Future Plans

There are three significant areas that we will be addressing moving forward.

1. Continued roll-out and greater penetration of our learning platform. Still in the early stages, we need to aim for the point where our learning platform becomes embedded within our dialogue and working practices. Where it becomes in a sense invisible because it is simply part of our praxis, in the same way that email has become. This will be hard work in the initial stages, but eventually when a critical mass of staff and students and are committed, continued progress will be inevitable. It’s crucial to keep reinforcing the message and publicly celebrate projects staff and students undertake.
2. We have invested in sets of tablets for use in both our Junior and Senior schools. In the former, the tablets have been deployed on a 1:1 basis with a limited number of groups, whereas in the latter they are being used as bookable resources available for all. There is a lot to unpick here including how this technology works in our context, when compared with outcomes that others have found elsewhere. Robust research from which to draw illumination is sparse here, though there is an increasing body of shared practice which can inform our classroom use. At the moment, we perhaps need to devote more time to professional development of colleagues directed at maximising the affordances that these tablets offer, rather than using them in similar ways to how a laptop or desktop would be used.
3. The emergence of tablets as such a force, coupled with the increasing ubiquity and capability of smartphones, together with additional players like Chromebooks, means we need to seriously consider the composition of our organisational ICT estate. What has suited our needs in the past may no longer be appropriate as we move forward, or there may indeed be more effective alternatives which address our vision more closely. There appears to be a rush towards 1:1 provision with schools adopting different models (and devices) depending on their circumstances. Other schools are looking towards BYOD/T/B approaches, often for good reasons, but sometimes less so. Our explorations thus far have been tentative. We need to gather data from what we have learned so far, use that wisely, amend our strategy if necessary and establish the most appropriate route forward for us. Challenging … but exciting!

Personally, I too have three areas I’d like to address.

1. I need to know more about MOOCs and what they might offer our sector of education. Largely produced by (though not confined to) the tertiary sector, do they have any place at all in secondary? I need to participate in a few more (I have completed (yes completed!) three so far), read the research and evaluations as they become available and write about them to help crystallise my thoughts.
2. I’d like to push my writing further. Having co-authored my first paper¹ (Jackson & Guest, 2013) and finding the process a wonderfully creative and challenging process, I’m keen to push further and try more.
3. Participation in CMALT. Having been aware of ALT for some while, I wasn’t sure whether CMALT was suited to someone in the secondary sector of education. Undertaking the production of this portfolio has made it abundantly apparent it is, so it now behoves me to make the most of the opportunities membership will provide.

¹Jackson, N., Guest, I., 2013. An approach to sharing resources to teach Computing. Naace: Advancing Education 2013.