Schools are drowning in EdTech – here’s how to simplify your set up 

We speak with Al Kingsley about the biggest challenges facing schools and trusts right now, how leaders can simplify increasingly complex digital ecosystems, and what organisations should be thinking about when evaluating new EdTech solutions.

From tightening budgets and increasing complexity of digital infrastructure, schools and Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) are navigating a period of rapid change. School leaders and IT teams are being asked to do more with less while still delivering high-quality education.  

Technology plays a vital role in making that possible, but with hundreds of tools, platforms and systems operating behind the scenes, managing the digital ecosystem of a school or trust is rarely straightforward.  

To explore these challenges, we spoke with Al Kingsley, CEO of NetSupport and highly respected voice in the education sector. Alongside leading a global EdTech organisation, Kingsley also chairs a Multi Academy Trust, sits on the regional advisory board for the Department for Education supporting academies across the East of England, chairs his regional SEND board and leads the British Education Suppliers Association EdTech Group. 

With experience spanning both the technology and governance sides of education, Al Kingsley offers a unique perspective on the pressures facing schools today.  

In this conversation, we discuss the biggest challenges facing schools and trusts right now, how leaders can simplify increasingly complex digital ecosystems, and what organisations should be thinking about when evaluating new EdTech solutions. 

What are the main challenges facing schools and MATs right now? 

I think it’s fair to say that we’re in a period of really fast change.  

So, it’s not surprising that many schools are focusing on operational efficiency and scale – where finance and capacity become the real pinch points.  

Another conversation that is happening is around educational technology and the sheer complexity of the infrastructure that exists in a school.  

Just how complex can a school’s digital infrastructure be? 

One thing we need to recognise is that schools and trusts have a very complicated ecosystem. If we look at a typical Multi Academy Trust, we see that there’s a huge complexity in the infrastructure that exists within the school, as well as the stack of tools.  

EdTech isn’t just the stuff you see in the classroom.  

In fact, there’s far more behind the scenes in terms of infrastructure, data management, student information systems, management information systems – the way we form and make our best data decision-making around that. For example, our reporting and safeguarding tools.  

One of the big challenges is how do we find the golden thread? The glue within that data system that allows us to manage one ecosystem, rather than lots of siloed systems.  

Are there any ways schools can simplify the process of managing accounts and access to EdTech tools? 

Well, of course, SalamanderSoft is a really great example – simplifying that process of managing accounts to a system, bringing them together to make it much more scalable for organisations. 

Why is that important? I think one of the big strands right now is about sustainability in the Multi Academy system.  

We’ve got rapid growth and consolidation of academies and having the right IT system can be the real lever that allows for much more seamless and effective merging, creation and growth of MATs in terms of infrastructure.  

And now, that word AI keeps cropping up, and it prompts many questions about digital strategies and systems. 

What should school leaders be thinking about when it comes to AI? 

There are a lot of unanswered questions about AI in education right now: 

• “Have we got well-established digital strategies?” 

• “Have we got good, joined-up data and systems?” 

• “Have we got the right governance and oversight when it comes to safely and securely using it?” 

And then, courtesy of recent announcements from the government, we’ve also got those kind of considerations about children and their cognitive process being disconnected – is AI necessarily helping in the learning journey? 

As you’d expect in education, we’re always grounded in the idea of evidence-informed. And it’s tough when AI is brand new.  

What should schools consider when looking at new EdTech solutions? 

So, I often work with organisations to help them with their digital strategy, and one part of a digital strategy is considering the purchasing and evaluation process.  

It’s public money – we’ve got to make sure we do things carefully. I always say make sure you take your selection process and split it into two halves: 

The technical consideration and the pedagogical consideration. And it will shift depending on the type of tool you’ve got.  

From a technical perspective, we’re thinking: 

• “Is this tool platform-agnostic?” 

• “Is it something that’s going to have the right infrastructure to support it?” 

• “Does it need a terabyte internet connection?” 

• “Will it integrate with our existing systems?” 

• “Have we got the right policies in terms of data strorage and compliance?” 

Then, we can look at the pedagogical consideration: 

• “What is its intended purpose?” 

• “How are we going to use it?” 

• “How are we going to measure its impact?” 

Once we’re clear on those bits, we can move forward to evaluating and trialling the software.  

And then, we can go into the logical process of: 

• “Are we clear on its purpose?” 

• “Can we see an impact?” 

• “How do we assess?” 

This way, we gain much more confidence about the decision-making process. There are so many choices and the fact that many platforms are – annoyingly and intentionally – designed to be sticky so that your school or trust sticks with it.  

That’s why I was happy to sit and chat with you about this topic today – I’m always an advocate of Salamander because it shows we can use technology to simplify and not to add complexity to the process as well.  

You can find out more about Al Kingsley’s work here.