and government (.gov) networks, which together
carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online
chat, file transfer, streaming media, voice-over-IP (VoIP), and access
to the World Wide Web (www).

Email
Email can be a useful tool in the development of communication skills and
extending the learning process. Students of foreign languages use email to
correspond with native speakers abroad, for example, or to send and receive
weather data across the world and pupils with special needs find email a
valuable tool where letter writing or using the telephone would be
impossible. However, there are a number of management implications of
implementing email in school, and acceptable use of email by staff and
pupils. Should all staff and pupils have their own mailbox, should staff email
addresses be available to everyone, pupils and parents alike? Should pupils
be able to send homework by email? Schools should have a policy in place
that specifically addresses these, and related, issues.

Chat rooms
Chat is a way of communicating with others in real time over the internet in
virtual meeting places called ‘chat rooms’. Although mainly regarded as a leisure
activity, chat rooms can also provide educational benefits. Pupils are able to chat
with peers anywhere in the world, sharing experiences, comparing lifestyles or
working collaboratively.
Within school, pupils should only be given access to educational chat rooms.
They should be moderated to ensure that discussions are kept on topic and that
there is no bad language or inappropriate behaviour.
Good chat rooms should have clear policies and privacy statements setting out
acceptable behaviour, and these should be upheld and enforced. Guidelines for
using chat in school should be included in an acceptable use policy.

School websites
Many schools now have their own website, providing excellent
opportunities for showing the range and breadth of work the school
does, providing a source of information to parents, and developing
links with the wider community. There are, however, certain safety
issues that need to be considered:
A school website should take care to protect the identity of pupils:
where a child’s image appears, the name should not, and vice versa

Mobile technologies
The developments of mobile technologies such as phones (including
camera phones) and PDAs have many benefits for the individual and to
education. In addition to the standard services of voice calls and text
messaging, the more advanced networks such as 2.5G and 3G provide:
 video messaging
 mobile access to the internet
 entertainment services (e.g. video streaming of sporting events)
 Information-based services. Increasingly, schools need to include
these devices in acceptable use policies.

RECORD KEEPING
Records creation
The prime objective of records creation is to ensure that only
records needed by the system are created and enter the system.
The implication of this is that not only might unnecessary records
be created, but that some important activities could be overlooked
in the creation of records. The generation of records needs to be
managed because this is where the records enter the records
system

Management of Records
The management of the records after their creation is
just as important as ensuring that the right records are
captured. The basic premise of records management,
which is to 'manage organizational information so that
it is timely, accurate, complete, cost-effective,
accessible and usable' (Robek et al. 1995:7) must be
adhered to

Characteristics of good record keeping.
From the submission of Robek et al, 1995 above the following
characteristics of good record keeping must be upheld. These are: it must
be
(i). Timely,
(ii). Accurate,
(iii). Complete,
(iv). Cost effective,
(v).. Accessible and
(vi). Usable.

It is a sad thing to always find no reliable data or no data in front of our
country Nigeria in record kept by international agencies like the World
Bank, UNESCO, and World Statistics or even in African. It is either the
record is foolishly and dangerously inflated that little children are not
convinced. Examples are education expenditure per GDP, education
expenditure per child in primary schools, per student in secondary
schools (Oloruntegbe, 2012). It is a common knowledge that primary
school teachers are forced to inflate primary school enrolment for
heaven knows what reason. This is clear contradiction to quality of
good records being accurate, complete and usable.

Records storage
Records storage is largely concerned with the storage of records
that are no longer constantly referred to but are occasionally
needed for business. These are semi-active and inactive records.
These records often safeguard 'crucial organizational interests
hence the need to keep them for as long as they may be needed'
(Penn et al. 1994:208). Keeping these records implies identifying
them so that they can be separated from active records and then
storing them away from expensive office space

Records retention and disposition
A records retention and disposal programme is crucial to the management of the
records of the organization. The benefits of a retention and disposition
programme are aptly summarized by Ricks et al. (1992:75–76) as follows: 'A
records retention programme provides a timetable and consistent procedures for
maintaining the organization’s records, moving the records to inactive storage
when appropriate and destroying records when they are no longer valuable to the
organization.'
The absence of record retention schedules will mean that some of the records
that are no longer needed by the system might still be kept, and those that are
still needed by the system may be destroyed. Another implication is that an
institution may lose valuable evidence and vital memory as records disposition
had not been developed systematically

Management of electronic records
 There is no doubt that record keeping is increasingly becoming
digital (Edith Cowan University 2002). The presence of personal
computers in every office and a local area network shows that the
institutions (must make use) are increasingly making use of digital
records; they are continually being generated in electronic format and
may exist only in that format.
 Research revealed that the application of ICT in record keeping in
Nigeria is near zero (Aduwa-Ogiegbaen & Iyanmu, 2005) and the
management of electronic records was unsatisfactory. The same can be
said of many institutions in Africa (Ngulube 2004b).

KEEPING PERSONAL DATA SECURE
All personal data needs to be kept safe and made available only to those who are authorized
to access it, and this raises a number of issues:
 The first is compliance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) which requires annual
registration by schools and LEAs regarding the data they collect and keep and how they use
it.
 Secondly, information is passed to third parties who are contracted to provide services
for schools. The DPA requires those who own the data and pass it to others to ensure that
measures are in place for its safety and integrity and that it is not used for any purpose other
than that for which it was collected, as well as how it will be destroyed when it is no longer
required.
 What information should be passed on, what information should be held by whom and
where it will be held so that individual pupils are not identified is the one of the goals of
DPA.

Safe disposal
 An aspect of data security that can be overlooked relates to the disposal of
computing equipment. Schools have legal responsibilities for the personal data
which will be on hard disks (including things like email and passwords). Just
deleting files or even formatting the disk is not sufficient since widely available
software programs can recover some or all of the information.
 Schools are advised to check that the organization to which any equipment
may be given will provide a warranty that they also securely erase all disks. It is
advisable to consult your local technical support for advice in these areas.
 If the disks contain particularly sensitive information, then the industry
recommendation is that they should be physically destroyed by fire or
smashing them.

GLOBALIZATION, INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
AND VISIONS (2020)
You cannot run away from your shadow was a sub topic in my
lecture presentation to school administrators in this state last year
(Oloruntegbe, 2011). The time has come that we cannot do but join
the whole world (globalization) and do things the right way it should
be done without cutting corners. We are known to always cut corners
and day dream. By now we should be well grounded in accurate
information generation and dissemination – knowledge economy –
making use and sharing information with other nations.

PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES.
So much have been mentioned about the prospects of ICT in school
management and record keeping. It is an under statement to state
that it makes
 work faster,
 more efficient,
 more effective,
 more accurate,
 more rewarding,
 more secured using surveillance cameras in hot spots like banks

It helps managers to make more efficient decision from up-to-date
information (Demir, 2006). It is the in thing in the whole world;
e-administration,
e-finance,
e- government,
e-assessment,
e-attendance,
e-food,
e-everything, as the world moves on in this 21st century
(Oloruntegbe, 2011). We not do things as if we are still in the 20th C

CHALLENGES,
For the challenges, it must be said that any innovation is a destroyer of
tradition: thus, it requires careful planning to ensure success. By
necessity, the productivity benefits of new technology will change the
nature of work. Any introduction of new technology should include
employee familiarization to prepare workers for new tasks and to
provide input into the technology interface design (e.g., will typing skills
be required, or will employees just point and click?). There are no longer
typing position in offices in most nations of the world where workers are
computer literate and internet compliant. See table 4 for our position in
computer availability and usage among selected African nations.

 Typing position will go. Not to worry the money expended on wages
can be used to provide employment in another sector.
 All managers and administrators have to prepared and to be computer
literate and internet compliant in line with global standard..
 Office operations will be less of print media but more of electronic
thereby greening the environment also along global standard. Memos,
minutes of meetings, announcement etc can go from sender to
destination through e-mail, management portal on website etc.
 The configuration of the office will change in conformity with the
current standard; more computers, internet facilities, even recreation
will be in compliant.

 Most transactions will be done online, the purchase of virtually
everything starting from the smallest sim card, recharged cards to bigger
office equipment. This will block channels of wastage and of siphoning
fund.
 Staff will need to update knowledge regularly sharing and comparing
notes, with international bodies, learning and getting to knowhow things
are done with better results elsewhere.
 The big picture is that you can afford to be obsolete, monotonous and
static workers of the 19th century but innovative, initiative and dynamic
worker of he 21st century. Information leads to better knowledge
acquisition, knowledge is wealth. This is to corroborate the France Prime
minister’s (2007) position that source of wealth is no longer natural
resources but science and technology, knowledge economy.

For services, the impact of new technology might not be
limited to the back office. It could require a change in the
role that managers and clients play in the service delivery
process. Customer reaction to the new technology,
determined through focus groups or interviews, also
provide input into the design to avoid future problems of
acceptance (e.g., consider the need for surveillance
cameras at automated teller machines).

Table 4. Computer and internet usage in selected African nations
Source: World Bank Working Paper No 101 – Developing Science,
mathematics and ICT Education in Sub-Saharan Africa
Country Computers per 1000people Internet Users per 1000 people
Botswana 40.7 29.7
Burkina Faso 1.6 2.1
Ghana 3.8 2.3
Namibia 70.9 26.7
Nigeria 7.1 1.7
Senegal 20.4 10.7
South Africa 72.6 68.2
Tanzania 4.2 2.3
Uganda 3.3 2.8
Zimbabwe 51.6 42.9

 For us in this part of the globe we need to ask how many are
computer literate. How many are internet compliant? How many are
prepared to accept the innovations that come with ICT as a big
innovation? What about the problems posed by inadequate power
supply, inadequate funding and the absence of political will in
pulling the bull by the horn? It seems we have not started the
journey to relevance. Until we imbibe the right attitudes to doing
things we may never be on the mark to start the race but remain
spectators in the global relevance and economic development. May
God help us.

WHAT TO DO
The computer in your school and office is not for decoration.
Learn and get to use them. Encourage yourself and staff to take
computer literacy quite seriously. Order for more to complement
or go over all intending users. Get assistance to train your staff
and students from government and other agencies. There are
several non-governmental organizations, UNESCO, UNICEF
willing to help if you seek assistance. To do all these by the way
you need to be computer literate and internet compliant.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Aduwa-Ogiegbaen, S.E. & Iyanmu, E.O.S. (2005). Using Information and communications
technology in secondary Schools in Nigeria: Problems and Prospeects. Educational Technology and
Society, 8, 1, 104-112
 Demir, K. (2006). School management information systems in primary schools. The Turkish online
Journal of Educational Technology, 5, 2, Article 6.
 Fitzsimmons, J.A. & Fitzsimmons, M.j. (2011). Service Management: Operations, Strategy,
Information Technology. New York; Mc GRaw-Hill Companies, Seventh Edition.
 Oloruntegbe, K.O. (2012). Quality and Inequality in Education and Government Expenditure
among Nations: Where do Developing Nations Stand? A Paper presented at the 6th Annual Conference
on Canada International Conference on Education held in Ontario, June 2012.
 Oloruntegbe, K.O. (2011). Information management in Secondary School Administration. A Paper
presented at a Seminar 2011 for Principals and Vice-Principals on Management Strategies in the Re-articulated
Secondary Schools in Ondo State, Nigeria held in Akungba in September, 2011.

ICT Apps in School Mgmt & Records

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

En vedette

En vedette (19)

Similaire à ICT Apps in School Mgmt & Records

Similaire à ICT Apps in School Mgmt & Records (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

ICT Apps in School Mgmt & Records