This is the Working Group Page for those interested in developing Digital Standards for Infrastructure at schools, district, provincial and national offices. Digital standards for infrastructure may address among other connectivity, data and security, content and artificial intelligence. If you'd like to join this or any other group, please complete the form by clicking on the button ↓ below ↓.
As you prepare for the Working Group Meeting 1, please look online for standards for your group around digital engagement, cyber safety and cyber wellness. We'll focus on these areas in Meeting 1.
Add your suggestions for Standards for Digital Citizenship in the appropriate column on the Padlet below.
Creates and publishes a digital learning strategy (approved by a competent authority) and consistent with the institutional, provincial and national development plans and policies.
Providing different types of electronic manuals, support and training for students and teachers.
Ensuring the privacy of the beneficiaries’ data through clearly formulated policies and procedures.
During the roundtable, participants brainstormed some suggestions for possible standards for institutions. They initially used a Padlet as indicated.
Padlet on Institutional Standards (Day 1)
A Wordcloud from the Padlet (Day 1)
Two comments in particular are noted:
Sign in protocols across educational applications must be standardised to minimise administrative obstacles and reduce friction for accessing tools and content.
Standard development should include broad stakeholder participation including: Learners, Teachers, SMT, Parents, SGB and Community.
On Day 2 they used sticky notes and a robot system which were captured on a GDoc shows their group discussions and suggestions that were developed on Day 2.
Participants wrote standards on sticky notes and added them to different posters:
Green: High Priority
Orange: Medium Priority
Red: Low Priority
This allowed them to discuss their priorities and potentially move their sticky notes around.
Dr Tarling analysed the standards developed from Iteration 1 Brainstorm. These are included in the GSheet and Wordcloud.
Working groups can use this analysis to prepare for the first online working group meeting.
After the first meeting, initial, broad standards were identified and expanded. During the meeting, additional points were added for discussion and included in a growing list which lead to the development of potential level descriptors for the different standards.
The second working group meeting discussed potential standards for the 1) Digital Learning Strategy at schools, 6) Providing support for schools and 7) Standards for content developed for and at schools. The initial GDoc was reformatted to flow easier through these points. The night of the meeting, a taxi strike had been declared hours before the meeting was to start. Many of the participants in the working group were unable to attend, partly due to the taxi strike and the ensuing traffic chaos. Therefore, the decision was made to leave the Google Doc open for editing so those who wanted to still add ideas could continue doing so.
While standards for 01) Learners, 02) Educators and 03) School Leaders were generally quite adaptable to a rubric format, this was not the case for 04) Parents and Communities, 05) NGOs, supporters and volunteers, and 06) Institutions and Infrastructure. The nature of the standards for groups 4-6 was more aligned with general guidelines for good practice than a progression or continuum. It was therefore decided to not present the last three group's standards using a table / rubric format, but instead use a standard bullet point format.
Additionally, the need was expressed in Groups 4 - 6 for a toolkit, including a first aid kit, that parents, NGOs and schools could consult when they needed it. The different groups were asked to share existing ideas and documents that could be added to such a toolkit for their group, which many of them did. It was also suggested that the toolkits be shared in a central space where all schools and stakeholders from all provinces could access it in an easy and open manner.
Please use the Padlet below to post any comments, questions or suggestions about your working group or the general process that we need to be aware off. We can only improve the process with your input, and really value hearing from you!