How do you create a district-wide vision for Digital Learning?

Ask The Tech Coach

Welcome to "Ask the Tech Coach," a podcast for Instructional Coaches and Technology Integration Specialists. In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” Jeff and Nick discuss how a school district can set a vision for digital learning in the classrooms and how you can start that conversation with your administrative team and instructional coaching department. If you would like to be a part of future podcasts and share your thoughts, please contact the podcast. We would love to have you join the show.

Question of the Week

Our favorite part of recording a live podcast each week is participating in the great conversations that happen on our live chat, on social media, and in our comments section. This week’s question is: Question Topic: How can we get the entire school district on the same page when it comes to defining what digital learning looks like in the classroom?

Weekly Topic

• Developing a Shared Vision and Goals
  • How do you create a shared vision?
    • Asking … “what’s the purpose?”
    • Where is the target?
    • What is the objective?
    • What do we want our staff to get out of the training … and why?
    • How can we provide the training and experiences to get staff able to meet the goals
    
    
  • Who is included in this conversation?
    • Superintendent
    • Cabinet
    • District / Building Leaders
    • Teachers
    • Students
    • Parents / Community Members
    
    
  • Ways to ask the important questions
    • Google Form
    • Conversations
    • Quick Survey’s
      • What has or is working well?
      • Have your goals/objectives been meet?
      
      
    
    
  • Using the Summertime to ask questions of district leaders
    • Map out and Diagram a full year program
    • How do you build a catalogue to support the goals and objectives of the district and building leaders
    
    
  
  
• Prioritizing Professional Learning in and out of your district
  • Creating a Professional Development Yearly Overview
    • Send out a document to the staff so they are on the same page
      • Here are the goals that we are looking to progress
      
      
    • Create a catalogue of professional learning opportunities
      • Internal
        • Meeting Speakers
        • Consultants
        
        
      • External
        • Conferences
        • EdCamps
        • Thrive
        • Sage
        • Health Organizations / Hospitals often run sessions
        
        
      
      
    • Using a Newsletter to support professional Learning
      • Work with your building administrators to put professional development information in THEIR newsletters
      
      
    
    
  
  
• Creating a digital learning evaluation method that is flexible yet effective
  • Have a variety of evaluation methods … not just the mid-year and end of year evaluations
    • Keep evaluation more informal and collegial so that it’s not a “gotcha”
    
    
  • Using a Staff Survey (Self-Assessment) to allow teachers to share what they know and what they would like to learn during the year
  • Use some type of “artifact creation” when it comes to digital learning so that teachers can showcase what they are learning throughout the professional development process
    • At the end of the day, the teacher is going to have to show that they know how to use the tool or that they understand the concept.
    • Allow for feedback and professional conversations around the topic and concept that is backed up by Instructional Coaches
    • Create an online discussion board so that staff members can collaborate and learn from each other
    
    
  
  
• Providing constant support for students, teachers, and community members
  • Creating a Student led “genius bar” or Tech Team
  • Invite the students to run their own professional learning sessions for teachers (Students teaching teachers)
    • How to use specific apps
    • How to create projects that students already love doing and share it with more teachers
    • Students teaching Board of Education members how to use Google Apps (sharing, formatting, etc)
    
    
  
  
• Protecting student privacy and promoting digital safety
  • Digital Citizenship: Create a unified and tiered curriculum that supports the knowledge of but, also includes resources to support parents so that they are understanding what students are learning in school.
  • Create a Dashboard in a Google Site that has a spreadsheet of all of the district used tools so that parents know what programs are holding content about their students.
    • Include the privacy policy
    • Include the paid/free status
    • Include how to remove student information if parents are not interested in having student information available.
    
    
  
  
• Working together with parents so students learn both in and out of the classroom
  • Parent Nights
    • Short form
    • Single subject events
    
    
  • Parent University
    • Build a curriculum of learning that follows a theme
    
    
  
  
• Embracing and Celebrating the Impact Digital Learning has on students, teachers, and community.
  • Share the “wins” of staff and students
  • Success breeds success
    • If people see that it’s working for others, they might believe they can do it too
    
    
  • Post in newsletters, and (maybe) social media examples of what is happening in the classroom and share it with others
  • Get your staff to present their win’s to other staff members
  • Ask “how does this information get back to the students and their successes?”
  
  
• Next Episode
  • Standards
  
  

Contact the Podcast!

• TeacherCast.net/VoiceMail
• Twitter: @AskTheTechCoach
• Email: [e-mail]

Subscribe to “Ask the Tech Coach”

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Amazon Music

Follow our Podcast on Social Media

• The TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network | @TeacherCast
• Ask the Tech Coach Podcast | @AsktheTechCoach

Follow our Hosts

• Jeff Bradbury | @JeffBradbury
• Susan Vincentz | @sv314dws

Join our PLN

Are you enjoying the TeacherCast Network, please share your thoughts with the world by commenting on iTunes today? I enjoy reading and sharing your comments on the podcast each week.

The Teach Better Podcast Network

The Teach Better Podcast Network is dedicated to supporting the entire school ecosystem through in-depth conversations around topics you care about. Covering a variety of areas in education, each podcast aims to support educators in the field toward creating and maintaining a progressive, student-focused classroom. Check out the recent episodes, subscribe, and learn more about the variety of shows!

Let’s Work Together

• Host: Jeff Bradbury @TeacherCast | @JeffBradbury
• Email: [e-mail]
• Voice Mail: http://www.TeacherCast.net/voicemail
• YouTube: http://www.TeacherCast.net/YouTube
• iTunes: http://www.TeacherCast.net/iTunes

Check Out Additional TeacherCast Programming

• TeacherCast Podcast (http://www.teachercast.net/tcp)
• Educational Podcasting Today (http://www.educationalpodcasting.today)
• The Jeff Bradbury Show (http://www.BuildYourEDUBrand.com)

Need a Presenter?

• Jeff Bradbury (@TeacherCast) is available as a Keynote Speaker, Presenter, or to Broadcast your conference LIVE!