Leading Digital Learning Series: Supporting Professional Learning – Post Primary
In this video from our Leading Digital Learning series, post primary teachers and Technology in Education team members discuss effective approaches for supporting professional learning for teachers and all school staff. Senior Leader for Digital Technologies, Niall Larkin says that his team observes various approaches to professional learning in schools, usually led by digital technology coordinators or teams. This learning can be facilitated internally or by an external provider. Schools are encouraged to seek support from Oide by contacting digital technology advisors. One of the best models is sustained support involving multiple visits over a year. Informal practices like teachers sharing insights during lunch and coffee breaks can lead to more formal Continuous Professional Development (CPD), where educators might present apps or resources during Croke Park hours or staff meetings. These meetings are also a great opportunity to show a Oide’s good practice videos, featuring teachers sharing their experiences and ideas on using digital tools effectively in the classroom. Schools are also creating libraries of screencasts, ranging from basic tasks like attaching files to emails to more complex activities like providing online student feedback. In essence, schools are finding various effective ways to provide CPD for staff.
Lorraine McCool, Dominican College and Paul Byrne, St Patrick’s Classical School, Navan outline how CPD is encouraged and supported in their schools with both coordinators highlighting the importance of support from management and colleagues who are open to learning something new regardless of their level.
Supporting professional learning
Lorraine says that a lot of the best professional learning they have developed is by their teachers for their teachers. They have encouraged their teachers to become Google Certified Educators level one and two.
Paul says they support their teachers both formally through training and informally by being on hand to answer questions as they come up during the school year.
Both Paul and Lorraine use staff meetings to encourage teachers to share how they are using technology in their classroom as well as encouraging teachers to attend courses and report back. Both schools have an open door policy where teachers can visit each other’s classrooms to see the technology in action. Lorraine’s school ran a professional learning day about Google for Education tools where teachers from other schools were also welcome to attend while Paul’s school ran a digital learning week where their digital leaders and the teachers give up their free classes and give or attend a presentation on a specific topic about digital technology. A time table for the week is put up and teachers sign up to whatever area they’d like some training in.
Modelling best practices
Lorraine and her team model best practice by using Google Classroom as a learning tool and digital notice board for the teachers. They issue a regular newsletter highlighting any new tools and ideas. They use Jamboard for group discussions and Google Docs for developing policies during staff meetings.
Lorraine and the senior management team also worked on aligning the digital learning plan to their SSE so that they can work together. She gives the example of focusing on formative feedback in their SSE and developing the digital learning plan to support these targets.
Supporting Students and Parents
Paul’s school focuses on the introduction of the learning platform and training with the incoming first years. They also send out some training videos to the parents and run a parents night in October where if parents have any questions they can be addressed.
Lorraine says their decision to put digital media literacy on their junior cycle and TY curriculum was vital for supporting the students in the effective use of digital technology to create things such as CBAs and general content.
The Future
Lorraine highlights the importance of looking ahead to see what is the next useful tool that might have an impact for learning for students in the classroom or what might support teachers in making their work more efficient. One of her aims is to develop digital leaders amongst the students. She visualises senior students becoming digital leaders and having a clinic for junior students who are new into the school.She also thinks staff would benefit from digital one to one coaching to increase confidence in engaging with digital tools.
Paul agrees with looking forward and highlights the importance of having the complete support of management to try new things even if they don’t always work out.
Advice for teams
Lorraine offers this advice for someone new to the role of digital coordinator:
- Take time to find the information e.g. what devices and platforms are used etc.
- Speak to other schools.
- When you do decide goals, keep them small and achievable.
Paul seconds the small steps and goes further to say that the coordinator will require technical outside help. He recommends getting the infrastructure in place first and ensuring reliable WiFi before purchasing devices. He reflects on setting up a team and creating a digital learning plan. A mixture of experienced and inexperienced team members works best. An inexperienced colleague can offer a completely different perspective. The whole school will be involved in implementing the plan therefore it’s important to get as many voices involved in the planning also – this includes both students and teachers.
This interview is from our Leading Digital Learning course.
Visit our Digital Learning Hub for information and resources on planning and embedding digital learning.
