Twenty Tablets, One Socket, Forty-Two Students
You coordinate ICT in a school of 1,050 students. A donor has given 20 tablets and one projector. The only secure room with a power point has a single 13A socket and no internet connection; power cuts occur about twice a week. You teach one Grade 9 class of 42 students, two 45-minute periods a week, and the coming topic is 'Spreadsheets: formulae and charts'. Senior staff want a 'digital lesson' ready for a zonal visit in three weeks. A colleague has created a WhatsApp group of 42 students and their parents, posts photographs of students working at the tablets, and has asked you to send a photograph of the class marks sheet so parents can 'see progress quickly'. The tablets arrived with no chargers labelled, no inventory numbers and no warranty documents.
1. Plan the two weekly periods so that all 42 students use the 20 devices meaningfully. Justify the design.
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The constraint is 20 devices, 42 students, 90 minutes a week and no internet - so design a rotation, not a demonstration.
Structure: three stations of 15 minutes, repeated across both periods so that every student gets device time in the week.
- Station A: 20 tablets, one per student, working on a pre-loaded offline spreadsheet file. Task is predictive: enter a formula in one cell, fill down, and record what happens to the totals when a value changes.
- Station B: paper grid - students hand-calculate the same total and chart the same data on squared paper.
- Station C: teacher-led hinge question and error analysis (common formula mistakes, cell referencing).
Justification: the device must serve the concept, not decorate it. Merely typing a table instead of drawing it is substitution and adds little. Fill-down with instant recalculation lets students test predictions in seconds - something paper cannot do - which is modification, and it is where the learning gain lies. The paper station is not a consolation prize; it is what makes the tablet result interpretable. With power cuts twice a week, keep a printed contingency version of Station A so the lesson does not collapse.
2. How do you handle the WhatsApp group, the photographs and the marks sheet?
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Treat this as a data-protection and child-protection matter, not a matter of staff preference.
Say no to the marks sheet, clearly and immediately. A marks sheet is personal data about identifiable children, and a parent WhatsApp group is not a secure official channel. One screenshot can circulate beyond the class in minutes and cannot be recalled.
Photographs of identifiable students require the school's policy on images and child protection, and informed parental consent for that specific use. A general consent to 'school activities' does not cover posting in a chat group. Advise the colleague to stop posting, remove the images already shared, and apologise if needed.
The group itself can survive for administrative messages if it is used only for non-personal information - dates, materials, deadlines - with the principal's approval and a stated purpose.
Individual marks should reach parents through the school's normal channel: the record sheet, a sealed individual slip, or an authenticated school system, with identity verified.
Document the advice in writing, because if a parent later complains, the school's position must be that it acted on a stated policy rather than on someone's discomfort.
3. What arrangements would keep the tablets usable and safe for a full term?
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Devices fail in schools through logistics, not through pedagogy.
- Inventory: number all 20 tablets and chargers, photograph each with its serial number, file the warranty documents, and keep a signed issue log. Unlabelled chargers disappear within a month.
- Charging: do not cascade adaptors from the single 13A socket. Have the school electrician confirm the safe load and install a proper multi-outlet arrangement, then charge in two batches - ten in the morning, ten after lunch - on a rota pinned to the cupboard door.
- Security: lockable storage in the same room, one key holder plus a deputy, and a named student technology team that checks in and out under supervision.
- Power cuts: keep all content offline and pre-loaded; keep the printed contingency task; do not plan a lesson that requires mains power at a fixed moment.
- Sustainability: cleaning cloths, a rule against food and drink at the devices, a simple fault log, and a line in the school development plan for replacement and repair costs, because a donor gives once and the school maintains for years.
- Staff capacity: two short peer-training sessions, so the equipment does not depend on one enthusiast who may be transferred.