Strategic Planning for ICT in Education

Strategic Planning: Developing a roadmap to facilitate meaningful, evidence based change towards desirable outcomes.

What is creativity? Ultimately it's the process of having original ideas, but there are several steps. The first step is imagination, the capacity that we all have to see something in the mind's eye. Creativity is then using that imagination to solve problems -- call it applied imagination. Then innovation is putting that creativity into practice as applied creativity.

An Exercise in Creativity Sir Ken Robertson http://www.sirkenrobinson.com /

Creativity Strategic Planning Vision Where are we now and how do we move towards our vision? Translating our plan into innovative classroom implementation Imagination Creativity - using imagination to solve problems Innovation - putting that creativity into practice

Strategic Planning

should establish a long-term, broad view of the direction of the school

must be based on the educational needs of the students

requires a commitment of time and resources to set up and then implement

must be 'owned' by all members of the school community

must be dynamic and be reviewed, fine-tuned and changed as it is implemented.

The Plan:

Studies show that:

The planning process is vitally important, the plan that results from this process is only one of the outcomes.

A successful plan includes a defined set of educational outcomes and a proposed pathway to try to get there.

A successful plan is not a shopping list or a budget, it involves much more than buying things.

Change in attitudes and thinking from planning can be more important than the ICTs themselves.

Good plans are developed by consensus and collaboration.

Good plans involve the whole community and are owned by them.

Good plans stress application across the whole curriculum.

Successful planners make informed decisions based on examining best practice elsewhere.

Studies show that:

From the Becta site

From the Becta site A Well Designed Plan Needs to Address All Dimensions of Change

A Step by Step Guide to Effective Strategic Planning

Form a Strategic Planning Committee

Consider Involving:

Staff

Parents

BOT

School ICT support technicians

Children

Valued local community

Form a Strategic Planning Committee

Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision

Research and Develop a Vision Areas to Consider Philosophy and aims Curriculum aspects Management of ICT in the school Professional development of teachers and other staff Hardware and deployment Financial aspects Monitoring and review Planning needs

Thinking forward 5 years time...

What type of learning environment would you see?

How will pedagogy have changed and how will ICT support this change?

How would learning take place? (multimodal texts)

What role will students play in the design of the learning environment and processes?

Research and Develop a Vision Questions to Guide Research

What will each student know, value and be able to do when they leave [your school]

What would you like people to say about your school graduates now and in the future?

If all the constraints were taken away, what would you like to do to really improve learning?

How would current problems we dealt with to help make this possible?

Where to Research Vision

Curriculum Documents

E-Learning Strategy

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/web/downloadable/dl10639_v1/itc-strategy.pdf

21st Learning Curriculum

Partnership for 21st Century Skills http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120 Student Outcomes Support Systems

Focus on Personalised learning

http://www.tki.org.nz/r/personalising_learning/index_e.php Passive Two way & Engaged Learning has little meaning Learning is meaningful Filling of a pail Lighting of a fire Teacher Driven Student empowered

Readings and case studies

LEARNING :

involves generating knowledge not storing it;

is primarily a group - not an individual -activity;

happens in ‘ real world ’, problem-based contexts;

should be ‘ just-in-time ’, not ‘just-in-case’;

needs to be àla carte , not en bloc .

Presentation by Dr Jane Gilbert http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=12063&data=l What’s New and Different about the Knowledge Age?

Visits to other schools

Online networking

www.ning.com - Classroom 2.0

Read Blogs and wikis where practitioners share

share their experiences

Jane Nicholl’s blog “ During the course of my research into the use of podcasting in Oral Language I put a similar question to two groups of people. Firstly I asked a cross section of teachers throughout New Zealand to identify the elements of oral language that they actively teach. Next I asked a class of 24 year 4,5 and 6 students who have been podcasting during 2007 to identify everything they think they learn when they are making a podcast. I have put the responses in a table separated into the strands of oral language identified in the New Zealand Oral Language Matrix.” An excert from her blog post about her Podcasting research

Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision Gather data on Present State

Gather Information on Present State Equipment and Hardware - ICT Audit

Define Present State People Skills and Attitudes EPS - Individual Teacher ICT Assessment Make customised tools Survey Monkey Becta Assessment Tools Leadspace Evaluation Tool

Define Present State Where we sit as a School http://www.clusterweb.org.uk/ictstrategyconference/ictstrategy.html Click on each stage for a detailed explanation. Click on the yellow background box to skip descriptions. Visits to other schools for comparison

■ Familiarisation Teachers are becoming increasingly aware of ICT, and may have attended some training, but often lack confidence and therefore reluctant to use it in their classroom teaching.

■ Utilisation Teachers are increasingly aware of the benefits of technology, and begin to incorporate it into teaching, often replacing former activities with ICT alternatives. This begins to have a beneficial effect on teaching and learning.

■ Integration Teachers are becoming increasingly familiar with appropriate use of ICT, and can integrate it into many aspects of their ongoing teaching. Teaching and learning are becoming significantly enhanced.

■ Reorientation The potential of ICT is now exploited to enable approaches which could not easily be replicated by traditional means. Teaching and learning begin to be significantly transformed.

■ Evolution The creative possibilities of ICT are being fully explored. ICT is developed in response to learners’ needs. Teaching and learning are significantly transformed.

Collate into a SWOT analysis Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision Gather data on Present State

An example focusing on school intranet Strengths There is a functioning school intranet that provides children with safe portals to the internet (filtered by WatchDog) and an area for posting class webpages. Weaknesses The intranet was designed on an older web design program this is not available since the latest upgrade (image). Opportunities Information for teachers on ICT policies and ICT skills could be included in the school intranet. Threats No suitable web design software for Macs has yet been identified as being easy for kids to use ( pre iWeb ) and this means the intranet could quickly become outdated

Collate into a SWOT analysis Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision Gather data on Present State Identify Strategic Gap

Identify Strategic Gap

Collate into a SWOT analysis Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision Gather data on Present State Identify Strategic Gap Develop Strategic Targets and Indicators

Develop Strategic Targets and Indicators All teaching staff can use the SMS for basic administrative functions Staff in the junior school have employed appropriate technologies to improve oral language skills Two possible examples

SMART can be used as a planning tool Collate into a SWOT analysis Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision Gather data on Present State Identify Strategic Gap Develop Strategic Targets and Indicators Break this down into projects (action plan) Decide on roles and responsibilities Develop funding strategy Set objectives and timeframes

Exploring podcasting with junior children in order to raise oral language skills.

Classroom teachers to assess current oral language skill levels using JOSH

Lead teacher to organise a programme of PD opportunities for staff on podcasting

Year 1 teacher to introduce podcasting into classroom programme by term two (completing SMART plan)

Lead Teacher to use in-class visits to support and monitor implementation

Decide on roles and responsibilities

What are you going to do and why? How will you know when you have succeeded? What steps will you take? Have you considered your own skills and the experiences of your students? Will you need extra support? At what time will you complete each phase of the project?

S pecific In order to raise oral language skills, selected children will each create podcasts about the book of the week using Garageband which will then be published to the class intranet page using iWeb. This will be done every week for a term. One Possible Example

M easurable • Children will be selected for this project based on low attainment using JOST (Junior Oral Language Screening Tool) • They will be tested again after one term and compared to a similar child in another class not involved in the project to judge if this project has been a success.

A ction Plan 1. Test children considered at risk using JOST. Take the lowest achieving five children to be part of this project. This is mirrored in a class not involved in the project. 2. Children are given time to discuss the book of the week in class and the project children are encouraged to answer key questions about the book and develop vocabulary appropriate for the book. These sessions are recorded as podcasts with children able to re-record as necessary in order to have a good model of themselves to listen back to. 3. Project children listen back to the podcasts and are asked to comment on how well they responded and how clearly you could hear them. Other children are asked to listen and provide feedback. 4. At the end of the term, the children are asked to listen to their very first podcast and their last one and focus in on how they have improved. Their comments are recorded as a podcast (digital assessment object) 5. At the end of the term, the five children involved in the project and the five similar children not involved in the other class are tested using JOST and comparisons made.

R ealistic

Only five children involved (though if successful, this could be widened.)

School has agreed to some release time for the testing and analysis

Access to the laptop pod means that more than one podcast can be completed at a time.

This project may be changed to span two terms if it is deemed that one term is not a large enough sample period.

T imeframe 1. JOSH testing completed at end of previous term and children chosen. 2. Podcasts to be completed between Monday and Thursday each week with children asked to self-assess and choose a peer to assess on a Friday. 3. JOSH testing at the end of the term to be completed by the end of the Week 9. Final child analysis of how they think they have improved over the term to be completed during the last week of term and recorded as a podcast as part of the project. 4. Results shared at staff meeting at the beginning of the following term with other classes deciding whether or not to begin similar programmes.

SMART can be used as a planning tool Collate into a SWOT analysis Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision Gather data on Present State Identify Strategic Gap Develop Strategic Targets and Indicators Implement a phase of projects Break this down into projects (action plan) Decide on roles and responsibilities Develop funding strategy Set objectives and timeframes

Implement a phase of projects

SMART can be used as a planning tool Collate into a SWOT analysis Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision Gather data on Present State Identify Strategic Gap Develop Strategic Targets and Indicators Implement first phase of projects Assess impact and adjust plan if necessary Break this down into projects (action plan) Decide on roles and responsibilities Develop funding strategy Set objectives and timeframes

The children selected for the junior podcasting project have shown a marked improvement in their oral language skills using JOSH as the testing tool as compared to similar children not involved in the project. As a result, the decision has been made that this project will now continue in all junior classrooms. The teacher who completed this project will be leading staff development in how to manage this technology in the classroom. Assess impact and adjust plan if necessary

In-class observations

Teacher/ student surveys

Monitoring of planning

Evidence of student achievement and learning

Informal and formal discussions with staff/ students.

Assess impact and adjust plan if necessary Different Possible Ways to Assess Impact

SMART can be used as a planning tool Collate into a SWOT analysis Form a Strategic Planning Committee Research and Develop a Vision Gather data on Present State Identify Strategic Gap Develop Strategic Targets and Indicators Implement a phase of projects Assess impact and adjust plan if necessary Break this down into projects (action plan) Decide on roles and responsibilities Develop funding strategy Set objectives and timeframes Within plan timeframe At end of plan timeframe

This is an excellent site for a breakdown of the process: http://ictpd.net/techplan2005/