Digital Strategy

[Caroline Delaney]

Hi everybody,

I hope that you are all very well!

Next week, I am leading a strategic discussion with our senior leadership about our digital strategy moving forward. 

Adoption of google classroom so far has been great and we want to continue to develop and progress. We are planning on having 1:1 chromebooks for Sept which is very exciting!

I'd love to hear from you guys about any ideas or advice you may have for me at this point. 

• Any big questions which must be discussed/raised?

• Any tips which made your digital strategy successful?

• Any articles or video clips which might be a good stimulus for the team to explore prior to the meeting? 

Thanks in advance!

Caroline

[Stuart Rogers]

We're pretty much in the same situation.  One of the biggest issues for us is to ensure our digital infrastructure is current and set up for the future.  Like you, we're going 1:1 but at the moment we're focusing on ensuring our network switches, wifi access points, broadband (fibre to premises) etc is capable of handling a 1:1 rollout.  There's little point having a great tech if the network can't cope with the number of devices.  Unfortunately, this is the expensive bit and takes up a lot of the budget.

Whilst we're setting this up I'm focusing on a staff training program so that we can hit the ground running when we start our 1:1 program.  I don't want them to gathering dust in a classroom nor do I want just used as a replacement for a paper task.  We've got to be creative and innovative in how we use them.  Therefore, staff will need a lot of consistent training and this will need to be long term.  We're also starting a shift to ensuring all of our staff are GC L1 & L2 competent and doing the same for TAs and Admin staff.  I'm also proposing we do the same for our governors so they're on board with everything we do.  Ultimately, they've got to give the 'Ok' to me spending 25k+ on Chromebooks so I want them to understand their impact.

GSuite/Google Workspace is still an unknown thing for most teachers/staff in schools I think. Obviously, Lockdown has helped promote it but there's still a lot to be done.

We're on the start of a long journey but there's not to think about and lots of money that needs spending to just ensure everything works!

[Fiona Kempton]

Hi there

We are also on this journey, having now been using GSuite, Classroom as LMS for 5 years for some, 3 years for all - previously had iPads - now moving to chromebooks - the issue we have struck upon is finding compatible docking stations for chrome os - we have Lenovo 500e chromebooks but the lenovo docking station appears to want windows 10 - any advice welcome!

Fee

[Wayne Hall]

Hi,

We are well down on our digital strategy that started about 5 years ago.

1. Get buy in from the top
2. Get buy in from the top
3. Our governors have a google classroom and the chair treats them as students, papers are assignments.
4. Our exec team use GC in the same way, HODS are treated as students, reports etc, are assignments
5. Get your infrastructure sorted first before you go 1:1, poor connectivity is just another excuse not to use hardware
6. Get training sorted, selling the benefits of Google
7. Don't do it alone, get champions on board from across the school/college, they'll be your advocates
8. Coach and coach again
9. Don't water the stoney ground, after nearly 9 years of GC I still have (a small minority of) staff who won't use GC and still use Word, etc, but like to complain that their learners aren't getting a good experience
10. Measure where you are now, and then keep measuring so that you can celebrate your achievements
11. Think about how you will deal with business support roles, many of our MIS systems are not Googley, yet (we use the Prosuite (promonitor, prosolution, etc)), this is another barrier
12. Never underestimate how much people are comfortable with MS Office suite
13. Get in touch with me. I'm the project manager for the Edtech Demonstrator Schools and Colleges Programme out of Darlington College. We're funded by the DFE to give support to others schools and colleges around EdTech. Or go here Demonstrators and click on get support and select Darlington College

[Daniel Bull]

Some great ideas so far. Just to add my thoughts:

• Infrastructure is essential but also build resilience in your staff as IT will never be 100%. Manage expectations so teachers are prepared if tech goes wrong.
• We have done Google Level 1 for all our teachers. We are highly recommending it for TAs. Now we are encouraging Level 2 more widely.
• Share digital spotlights and success stories. Some struggle to see how it would work in their setting, so show them what others are doing.
• Develop your champions so the support is wide. This could be staff and students.
• Communicate well with parents so they understand the what, why and how. They may also need technical support.
• Big question - What are our non-negotiables? Make sure these are clearly communicated. For us we have a Google Classroom for every class. Homework is set via Google Classroom. And I'm trying to eliminate MS Office files on Classroom.

I'm sure there are some more, but I hope these help.

Daniel

[Kempton, Fiona (NOR) Staff]

All great ideas - thanks - we have our digital strategy sorted re: GSuite and Classroom as LMS, BUT what I really need to know is if you use chrome books as mobile teacher devices, how are you connecting them to a projector/clevertouch board/smart board etc.?  We want to take our device strategy to the next level, but this is holding us back at the moment as can't find a usb-c docking station which is chrome book compatible - have a week to get our order in for September - aaaaargh!

Thanks

Fee

Mrs Fiona Kempton

Trust Consultant Teacher (Digital Strategy)

  

Apple Teacher with Swift Playgrounds Recognition

Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator

Norwich High School (GDST) 

95 Newmarket Road Norwich NR2 2HU

T: 01603 453265

f.kempton@nor.gdst.net | http://www.norwichhigh.gdst.net

 

                                      

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From: Daniel Bull <danie...@latrust.org.uk>
Sent: 23 March 2021 10:50
To: GEG_UK <geg...@trainingwithdw.com>
Cc: Wayne Hall <wh...@darlington.ac.uk>; Kempton, Fiona (NOR) Staff <F.Ke...@NOR.GDST.NET>; stippl...@gmail.com <stippl...@gmail.com>; cdelan...@bonuspastor.co.uk <cdelan...@bonuspastor.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Digital Strategy

 

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[Daniel Bull]

We are starting to roll out Chromebooks for teacher devices. There are some exceptions where software is not compatible with the Chromebook. So you should do an audit to check what software is being used, what is not compatible and what solutions you have for that. Chromebooks we have tested connect with the board fine, although sometimes you need an hdmi>usb c converter. 

With the Chromebooks we have basically looked at two types. You get a larger screen that is not flip and doesn't come with a stylus. Or you go for the smaller screen, flip with stylus. The latter is more mobile. Different teachers will prefer different ones. We are then leaving monitors, keyboard and mouse for teachers to plug into at their desk. It is not an easy process. Keeping a couple of windows devices in the school can help ease the transition and give some peace of mind to those who need it.

This document can help to make sure you get the right device - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15MBdfJTqKZaqymPKYV8JMBxneqshFT7OGpolxFbHiL8/edit#slide=id.gb7cc843a7b_0_0

Daniel

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Daniel Bull

Head of Digital Engagement

Leigh Academies Trust

Carnation Road, Strood, Rochester Kent ME2 2SX

 danie...@latrust.org.uk |   07892 793133 

Twitter | YouTube 

 

   

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[Heather Moore]

This is so exciting! We are starting our 1 to 1 journey as well- but our biggest issue at the moment is internet- it just doesn't look likely we can get good enough wifi  and internet across the school- any advice welcome.

We are training staff with the use of google products and putting in our first cohort lot GECL1 soon.

We have a couple of trials of devices running- but internet is still a problem with only a few devices.

Good luck with your journey!- and Wayne, I might try and come and visit your school!

Heather Moore

Lead practitioner

@Moore2_Learn

http://www.moore2learn.co.uk/

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[Daniel Bull]

It is really about investing in the wifi, no way around the need to spend the money which is obviously not always as available as we want. 

Schools in the UK have been under a lot of cyber attacks since the return to school. For us this really highlights the need to know how to respond to this. So I think a big part of the training is with learning how to work with less digital reliance - working offline in Google. I made a video recently with 3 tips for this https://youtu.be/wYx6bbPC1yY.

So i think you need to balance the usage expectations with your wifi capabilities. So teachers may need reminding not to have data heavy lessons. So for example, every student being on a Meet, or on Google Earth will drain the wifi. So simple changes could be to show the YouTube video on the board rather than individuals watch it.

Just some thoughts

Daniel

[Liam Dowling]

We had similar issues and found we had to use Windows based static PCs to run our interactive screens, with all teachers using a separate Chromebook for wider use outside of the classroom. We have functions on the Clevertouch  screens which were not reliable using Chrome based devices, though this is still our longer term aim. 

Liam

On Tue, 23 Mar 2021 at 14:51, Kempton, Fiona (NOR) Staff <F.Ke...@nor.gdst.net> wrote:

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[Daniel Bull]

This is definitely an issue where we have invested heavily in IWBs that aren't compatible with the Chromebooks how we may hope. We have Promethean boards and a lot of staff have become reliant on ActivInspire which doesn't work on the Chromebook.

This is why our Digital Strategy is key because the decisions we make today will have an impact in 5 years time. The difficulty is that tech moves so fast that we don't know the digital landscape in 5 years time. One thing this has led us to do recently is to lease devices rather than buy them. I was wondering today whether we would be able to do this with IWBs.

One of my big tasks right now is to find alternatives that do work with Chromebooks and the boards. For example I was shown this today and makes demonstrating handwriting on the board possible. As things become more web based and device agnostic these things won't be as much as issue. That's what I'm hoping anyway.

Daniel

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Daniel Bull

Head of Digital Engagement

Leigh Academies Trust

Carnation Road, Strood, Rochester Kent ME2 2SX

 danie...@latrust.org.uk |   07892 793133 

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[Fenton, Mr C]

Hi Fiona,

Have you checked any of these out?

https://www.androidcentral.com/best-usb-c-hubs-chromebooks

On Tue, 23 Mar 2021 at 14:51, Kempton, Fiona (NOR) Staff <F.Ke...@nor.gdst.net> wrote:

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