A really good leader of educational technology, in my opinion, is one who makes the subject exciting. Students will be there at the start of the lesson, not straggling in 10 minutes after the start. Students and staff alike will want to use the facilities: they won’t need to be cajoled, threatened, or dragged kicking and screaming into your domain. They won’t need to be pleaded with to take a laptop.

At least part of this happy state of affairs is down to the resources available. So today, have a look at what there is.

What’s the hardware like to use? For example, does it take 10 minutes for all the computers in the computer lab to spring into life when a whole class logs on? Do some of the laptops have keys missing? Are the keyboards filthy? I'm not suggesting you roll up your sleeves and grab some cleaning fluid, but paying attention to these things means that you can get something done about it.

What’s the software like? Is it hard to use? Is it eccentric, in the sense of having completely different to the norm, and therefore unintuitive, commands?

What are the teaching resources like? Are you using a set of books which is boring, out of date and completely uninspiring?

Which websites have been bookmarked for the students to use? And which ones have been blocked? And should they have been?

And that’s it. You may have wi-fi access in every nook and cranny, an internet café, a resources centre that would make the head of the British Library envious. But if the resources of hardware, software and, especially, teaching and learning are dreadful, you need to do something about it.

And the sooner the better.

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