Strategic Planning for ICT in Education

Slide 1: Strategic Planning: Developing a roadmap to facilitate meaningful, evidence based change towards desirable outcomes.

Slide 2: An Exercise in Creativity 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. Sir Ken Robertson http://www.sirkenrobinson.com/

Slide 3: Creativity Strategic Planning Imagination Vision Creativity - using Where are we now and imagination to solve how do we move problems towards our vision? Innovation - putting that Translating our plan into innovative classroom creativity into practice implementation

Slide 4: Strategic Planning The Plan: 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.

Slide 5: 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.

Slide 6: Studies show that: 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.

Slide 7: From the Becta site

Slide 8: A Well Designed Plan Needs to Address All Dimensions of Change From the Becta site

Slide 9: A Step by Step Guide to Effective Strategic Planning

Slide 10: Form a Strategic Planning Committee

Slide 11: Form a Strategic Planning Committee Consider Involving: Staff Parents BOT School ICT support technicians Children Valued local community

Slide 12: Form a Research Strategic and Develop Planning Committee a Vision

Slide 13: Research and Develop a Areas to Consider Vision 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

Slide 14: Questions to Guide Research Research and Develop a Vision 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?

Slide 15: •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?

Slide 16: Where to Research Vision •Curriculum Documents

Slide 17: Where to Research Vision •E-Learning Strategy http://www.minedu.govt.nz/web/downloadable/dl10639_v1/itc-strategy.pdf

Slide 18: Where to Research Vision •21st Learning Curriculum Student Outcomes Support Systems Partnership for 21st Century Skills http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120

Slide 19: Where to Research Vision •Focus on Personalised learning Two way Passive & Engaged Learning Learning is has little meaningful meaning Teacher Student Driven empowered Filling of a Lighting pail of a fire http://www.tki.org.nz/r/personalising_learning/index_e.php

Slide 20: Where to Research Vision •Readings and case studies What’s New and Different about the Knowledge Age? 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

Slide 21: Where to Research Vision •Visits to other schools

Slide 22: Where to Research Vision •Online networking www.ning.com - Classroom 2.0

Slide 23: Where to Research Vision •Read Blogs and wikis where practitioners share share their experiences Jane Nicholl’s blog An excert from her blog post about her Podcasting research “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.”

Slide 24: Form a Research Gather data Strategic and Develop on Present Planning Committee a Vision State

Slide 25: Gather Information on Present State Equipment and Hardware - ICT Audit

Slide 26: Define Present State People Skills and Attitudes Survey Monkey EPS - Individual Teacher ICT Assessment Make customised tools Leadspace Becta Assessment Evaluation Tool Tools

Slide 27: Define Present State Where we sit as a School Visits to other schools for comparison Click on each stage for a detailed explanation. Click on the yellow background box to skip descriptions. http://www.clusterweb.org.uk/ictstrategyconference/ictstrategy.html

Slide 28: ■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.

Slide 29: ■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.

Slide 30: ■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.

Slide 31: ■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.

Slide 32: ■Evolution The creative possibilities of ICT are being fully explored. ICT is developed in response to learners’ needs. Teaching and learning are significantly transformed.

Slide 33: Form a Research Gather data Strategic Planning and Develop on Present Committee a Vision State Collate into a SWOT analysis

Slide 34: An example focusing on school intranet Strengths Weaknesses There is a functioning school intranet The intranet was designed on an that provides children with safe older web design program this is not portals to the internet (filtered by available since the latest upgrade WatchDog) and an area for posting (image). class webpages. Opportunities Threats Information for teachers on ICT No suitable web design software for policies and ICT skills could be Macs has yet been identified as being included in the school intranet. easy for kids to use (pre iWeb) and this means the intranet could quickly become outdated

Slide 35: Form a Research Gather data Strategic Planning and Develop on Present Committee a Vision State Identify Collate into Strategic a SWOT Gap analysis

Slide 36: Identify Strategic Gap

Slide 37: Form a Research Gather data Strategic Planning and Develop on Present Committee a Vision State Develop Identify Collate into Strategic Strategic a SWOT Targets and Indicators Gap analysis

Slide 38: Develop Strategic Targets and Indicators Two possible examples 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

Slide 39: Form a Research Gather data Strategic Planning and Develop on Present Committee a Vision State Develop Identify Collate into Strategic Targets and Strategic a SWOT Indicators Gap analysis Set objectives and timeframes Break this Decide on roles and SMART can be down into used as a projects responsibilities planning tool (action plan) Develop funding strategy

Slide 40: Decide on roles and responsibilities 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

Slide 41: 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?

Slide 42: One Possible Example Specific 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.

Slide 43: Measurable  •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.

Slide 44: Action 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.

Slide 45: Realistic • 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.

Slide 46: Timeframe 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.

Slide 47: Form a Research Gather data Strategic Planning and Develop on Present Committee a Vision State Develop Identify Collate into Strategic Targets and Strategic a SWOT Indicators Gap analysis Set objectives and timeframes Break this Decide on roles and SMART can be down into used as a projects responsibilities planning tool (action plan) Develop funding strategy Implement a phase of projects

Slide 48: Implement a phase of projects

Slide 49: Form a Research Gather data Strategic Planning and Develop on Present Committee a Vision State Develop Identify Collate into Strategic Targets and Strategic a SWOT Indicators Gap analysis Set objectives and timeframes Break this Decide on roles and SMART can be down into used as a projects responsibilities planning tool (action plan) Develop funding strategy Assess impact Implement and adjust plan first phase of if necessary projects

Slide 50: Assess impact and adjust plan if necessary 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.

Slide 51: Assess impact and adjust plan if necessary Different Possible Ways to Assess Impact In-class observations Teacher/ student surveys Monitoring of planning Evidence of student achievement and learning Informal and formal discussions with staff/ students.

Slide 52: Form a Research Gather data Strategic Planning and Develop on Present Committee a Vision State Develop Identify Collate into Strategic Targets and Strategic a SWOT Indicators Gap analysis Set objectives and timeframes Break this Decide on roles and SMART can be down into used as a projects responsibilities planning tool (action plan) Develop funding strategy Within plan timeframe Assess impact Implement a At end of plan timeframe and adjust plan phase of if necessary projects

Slide 53: This is an excellent site for a breakdown of the process: http://ictpd.net/techplan2005/