ICT: Impacting student outcomes through technology
There are many stakeholders within education, all of whom use ICT in some form. Without the support of the Information Communication and Technology (or ICT) team, Catholic Education Tasmania (CET) could not operate as it currently does. ICT supports students using their devices safely, parents wanting to access their child’s progress or results through a shared online system with their teachers, or educators requiring the latest educational software be up to date and their device applications working effectively. ICT is pervasive and used everyday with education, and the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office ICT team provides a service that is integral to the operation of Catholic education in Tasmania.
The System Manager: ICT for CET is Astrid Goss, and she has worked at the TCEO since 2019. She understands how difficult it can be to navigate the current climate of cybersecurity safety. She explained, “In this cybersecurity landscape, there are changes that can take place [everyday], so it’s hard to ever be in front. We do our best to make sure we set things up in a standard way, so that when we know that there's an issue coming, we can mitigate risks at a click of a button and have that change proliferate statewide.”
For example, schools are placed under increasing pressure to ensure that child safety is paramount, and students can use technology safely. Before issues begin to take place, the ICT team are already working tirelessly to be aware of any potential cybersecurity issues before they impact users.
The ICT team is one of the areas of the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office that often goes unnoticed but provides support to all 38 schools in some way. Their team is broken into three core areas. Client Services who attend the help desk and help fix any IT issues, the Infrastructure team which looks after all things cloud related and behind the scenes issues that users don’t see, and the Enterprise Systems team who look after core CET systems like parent portal, Compass and learning management system, Canvas.
Their goal is to have systems set up in a manner which allows them to have a consistent and automated approach to an issue, so a potential risk can be fixed for thousands of devices in just a couple of clicks. Previously an issue would be fixed by an IT technician individually removing or touching every device to fix an issue. Astrid and her team are working towards an automated process to fixing these problems, maximising efficiency, and freeing up members of their team to attend to more complex issues or projects.
The ICT System team’s latest project is the development of a centralised learning system which is aiming to service all Catholic schools in Tasmania. The concept emerged from conversations between principals of senior secondary schools in Southern Tasmania as part of the project to extend more colleges to deliver years 11 and 12. Their goal is to create one learning management system where schools can share learning, effort, and information. Astrid explained, “The concept for the project came out of the principals from the Colleges, who wanted to collaborate together. The principals said what they really need is a platform to be able to support students when they move between schools.” She said, “Things like emergency information, wellbeing information, pastoral care notes, which are important for the wellbeing of a student while they are under our care.”
The centralised management tool will be hosted through a product called Schoolbox where students and teachers will log into a system with all their course information. Student information and timetabling could all be accessed by schools seamlessly without needing the student to be a member of that specific school. The ‘go live’ for the learning management system is the first day of term in 2024 with St Mary’s College College and Guilford Young College trialling the system during Head Start Week in December 2023 then St James Catholic College straight after.
As the ICT landscape continues to change and technology remains increasingly important to our schools, the ICT team at CET remains an integral aspect of ensuring schools function effectively and safely. While their work takes place behind the scenes, CET schools and the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office are thankful for the work that they do.