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The Working Party has business and IT representatives from the following central government agencies. All the agencies are dealing with a similar set of issues. The issue is collaboration, communication and sharing data. There is a lot of rich data out there, but to get it you have to know where it is and who to ask. Better information means better decisions. Things that change at “the centre”, like putting more information on the web, often create work at “the edges”, like increasing the volume of photocopying in schools. System Administration isn’t part of the schools funding formula, so it has to be done as an addition to someone’s “real” job and compete for already scarce resources. Are computers fundamental to teaching and learning? If so, we need to fund it systematically and ensure schools have good ICT practices. The key to an integrated system is the weakest link. Unless the lowest skill/resource area can be part of the system then the system is incomplete or complicated by work arounds. Our biggest issue is data sharing — we all hold a lot of rich data. The Office’s own data would be richer if we could get our hands on more of the Ministry’s data. The agencies all have cost restraints on IT spending; the theme of our IT strategy is “keep it simple”. We need to remember where schools are at. It’s good to be looking ahead, but not all schools and early childhood centres at at the same level of IT capacity. Many people prefer paper to screens and print documents that they then later search through to find information. Our experience is we get a high response rate to paper surveys, but low response to web-based forms. There is huge variability in the sector’s ability to respond to demands from the centre. We need to raise the sector’s ICT capability. At the same time, we need to become more efficient about data collection and more effective at giving information back with value added. The centre needs to be more integrated so that we avoid increasing compliance costs at the edges. There are things we can do to make processes for everyone more efficient. The Ministry has some challenges around infrastructure provision and standards promotion while preserving elements of choice. We need to decide what services to provide centrally and what should be at the edges. Interoperability is the driver; we want people to be able to troll seamlessly through multiple sites and find what they need. The tertiary sector has good library systems and we have worked constructively with them over a long period. Access to the national bibliographic database and holdings information is well-established. The compulsory sector is in the main poorly resourced, with no technical framework and ad hoc systems. This means we can’t do things like consolidated purchasing of books on behalf of schools. Private training organisations are even less well-equipped. They encourage students to use public libraries, shifting costs onto local rate-payers. Part of our digital library vision is that every New Zealander will have access to a growing range of databases of electronic journals, with one entry point and one search finds all references across all the databases. Currently cost is a huge barrier. Universities subscribe; schools can’t afford to. The National Library wants to negotiate one licence that covers all New Zealanders.
QNew Zealand Qualifications Authority We completed a major IT review about 2 years ago and are starting to see the results now. We have a strong focus on open standards and eGIF, but the standards are developing rapidly so it’s a constant game of catch-up. The challenge is to comply with standards and be future-proof. For agency-to-agency interoperability, we need to be sure we are all talking about the same learner! That means a common data model underpinning loosely-coupled systems, with no single points of system failure. For agency-to-consumer interoperability, we want the idea of a one-stop-shop where you don’t need to know what agency to go to or who you are dealing with. We find that we have to cater to the lowest common denominator — older computers, older browsers, older word processors and slow communications. It’s hard to create rich applications that work across all browsers. While our eQA vision is that we deliver information and services on-line, lots of people prefer to work on-paper. ESAF will be able to take advantage of the eGovernment unit’s experiences, such as the web guidelines, eGIF, ePurchasing and syndicated procurement. It can contribute to improving educational outcomes, increasing the efficiency of information management processes, and enhancing content delivery. What we can achieve will be constrained by the reality of IT and IM structures and practices in schools. One of the challenges will be to balance the drives for standardisation — interoperability between distributed systems — and consolidation — centralise to increase efficiency and enhance service. The recent SSC education sector ICT review has covered the ground. We need to link ESAF to, and differentiate it from, that work. QTertiary Education Commission We are not as far along the path as NZQA. We inherited a number of legacy systems from our predecessor organisations and are in the process of scoping requirements for new systems for funding and operations. We collect a lot of data ourselves, plus we depend on access to data the Ministry and NZQA collect. So common standards for data sharing and interoperability are really important. Currently, standards development is a bit ad hoc and we will benefit from a more holistic, sector-wide approach to the standards-setting process. We are in the early stages of developing TEC’s IT architecture, so the ESAF is a timely opportunity. |
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