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City-wide school staff digital literacy network

Posted on by Josephine Fraser

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DigiLit Network 6Just before Christmas 2015, we launched a call to secondary and special education schools across the city to participate in a new peer led network, designed to focus supporting school staff digital literacy and CPD. The network builds on the DigiLit Leicester project, which successfully established a process for identifying strengths and gaps in digital literacy, and improving skills and confidence school and city-wide.

ICT investment in Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme has provided all city mainstream secondary and special education secondary schools in the city with world-class technology designed to support effective teaching and learning, connect communities and provide opportunities for teachers and learners to collaborate across the city and beyond. Over the last 5 years we have rebuilt and refurbished 19 schools, completing a programme which benefits over 20,000 young people.

Peer-led digital literacy networkDigiLit network 3

Peer network leads will ensure that staff at all levels continue to be supported in improving skills and developing their practice. The new network represents 10 city schools:

Mahala Active-Nemaura, Head of Computer Science, The Lancaster School

Antoinette Bouwens,Business Manager, St Paul’s Catholic School

Will Carter, Director of Music, English Martyrs’ Catholic School

Natalie Coley and Julie Eden, Nether Hall School

Josie Franklin, ICT/Computing/Computer Science Teacher, Moat Community College

Kitesh Mistry, Lead Teacher: Digital Learning, Rushey Mead Academy

Fabienne Preston, Head of Modern Foreign Languages, Crown Hills Community College

James Rolfe, ICT Lead and Head of Science, Judgemeadow Community College

Tony Tompkins, College Leader – New Technology, The City of Leicester College

Elsbeth Woodgate, Educational Technologist, Ellesmere College

Mahala Active-Nemaura and Tony Tompkins will be taking responsibility for co-ordination the network, which will run until July 2017. Members will also be working with Leicester’s Open Schools Network, to ensure all schools take advantage of the city councils work in relation to open educational licensing and support for open practice.

DigiLit Network 7Digital literacy in focus

Each school has selected a strand of the DigiLit Leicester framework to focus on during the lifetime of the project, and will be focusing on raising confidence and competence levels in this area. Schools were free to select their prefered area from the six framework strands –

  • Assessment and Feedback
  • Communication, Collaboration and Participation
  • Creating and Sharing
  • E-Safety and Online Identity
  • Finding, Evaluating and Organising
  • Technology supported Professional Development

Interestingly, all participating schools selected one of three strands: Assessment and Feedback, Communication, Collaboration and Participation, or Technology supported professional Development – giving us three working groups.

You can find out more about the framework strands and levels here.

The work of the networkDigiLit Network 4

The Peer Network Leads will:

  • Work in partnership with the Open Schools Network, to ensure work completed compliments and supports the development, implementation and identification of good practice in open education.
  • Commit to developing their own specialist knowledge of the chosen digital literacy strand area, as well as complimentary knowledge relating to open education, open educational resources and open licences.
  • Support staff at their school in relation to the development of practice supported by the chosen digital literacy strand, ensuring progression amongst all staff but particularly in relation to staff currently working at Entry level.
  • Ensure that activities undertaken support the school improvement plan and in particular, learner outcomes and quality of teaching.
  • Be an active member of the DigiLit Leicester Network in Leicester – supporting other members, encouraging primary school participation, sharing approaches and ideas, and promoting your work and the work of the other network members.
  • Document and share practice and any high quality resources created in the context of the project under open licence, in line with Leicester City Council recommendations.

 Congratulations to all participating schools and good luck for the year ahead!

 DigiLit network 2

 

 

DigiLit Leicester – project roundup

Posted on by Josephine Fraser

What is DigiLit Leicester?

The award winning DigiLit Leicester project ran as collaboration between Leicester City Council’s Building Schools for the Future Programme, De Montfort University and 23 of the city’s secondary mainstream and SEN schools, between 2012-2016. The project focused on supporting secondary school teaching and teaching support staff in developing their digital literacy knowledge, skills and practice, and their effective use of digital tools, environments and approaches in their work with learners.

The Digilit Leicester project was designed to ensure school staff and learners get the most out of any investment in technology being made within education, enabling schools to make best use of technology to meet their aspirations for transforming educational provision. It supported schools in making sure every learner can benefit from an education that is supported and enhanced by the use of technology to raise achievement and aspiration, connect communities and open opportunities.

In consultation with the partner schools, the project team created a Digital Literacy Framework, linking digital literacy competencies and priorities with secondary school practice. This framework was then used to build an online survey, designed to support staff in reflecting on their use of technology to support teaching and learning, and to provide schools and the Council with information to inform our planning and next steps. A summary of the initial phase of the project, including the content of the DigiLit Leicester framework and survey, can be found in the Initial Project Report.

The survey was first open between April and July 2013, during which time 450 members of teaching and teaching support staff participated. More information about this phase of the project, including the survey methodology and findings, can be found in the 2013 Survey Report.

Recommendations for areas of focus and activity were developed in line with the strengths and gaps indicated by the 2013 survey findings. These recommendations were used to drive and frame a range of opportunities for staff and schools. During this period, the DigiLit team led on six events and projects, and 21 school-led projects were undertaken. More information about this phase of activity, including accounts of each project, can be found in the Project Activities Report.

Key reports and papers

DigiLit Leicester: Initial Project Report (digital literacy framework and survey)- June 2013

This paper collects together the secondary school digital literacy framework and survey content created in consultation with Leicester BSF schools.

DigiLit Leicester – initial report June 2013 (Word)

DigiLit Leicester – initial report June 2013 (PDF)

Fraser, J., Atkins, L. and Hall, R. (2013) DigiLit Leicester: Initial Project Report, Leicester: Leicester City Council (CC BY-NC 3.0)

DigiLit Leicester: 2013 Survey Results – October 2013

This report provides a high-level summary of the city-wide findings of the DigiLit Leicester survey, contributing to a clearer understanding of the current digital literacy confidence levels of secondary school staff, and recommendations that the project team will be taking forward within Leicester schools.

DigiLit Leicester – 2013 Survey Results October 2013 (Word)

DigiLit Leicester – 2013 Survey Results October 2013 (PDF)

Atkins, L., Fraser, J., and Hall, R. (2013) DigiLit Leicester: 2013 Survey Results. Leicester: Leicester City Council (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Defining a self-evaluation digital literacy framework for secondary educators: the DigiLit Leicester Project – Research in Learning Technology – April 2014

Despite the growing interest in digital literacy within educational policy, guidance for secondary educators in terms of how digital literacy translates into the classroom is lacking. As a result, many teachers feel ill-prepared to support their learners in using technology effectively. The DigiLit Leicester project created an infrastructure for holistic, integrated change, by supporting staff development in 15 the area of digital literacy for secondary school teachers and teaching support staff. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the critique of existing digital literacy frameworks enabled a self-evaluation framework for practitioners to be developed. Crucially, this framework enables a co-operative, partnership approach to be taken to pedagogic innovation. Moreover, it enables social and ethical issues 20 to underpin a focus on teacher-agency and radical collegiality inside the domain of digital literacy. Thus, the authors argue that the shared development framework constitutes a new model for implementing digital literacy aimed at transforming the provision of secondary education across a city.

Research In Learning Technology article – April 10 2014

Hall, R., Atkins, L. and Fraser, J. (2014) Defining a self-evaluation digital literacy framework for secondary educators: the DigiLit Leicester project. Research in Learning Technology, vol.22: 21440

DigiLit Leicester: Project Activities Report – May 2014

This report collates activities that have taken place across Leicester between January 2013 and April 2014, some of which are currently ongoing. During this period, the DigiLit team led on six events and projects, and 21 school-led projects were undertaken. It is designed to share the processes, outcomes and benefits of the work that has been undertaken, and concludes with recommendations for the next round of activity and planning, drawing on lessons learnt.

DigiLit Leicester – Project Activities Report May 2014 (Word)

DigiLit Leicester – Project Activities Report May 2014 (PDF)

Atkins, L., Fraser, J. and Hall, R. (2014) DigiLit Leicester: Project Activities Report, Leicester: Leicester City Council (CC BY-NC 3.0)

DigiLit Leicester – Project Activities Short Report May 2014 (Word)

DigiLit Leicester – Project Activities Short Report May 2014 (PDF)

Atkins, L., Fraser, J. and Hall, R. (2014) DigiLit Leicester: Project Activities Short Report, Leicester: Leicester City Council (CC BY-NC 3.0)

DigiLit Leicester: 2014 Survey Results – September 2014

This report provides a high-level summary of the city-wide findings of the 2014 DigiLit Leicester survey, enabling comparisons against last year’s findings and a review of the recommendations that the project team will be taking forward within Leicester schools.

DigiLit Leicester – 2014 Survey Results October 2014 (Word)

DigiLit Leicester – 2014 Survey Results October 2014 (PDF)

Atkins, L., Fraser, J., and Hall, R. (2014) DigiLit Leicester: 2014 Survey Results. Leicester: Leicester City Council (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Twitter for School Staff Professional Development

Posted on by Josephine Fraser

All school staff benefit from engagement with continuing professional development (CPD) – keeping up to date in their subject and curriculum area, and in teaching approaches and methods. Web and mobile based technologies have changed the landscape for school staff in terms of how they can connect to other educators both locally and across the globe. Personal learning networks (PLN), developed and managed by educators, allow school staff to discover, discuss and share relevant ideas, resources and approaches.

Twitter is jam packed with educators from all over the country and world, who are interested in sharing with and learning from colleagues. I ran two Twitter for Educators CPD sessions in March, designed to support staff in using Twitter in developing their professional networks. The workshops support work around the DigiLit Leicester project sixth framework strand – Technology supported Professional Development, and were designed to help staff improve their confidence and skills in this area.

Two sessions were held at De Montfort University: a beginner workshop, aimed to get staff up and running with Twitter and to introduce the basics and an intermediate workshop, offering essential tips and tools for improving the Twitter experience.

Create your Twitter Presence

This session was aimed at absolute beginners and assumed no prior use of Twitter. Staff were walked through the sign up process and introduced to the basics: creating a username, choosing an avatar (profile picture) and writing a 160 character biography. The interface and functionality of the site were explored through a desktop tour.

Twitter worksheet

Understanding the component parts of a tweet is important for beginners wanting to get to grips with the service. This Twitter basics worksheet (word) was created to help staff identify and become familiar with the key conventions used in tweets.

Twitter tips focused on the use of Twitter as an educator, and issues relating to online behaviour and identity for educators. These include advice about connecting to and communication with students, parents and carers,  and validity checking information before retweeting.

Developing your Personal Learning Networks (PLN) on Twitter

The second session was designed for staff who are familiar with Twitter basics and already have profiles. This session focused on engaging with school communities on Twitter and using the site to establish and develop personal learning networks.

This session included a discussion about tools and approaches to help staff manage and work with Twitter: goo.gl – Google’s URL shorting service which provides users with useful, basic engagement measures,  a review of mobile  and desk-based clients, and sites for saving and sharing useful tweets.We also reviewed Twitter user info using this Twitter network building worksheet (word).

 

Bonus links: