Launchpad 23 Series 🚀

Hi there,

I hope this finds you well, and you're getting ready for a well-earned T3 break!

This is a break in our regular programming - no classroom focused tech tools to share as such, but possibly a great exercise for any digi tech leaders out there looking to set an agenda & school eLearning direction for 2023.

Yes, seems a bit odd to be planning for 2023 now, but in reality, waiting for February is far too late. You want to hit the ground running in the new year; goals set, pathways clear, budget sorted, professional learning lined up, and most importantly, everyone on board! As the adage goes - fail to prepare, prepare to fail. OK, enough with the dad-style lecture, let’s get into it. 😂

Without getting too deep into the AITSL standards, we know that self-reflection is integral to professional growth as an educator. A strong reflective-practice gives us a way to strengthen our approach to teaching & learning and better serve students' educational needs by pinpointing where we are now, and where do we want to get to.

The Launchpad 23 Series will follow this outline:

• Pt 1. Where are we now?
  • Data gathering
  • Review, synthesise and reflect on data
• Pt 2. Where do we want to get to?
  • Map out and plan next steps
• Coming Soon: Pt 3. Tools for the task
  • Things to help you get you where you’re going
     

💬 Part 1 – Where are we now?

You don’t know what you don’t know, so you must get out there and round up some data! Sure, you could have a conversation with your colleagues about where they think they are at, but there is only so much you can do with anecdotal accounts, and you’re bound to miss some things.

To get the bigger picture – yes, another survey. The key here is how long you make. You know how it is; teachers are busy enough with enough on their plate, don’t make them slog through War and Peace. Make it short and sharp, you’ll get more responses that way, which equates to more useful data.

What information do you want to know? Well, I feel that it is important for you to understand where the staff believe they sit currently regarding their approach to digital technologies in the classroom, and what they think might be some ways to strengthen their skill set.

How might you phrase it? That is up to you really – however, I’ve taken the liberty to pen a few questions for you which you can choose to use or tweak to suits your needs. And because I've got much love for our edtech people out there, I’ve packaged them up in to a ready to use Google Form for you to use (linked at the end). Not a Google school? I’ve made a Microsoft O365 version as well. You’re welcome 😀

What questions did I come up with? Nothing too ground-breaking, but I think they will provide you with a good place to start. As mentioned earlier, feel free to edit and adjust to suit your needs.

Questions:

1. Why do you incorporate digital technologies in your teaching practice, and how well do you think you do this?
2. How could you improve your approach, and what are some ways this can be achieved?
3. If you could wave an edtech magic wand at school – what would happen?

🔗 Template: Linked at end of email

🚀 Part 2 – Where do we want to get to?

Great, you’ve got your data, now what? Put it to work, obviously! Take some time to read through the responses carefully and begin to pull out key themes or concepts that will be useful for your planning and goal setting. I’ve put together a simple Slides/PowerPoint template (linked at the end) for you to record your understandings and provided a space for you to map out a path forward. How you go about this is up to you, but might it be worthwhile doing it with a colleague or small team of people – many minds will not only make light work but will provide multiple perspectives.

From here you can do a number of things with your findings: keep it to yourself for your own planning & goal setting, present it to school leadership for whole-school strategic planning (i.e. can I have some money, please?), share it with the staff so they know what to look out for over the coming months – my advice: do all three!

🔗 Template: Linked at end of email
 

🛠 Part 3 – Tools for the task

Coming Soon: be on the lookout for Part 3 of our Launchpad 23 Series in the coming weeks! This will provide a little further direction from a different point of view. Think: products, services, ideas etc – tools you might need to get you to where you want to be.
 

🔗 Resource Links - Templates to use

See below for links to the resources and documents I mentioned above.

Please note: I don't receive a copy of any responses submitted to the forms. The links create a copy for yourself, and the data submitted is yours and yours alone!

Survey eForm Templates

• Google Form version
• Microsoft Forms version (hit the Duplicate option!)

Reflection and Planning Document Template

• Google Slides version
• Microsoft PowerPoint version
   

✍️ Final Notes..

Some final notes and thoughts:

• When to send survey? I would suggest you send it when you get back in Week 1 - the quantity and quality of responses might not be at full strength in the final week or term. Use this time to reflect and get prepared yourself. Just a thought.
   
• Feel free to flick me a message if you want to talk technology in the context of your school. I'm happy to help with any of the above or anything else that you might have bubbling away. Simply reply to this email, and you're good to go.

Anyway, that is enough for now. Be on the lookout for Part 3 of this series + our regular edTech update early in T4.

If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you!

Cheers

Dan 😀