Idea for conducting a needs analysis
My Principal Cheryl Doig and I had a really helpful discussion the other day with Ian Munroe from the MOE about the SMS Project.
One of the challenges faced by schools is that they don't necessarily have the expertise or know-how with which to make a good decision about which SMS system to go for, plus they may not even care (although I guess that's their problem if they don't care huh?).
While discussing a range of ideas with Ian, I had an idea for helping a school determine what it wants and needs with regards to a new SMS system and will make a download in the next few days describing this. Basically it's just a donut shape on a whiteboard where you put all the features you've brainstormed on to- then move them around. I think you should only do this once you've got a comprehensive list of all the features you need/want grouped into categories.
Then get staff to move them around on the whiteboard, with features towards the middle of the donut signifying more essential features of the SMS system. I'm going to try this at Fendalton to figure out what the priorities are, and then the next challenge will be to match these with an SMS. Pretty simple idea really, any comments or other ideas out there I wonder?
posted by Unknown @ 10:00 am
2 Comments:
Hi Rob
You state that some schools may not even care about an SMS system at this moment. At my school, Pine Hill in Dunedin, we are so small that we have never needed an SMS system but now we must get one. We are so busy because we still have to have all the systems in place that big schools do but there are only 4 of us to do it. Finding an SMS system is a chore that someone is going to have to take on and as far as what we want it to do... who knows! We are fine at the moment with our excel spreadsheet! We only know what we know. I wish the ministries accreditation system would just find a system that did everything we wanted and tell us what it is!
Yes I totally hear you Jane, the approach the MOE have taken has put a huge burden onto schools- especially if they don't have expertise, or don't know how to get it, etc.
That said, there are systems that allow for the 'smaller schools' in NZ. Plus most of them appear to have a pricing model that is subscription based, which scales according to the size of school.
The reason this blog exists is because schools need help- so please use it!
Rob
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