Feedback from Data Champions Conference

[Jake Wills]

Hi all,

4 very quick things...

1. I've collated the high level feedback that has been submitted and put that here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14uKM836xD-k7-EP3PvXsqVMUSHnucKqCpvclcyDuZqA/edit
   I will be emailing the individual presenters later today with feedback on their sessions.
   
   
2. One of the things that came out is people were looking for some training around improving their data literacy...
   Chris Wild and Tracey Meek from Auckland University have made a free 8 week online course (3 hours per week) that is being re run again this year... started this week (you can catch up on the first week) that I did a few years ago... it's been promoted quite a bit in the maths teachers forums... but given people were asking, I thought I would share it here as well.
   The content of the course is free, although you can pay for additional features (when I did it I just did the free version).
   You can find more details on the course here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/data-to-insight
   
   
3. The other thing that there was mixed views on was allowing commercial vendors. As this group is by us, for us, I'm keen to see what the group thinks as a whole... and it will just be the majority opinion that we go with.
   https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScIciD7cL4c6pU9lal02hbA3JoSKB5BdWnX1BmxWWh9TAFBAA/viewform?usp=sf_link
   
   
4. Later in the year I will look at pulling together a committee to organise the next conference... if you're keen to be involved with this please let me know.

If you've got any questions about any of this please do let me know.

Ngā manaakitanga (best wishes),

Jake Wills

Kāpiti College

Margaret Road, Raumati Beach 5032

[Jake Wills]

Thanks all for the feedback on the commercial vendors... the view was that commercial vendors are able to provide value, but that this forum shouldn't be used as a marketing platform.

Therefore they are allowed to join, but have clear rules in place.

A code of conduct has been added to the top of the group...

All members must be familiar with the following guidelines:

• Please only post related posts
• Comments must be supportive and non-judgmental
• This group is open to anyone using data in a school, or supporting those that do. Those that are involved with commercial products are allowed to join and post (based on the feedback from the survey, this is what the majority wanted, as they are able to provide value to the group as a whole). However, if you are linked to a paid product or service and posting to this group, please be up-front about these links. Excessive posting about commercial products will lead to the removal from the group.

Any questions about this please let me know.

Jake.

[Sam McNeill]

Hi Jake,

Congrats on getting this group up and running.

Appreciate that the group has broadly supported the opportunity for commercial vendors to post as they can (when done sensibly) add value. Sounds like the guidelines are similar to the Techies for Schools group here https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/techies-for-schools which has really good posts from school IT techs and commerical alike.

I suspect I'll know a bunch of people on this group, but quick intro: I'm working for Microsoft's APAC Education team, based in NZ but working across APAC for the last two years. Previously, I was the Director of ICT at St Andrew's College and prior to that a history/social studies teacher. Teaching was my second career - actually started working for a cloud company and now I realize my two professional passions are education and technology and I consider myself very fortunate to be able to work in this space.

I've blogged a lot about data analytics, most recently here:

https://samuelmcneill.com/category/data-analytics/

and previously at St Andrew's here:

https://eblog.stac.school.nz/?s=powerbi&submit=Search

I'm a big fan of sharing knowledge and best practice so will contribute here where I can,

Cheers,

Sam