Inspiring colleagues in Digital Technologies and Hangarau Matihiko

Link to Slideshow

On Wednesday, 4th September we were fortunate to have Clive Francis from Core Education host a Takatū ā-Matihiko Technologies meet-up at Newmarket School. Four members of our staff attended the meeting including our Digital Technology leader and one of our Across School leaders and one of our In School Leaders. It was a really valuable meeting and great to see all the other teachers from other schools in our Auckland Central Community of School Kāhui Ako as well as other schools in the Auckland area.

Digital Curriculum Implementation Team

First we discussed who would be needed for an effective digital curriculum team in the school - who to get on board. We did an activity where we needed to sort through a variety of different personality options and roles and decide who we would put on a team. We decided on a member of management, some teachers of different digital capabilities and possible a keen parent.

Setting the Scene for Staff

Next we went over how we would set the scene for staff. We needed to consider what has changed and what it means for them.

Some of the ideas and feedback were:

●      Look at individual feelings about DT - what are my worries, what are my questions, what do I know/use already. Use this information to develop further discussions and PD about DT.

●      Educating teachers about the Unplugged activities - run the activities with teachers. Eg fruit exchange circles/lines and ensuring they understand how digital curriculums can make teaching/learning more effective.

●      Digital ambassadors for each year group? They could include students in their understanding/meet with students to come up with more ideas and further understanding of where to next. Then share back to the Digital Curriculum team.

●      We could have a shared document sharing information about the curriculum, resources, ideas, what teams are doing, next steps etc. Kish reminded us that we have a document already but that staff may not be aware or using it. Link Here.

●      A “Techie Brekkie” was held at another school. Optional breakfast for staff where they could bring their concerns/questions to the table and have conversations with leaders who could help out in a less formal setting than a staff meeting.

Enablers & Blockers to implementing the Digital Curriculum

We were asked to consider what enablers and blockers we had at our school when it comes to implementing the new Digital Curriculum.

Enablers

●      Supportive Parent community

●      Many staff are keen to learn

●      Digital team - Kish & Sonya who have lots of knowledge and passion for the subject

●      Staff have completed digital passport

●      We have access to a number of resources both digital and physical

●      Good support for infrastructure - Newerait etc

●      DT is focussed in our strategic plan

Blockers

●      Time for staff to upskill

●      Time management - timetabling, assessment, reporting - fitting it in etc

●      Difficult to manage lack of buy-in/understanding of the curriculum area

●      What resources do we have? Are we all aware of what we have, where it is, how to use it, what is available? Where do we find time to discover all of this?

Digital Curriculum School Planning

As a Digital Curriculum team, we need to assess all planning strands and prioritise what is important for us to focus on. We assessed as a table group and then collated data from all schools and prioritized as a whole group to get an idea on what other schools were prioritising. The key aspect that most schools found challenging was Intentional Leadership, followed by Genuine Learning Partnerships (Across-school Communication) and Expanded Teacher Capacity (Professional Development). This could lead us as a school to understand what our priorities should be when moving forward in planning our next steps.

Some Suggested Resources

-       https://kiatakatu.ac.nz/members/profile

-       DITTA (digital technology teachers of Aotearoa) - free library with digital technology resources.

-       TENZ( Technology Educators of NZ)

-       Self review - core education. Staff members to complete.

-       https://getready.iqualify.com/login

-       https://getready.iqualify.com/home

-       The Orange Game

-       RoadMap

-       CS Unplugged activities

-       https://lightbot.com/flash.html

Overall, the Kia Takatū digital technologies meet-up was very helpful in assisting our digital leaders see a clear pathway on how to create and implement a plan for integrating the Digital Technologies curriculum. We now understand why we need an effective team to work on the plan and what steps we can take to implement it over the next few years in our school.

Advocacy activities:

-       CS Unplugged

WTN

Potential Goals and Action Template

Draft planning template

Strategic Thinking Roadmap.

Written by  
Fiesole Marks