Tentative first steps as a digital leader

Despite all my ideals and lofty targets, reality hit me this week. Lessons to plan, work to mark, subjects to lead. As a result, my sights had to be lowered somewhat.
Still, I have made some progress on my journey.
Firstly, I carried out some initial research with several KS3 classes and discovered a little about their digital habits. I set aside time during a Year 7 and a year 8 lesson to discuss what I am working towards and why. Some of the responses I received have been eye-opening, disconcerting and worrying...

• Approximately 90% of learners have access to a smartphone, laptop/tablet or desktop PC
• Well over half of the pupils claimed to use the internet and related devices in a completely unsupervised, unfiltered and unmoderated manner. Of the remaining pupils, a handful have time restrictions imposed on them, and a few parents use filtering software
• Very few year 8 pupils were fearful of the internet and did not admit to feeling concerned about its risks
• A few year 7 pupils confessed to having experienced a difficult situation when online, but the anecdotes they shared seemed relatively trivial
• About a third of the classes confessed to using a device/app/site in a manner that they knew their parents would disapprove of
• Playing the devil's advocate even further, I asked how many of them take advantage of their parents' lack of ICT skills to conceal what they are doing. There was some reluctance to them confessing to this, but about a quarter of the class admitted they behaved in such a way

The last two points, whilst not particularly surprising, gave me pause for thought. I expected a level of disinterest from parents; I am prepared for apathy from my overworked and overstretched SLT, but I wasn't expecting the pupils to be anything other than fully committed to this process. In retrospect, this was naive of me. Of course the pupils will object to what we are trying to do when it shines a light on them capitalising on their parents' ignorance! Clearly we need to address another strand of digital citizenship, Digital Transparency.

However, before I can draw any firm conclusions or present this data to SLT/parents, it needs to be more substantial and less anecdotal. To this end, I will collaborate on a survey with fellow digital leaders to get a more complete picture of our learners' habits and opinions.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I've thrown my lesson plans away (not literally, of course) and asked a few classes the big question "What do you want to learn?". As you can see below, it's pretty much a who's who of social messaging and social networking. Turning this wishlist into something meaningful and challenging will be an interesting prospect.

I've tried to broaden the impact of digital citizenship, by trying to incorporating more digital literacy skills into a non-ICT subject. I suggested to a business studies class would they be interested in the use of wikis, podcasts, blogs, vlogs and creating their own YouTube channel to help them revise and consolidate learning, and they all seemed really enthusiastic about this suggestion. 

I am fully aware at this stage that I've only made ideological progress; I now need to start actualising my goals. By the time I next write, I intend to have made tangible progress.Wish me luck.

Digital leadership in an analog educational system

"It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult." -- Seneca

Today, for the first time, I felt like I was failing my pupils. I've always prided myself on my ability to translate national curriculum orders into a fantastic set of end of key stage levels. Always well above local, regional and national averages. But really, that isn't enough, is it? Not even close.

I was doing a basic literacy exercise with some Year 8 pupils, pretty standard stuff, but they were still getting into it, and were really enthusiastic about simple things like peer assessment and our general pupil/teacher interactions. But as fun as that was for me, I felt, no I knew, that I was letting them down. This wasn't what they needed. The numbers game, pissing contest of end-of-key-stage results feels trivial and pointless. I, for one, am going to make a commitment to stop this madness and re-align my priorities. I swear, that on Monday, I am going to stand before my first key stage class and boldly ask 'What do you want to learn today?'. I also swear that their needs will come before those of the national curriculum.  Come Monday, I am going to start on the road to creating digital citizens, not Level 5+s. 

Let's not forget, we stand on the shoulders of giants. We, as prospective digital leaders have been given a great responsibility; we are the ones charged with being agents of change, in our lessons, schools, pupils' lives, parents' lives and in our communities. There is a deluge of empirical research to validate what we are trying to do. Every youtube clip of Howard Rheingold or Sonia Livingstone only convinces us further. We know what we need to do, we know it makes sense. But, and this is a but of mammoth proportions... How do we do it?

• We need to be developing pupils' crap detection skills (is that term acceptable, or should we tone it down a bit??)
• Develop a better sense of self-filtering and self-censorship
• To widen their palate of possibilities
• For them to widen our palates
• Using new technologies, new apps and new web sites
• Creating new apps and new web sites
• Encouraging pupils to develop their own voice on-line, to experiment, to take risks, to take risky experiments, to try, to fail, to dust themselves off and to try again
• To allow our pupils to feel empowered, but not because they know we are taking care of them, but because they are taking care of themselves

The Internet is an adult world, yes, but it's time for a new paradigm. We've all taken our children to a playground, where they had their fair share of fun and their fair share of scrapes. Yes, there were tears, but they always want to return, despite their mishaps. Why wouldn't they?? It's a playground for god's sake!! Let's take something from this. Let's try to make the internet less of a murky underworld and more of an adventure playground. Yes, our knees may get muddy and our hands scraped, but we'll still be back there tomorrow, full of enthusiasm for the promise of more muddy knees and more unbridled fun. 

Digital Leaders Training - day 3

Today was the final day of this section of the training, and like the previous two days, was full of interesting debate, sharing of experiences and as many questions as answers about the future of ICT in schools. The overriding emotion I have from the training is re-invigoration.

Much has been spoken and written about the need to return to a wholesome, good old-fashioned Computer Science curriculum. This way of thinking never really sat right with me; I knew that the current NC orders were tired and hopelessly out of date, but I never believed that a return to a curriculum diet that had been click-dragged to the recycle bin decades ago was the solution. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I think we can all agree that the days of death by PowerPoint are rightfully numbered, and a revamp was needed. But this revisionist thinking that algorithms are a panacea for the ills of the ICT curriculum is myopic at best and plain wrong-headed at worst. What our young need is ICT 2.0, not Computing 1.01. This training, though, was a case in the defence of ICT. Our young are living in a digital world they are ill-prepared for, if they are prepared at all. That the vast majority of them can function in it at all is testament to their resilience and spirit of self-discovery. However, if we teachers, senior managers and policy makers, are brave enough, imaginative enough and prepared to be lead and well as leaders, we can empower our pupils to confidently stake their claim as digital citizens and express themselves in the digital world.

Of course, I am aware that this is just sabre-rattling. Before this can happen, there are battles to be had, hearts and minds to be won over and schemes of work to be cast asunder. But, to be in a position where I can contribute to this is both humbling and a privilege, and I hope I can rise to the challenge.

Reflections on digital leadership training

I've taught ICT for about 15 years, and only in the past few days have I really considered myself an ICT professional. Until then, I think I've been a pretty good teacher, able to create and deliver a scheme of work to fulfil national and local priorities with a good track record of achievement. And that's always been enough for me. I've always been aware that there's a whole world of cool and interesting activities that I could be involved in, but since it's not really been a requirement of the NC, I thought why bother?
However, the digital leaders training so far has proven to be a revelation. Whilst teaching will always, to a greater or lesser extent, be a numbers game, I realised that I have a duty to equip my pupils for the digital world they have been thrust into, rather than just being beholden to out-of-date curriculum orders and performance management tables.
I am looking forward to redefining what ICT is capable of offering to my pupils, my school, and to me.