STARTER Activity:

"The 4min debate"

Show Youtube file from Downing Street and the report on the NHS ICT failure.

In two teams we will be debating the the following motion: "Tony Blair is an e-confident leader".

Each team  will have 3 mins to prepare and then 1min each to speak in support/against the motion.

Following the usual introduction and housekeeping notes:

 

This session explores the notion of e-confidence and supports participants in getting an overview of the skills, knowledge and understanding required.  School leaders and aspiring head teachers are thus able to consider their own training and development needs.

The first activity involves the characteristics of an e-confident school and a discussion of the leadership qualities necessary to develop a school with those features.

Course participants are asked to consider the knowledge, skills and understanding a school leader has to develop in relation to 3 or 4 characteristics.  After a few minutes 'generic' leadership skills are separated from those that relate directly to ICT.

The task can be completed either as a mindmap on paper or using inspiration. For the purpose of getting everybody started with an engaging activity, we will do this on paper and then sort out administrative issues, including the networking of everyone's laptop.

We will also consider whether the ideas developed match those published by others and what good ICT leadership looks like.

The second session will look at some example case studies to consider the actions other schools have taken to successfully develop the use of ICT.  Using the 'Secondary Leadership Team Toolkit' from NCSL, the case study of Hugh Christie Technology College, the relationship between the vision for learning and the vision for ICT will be explored in more detail.

 

An e-confident toolkit and using the SRF

 Starting with Introduction to SRF overview of the Self Review Framework the session will also introduce a number of other useful tools and sources of support.  Current ICT developments are driven by:

1. the national agenda (see here for a recent presentation) : 2020 Vision, e-strategy, Fulfilling Potential,
   
2. the local agenda (Norfolk e-Learning Strategy)
3. the Learning  Platform targets for 2008 and 2010
4. pupils confident in personal use of ICT (communication, research, entertainment)

Other tools, which are useful to assist school leaders in developing and managing ICT are:

1. Secondary Leadership Team Toolkit (NCSL)
   
2. Becta support materials for the SRF (3 publications)
3. Framework for ICT Technical Support (FITS)
4. Learning Platform Matrix (Becta)
5. Personal Computer Skills analysis (old matrix)
6. NAACE Advice
7. ICTAC Support from the Secondary National Strategy (now moved to Becta)

The remainder of the session will be spent making a judgment of Element 1 of the SRF on the online matrix.  Where there are more than 1 participant of each school, differnet elements might be considered.

The 4 strands are completed as follows:

1.a: quick judgment, no comments, no evidence

Look at peer judgments and decide how e-confident the school is.  Do you agree with the judgment?

1.b: quick judgment with comments, no evidence

Look at peer judgements and decide how e-confident the school is. Do you agree?

1.c: discuss with peer, before making a judgment, include comment

How did the process differ? 

1.d: discuss where appropriate, but include comments and try to identify evidence using questions provided

Prioritise - Action Plan - Evidence

Having arrived at a quick judgment using element 1 of the SRF, we will consider how to prioritise them.  This will lead to a customised action plan, which is supported by the online matrix software.  The questions and guidance provided will be used to develop links to evidence and the SEF where relevant.

Strategies for prioritising are:

1. Completing a smaller number of elements (1, 2, 7)
2. Prioritise actions with a particular initiative in mind (new MIS, curriculum review, introduction of a learning platform)
3. Ensure that there is no Level 5
4. Ask the Norfolk e-learning team for help

Having developed a customised action plan for one strand, you will need to justify this to your peer reviewer, who will have to decide on resources available.

Future Learning

What's on the horizon??  Seb will use this session to signpost some of the exciting developments both in terms of new technologies entering the education sector and new forms of learning possible because of ICT.  Some of the highlights will be:

1. blogging
2. podcasting
3. video sharing
4. picture sharing
5. mobile technologies
6. wikis
7. learning platforms
8. e-portfolios
9. web 2.0
10. BSF

The plenary will return to session 1, where we tried to highlight some of the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to lead an institution towards e-conficence.