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ASSIGNMENT
Reflect on using digital technology to enhance student learning. Consider:
- How can digital tools create engaging and interactive learning experiences?
- Apply School Self-Evaluation Guidelines to improve your teaching.
- How does developing your use of digital technology impact your school?
- During the 2023-2026 period, schools have the autonomy to choose the focus of their School Self-Evaluation (SSE). Align your SSE with the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 for best practices.
- Use the Digital Strategy to guide decision-making, instruction, and professional development.
Write a reflective piece (150-word minimum) as a reply to this post.
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Digital tools create engaging and interactive learning experiences through their remarkable adaptability, offering personalised content that meets students’ individual needs. These tools not only enhance learning but also provide valuable data for self-evaluation and guiding instructional adjustments. By integrating AI tutoring, for instance, we can pinpoint sources of confusion and offer scaffolded support, expanding students’ zones of proximal development.
Moreover, digital tools foster collaboration, allowing students to work together in real-time, and support differentiation, ensuring all learners, including those with special needs, are included. The absence of an undo function in tools like Minecraft teaches resilience, a crucial skill for neurodiverse students.
As I develop my use of digital technology, the impact extends beyond my classroom, contributing to a culture of innovation within the school. By aligning my practices with the School Self-Evaluation guidelines and the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027, I ensure that my instructional methods are data-driven, reflective, and continuously improving. This not only enhances student outcomes but also strengthens the overall digital literacy and innovation culture within the school.
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Hi Desmond,
Thank you for your post and for outlining your journey with the use of digital technologies. One point you have made that I feel is really important centres on the ‘reflective’ use of digital technologies. It’s so important that we are continuing to evolve and develop our skillsets, but this must be based on the needs of the children in front of us. Developing generic skills that we cannot put to use in the classroom is not the best use of our time. Taking some time to reflect and decide what your priority areas of development should be is a really important step.
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Digital tools can create engaging learning experiences as children have autonomy and choice in their learning. When using digital tools, children are in control of their learning, they are collaborating, tinkering and creating to solve problems through interacting with immersive games/ apps or physical digital tools such as Beebots. What I have learned from this module is that digital learning isn’t a stand alone subject, it is a key competency of the new primary curriculum that should be integrated across all subject areas in order to enhance and support children’s learning in that area. Digital tools support children in decomposing problems in to more manageable parts, abstracting important information and logically sequencing steps to completing or solving an issue. These skills are all transferrable to real life and are key digital competencies of the 21st century. As my school is a digital school of distinction, we will be using our SSE to continuously improve our teaching and learning practices to include digital tools. For example, we will have a stronger focus on inquiry based learning, allowing children to construct their own knowledge through critical thinking, collaboration and creativity.
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Hi Sadhbh,
Thank you for your post and welcome to the online aspect of this course. I’m sure you will have experienced some sample ways of using digital technologies to create engaging learning experiences earlier in the week. You have raised a key point around the PCF. ‘Being a Digital Learner’ is a key competency that should be developed across all subject areas. Digital learning is not a single subject area, and rather is a lens or medium through which children can extend their learning in all subjects.
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How can digital tools create engaging and interactive learning experiences?
By incorporating multimedia elements such as videos, podcasts, and interactive maps, teachers can cater to various learning styles, keeping students motivated and engaged. Interactive platforms like Google Classroom, Google Forms, Kahoot, Quizziz etc facilitate real-time collaboration and feedback. Game-based learning can motivate pupils and it promotes active engagement with a topic.Apply School Self-Evaluation Guidelines to improve your teaching.
I can identify areas for improvement by reflecting on the effectiveness of the digital tools I use in the classroom. Using the SSE guidelines I can select a focus, such as improving digital literacy or integrating more pupil centred digital activities, set achievable goals and monitor progress.How does developing your use of digital technology impact your school?
Developing the use of digital technology in school can improve pupils’ problem solving abilities and critical thinking skills. Integrating digital tools also can strengthen collaboration between pupils.During the 2023-2026 period, schools have the autonomy to choose the focus of their School Self-Evaluation (SSE). Align your SSE with the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 for best practices.
The formal inclusion of STEM as a core area of the new primary school curriculum aligns with the Digital Strategy for Schools. By prioritising digital skills in SSE, schools can assess their current technological resources and plan strategically for professional development and technology purchases, ensuring they are well-prepared for the upcoming curriculum changes.Use the Digital Strategy to guide decision-making, instruction, and professional development.
Selecting digital skills as a focus for SSE enables schools to evaluate their existing equipment and infrastructure. This can help make informed decisions regarding CPD and the procurement of new technologies.-
Hi Ruth,
Thank you for your post here and for breaking it down into the main areas outlined in the assessment prompt. I like how you have identified the potential for digital tools to promote collaboration in the classroom, as well as developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The removal of a book or a set procedure for debugging issues allows children to think creativity and engage in a spirit of ‘trial and error’, in which they can build on and learn from their earlier mistakes.
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We live in a modern, digital world, and as educators we have the responsibility to provide our students with the skills they need to participate in this world, and be confident enough to develop their skills in the future as this digital world progresses. Most children have daily interactions with technology, with phones, tablets, laptops, in school with the interactive whiteboard etc. It would be remiss of us not to explore this medium to see how it could benefit our students learning experiences. Personally I find that digital technology has been incredible in terms of inclusivity. The use of ipads for children with physical needs, takes away the need for using a pen and paper to attempt a task in the traditional way. I have seen students gain such confidence and access to their learning through using digital technology, even as simply as understanding exactly what a text has said, as it has been read aloud for them by the device as many times as they need, or a word they don’t understand can be highlighted and explained. The individualised learning this provides is incredible and also the differentiation is so personalised, much more than a teacher can provide on a daily basis with 30 students in their classrooms. Children are growing up in a digital world and therefore are more drawn to these experiences, they really enjoy using the ipads to carry out research rather than searching through a book every time, they love playing games with the interactive board instead of the teacher calling out sums for them to do on their whiteboards. Using a good mixture of our traditional methods and pairing them with the aid of technology will allow us as teachers to provide a much more inclusive learning experience for our pupils whilst also setting them up with digital literacy, confidence using technology and encourages different ways of thinking.
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In evaluation of where a school is with its use of technology, it’s critical that teachers are honest about their actual skill level, and that information sharing is open and collaborative. Teachers come from diverse backgrounds, just like the students in the school, and the tools used in one classroom might be unique to the needs of that particular class, but there will always be an opportunity to leverage knowledge to consider alternative resources for the school to include in plans for future funding, and resources that a staff member may have been made aware of that other staff haven’t yet encountered. Especially as the use of digital technology increases within schools, making sure students are actually proficient users who are involved in the mechanics of how technology works, rather than latent consumers of technology, is really important from the early stages. All children are exposed to huge amounts of technology in their lives, even if technology access is restricted at home, but so much of the use of this technology is as passive consumers, rather than active participants in the use of these tools. For the learning in a classroom to be meaningful, and provide children with skills for an evolving world where technology’s integration into how and what we do is ever increasing, making sure that students can use the technology to create and problem-solve, but also ensuring that they know enough about what they’re using to keep themselves safe, is vital. Critical and frank evaluation of where a school is on its digital technology journey will only serve to better benefit both the staff in terms of their own skill development, but also the students in attaining adequate skills for life-long learning.
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Hi Una,
Thanks for your post. I feel you have hit on a really important point regarding the active and passive use of technology for young people. Too often people often think that young people are highly competent technology users, without fully recognising the type of activities they are proficient with. Often children can struggle with word processing, designing posters, importing and cropping images, etc. These are all areas that we need to focus on building digital, technological and computing skills.
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How can digital tools create engaging and interactive learning experiences?
Digital Tools create new learning experiences our pupils. They provide another pathway of accessibility for pupils to engage with the curriculum for example pupils they my struggle to decode words or solve maths sums can showcase their skill through a medium suited to them. Digital Technologies allows pupils to work collaboratively both with other pupils, others schools, other countries and with home.
Apply School Self-Evaluation Guidelines to improve your teaching.
SSE gives schools a focus to work on and creates an environment of continuous reflection, communication and improvement. SSE provides a pathway for schools to reflect and identify needs, set goals, reflect on elements that were successful and areas for improvement.
How does developing your use of digital technology impact your school?
Digital technology allows both pupils and teachers to access content that would otherwise be unavailable. It also allows teachers to foster 21st century skills in their pupils to prepare them for the future. Technologies such as IWB, iPads, chrome books etc. allow teachers to teach lessons that are fun, engaging, adaptable and versatile. Digital Technologies creates a medium to document and store learning. This creates an easy medium through which assessment and reflection of learning can occur from both the teacher, peers and peer to peer.
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Digital tools create engaging and interactive learning experiences through enhancing traditional learning methods. Interactive whiteboards allow children to engage with material in an active way and online collaboration platforms like Kahoot! allow children to test their knowledge in a fun way while the teacher assesses their understanding.
The SSE guidelines will help me reflect on my practice, identifying areas for improvement. Teachers should understand the purpose of using digital tools. They should compliment the lesson but not be the main focus of learning. Through developing my use of digital technology I will aim to enhance student engagement, differentiate instruction and provide other teachers with innovative ways to deliver content.
By leveraging the Digital Strategy, we can create a roadmap for effective technology integration, ensuring that both students and teachers benefit from the advancements in digital education. This will result in an enriching educational experience for students while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
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Digital technologies create different opportunities for all learning styles to access the teaching and learning in the classroom. Assignments can be easily assigned to individual pupils and quickly evaluated to check on progress, it allows pupils to immerse themselves in worlds that they might not be familiar with through interactive maps, videos,etc.. Digital technologies can help pupils motivate themselves and allows them to become active and inquiry-based learners.
I need to reflect on how I use digital technologies in the classroom and how best I can implement the use of these technologies on a cross curricular basis and how it can help me to improve my summative assessments of the pupils. I feel the SSE guidelines can help me to set goals and to develop my abilty to implement a digital based, inquiry lead environment in my classroom, through reflecting and evaluating on my own practices and monitoring the progress of the pupils.
Developing my own use of technology gives me the confidence to try and implement some digital lead initiatives in the school and to facilitate discussion among staff and pupils on the use of technology in the school and how we can improve the teaching and learning to benefit the pupils.
With the introduction of STEM as a formal part of the curriculum, schools can use the SSE 2023-2026 to develop or strengthen their digital learning plan. Schools need to inventory their ICT equipment and broadband capabilities, develop strategic goals for the development of digital based learning skills and need to develop their own capabilities to help implement these goals.
The digital strategy offers schools the opportunity to reflect on their ability to implement a digital learning plan in their school. Through the data collected during the SSE process, schools can identify the needs of the school and create targets that align with the needs of the school, create a forum for discussion on how best the teachers can create an environment where pupils can develop their computational thinking, digital and coding skills and discuss what opportunities teachers can avail of for CPD or allow teachers with these skills to upskill other teachers and give them the confidence to implement these changes.
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How can digital tools create engaging and interactive learning experiences?
Digital tools have become an extremely important cog in our teaching and and learning in primary schools. They are fast becoming integral given the nature of the digital age we are living in and the need for children to be not only computer literate but to able to use their skills for critical thinking, problem solving and much more. Digital tools have the ability also to bridge gaps in understanding, to overcome obstacles like motivation, accessibility and enable differentiation quite fluidly and naturally. They allow for both formative and summative assessments in a fun and convenient manner. They also allow students the opportunity to collaborate with one another in a novel way.Apply SSE guidelines to improve your teaching
SSE gives schools a framework by which to identify firstly where there may be shortfalls in provision of IT based education. To create a solid plan to solve such issues and it fosters an environment of structure, continued reflection, communication and improvement with the end goal of creating a successful integration of digital tools within the school.How does developing your use of digital technology impact your school?
Personally I have tried to do as many IT based courses as I can in the hopes of improving my skills and knowledge base in the area so that I can lend my assistance to my school and colleagues to bring our school further into the digital age.
We currently have no Wi-Fi access, no class set of iPads/chrome books etc
Schools are busy places so I hope to ease some of the burden and provide assistance in the procurement of IT resources for my school so that the children can benefit from the enrichment digital tools provide to their learning experience.
Once we have the tools needed I hope to put together an IT committee to arrange staff training, meetings to share expertise and ideas etc.-
Hi Margaret,
Thank you for your post and your breakdown of the assignment across these key areas. In terms of using digital technologies, I feel like you have hit on a significant point in terms of how they can remove certain barriers for certain children. You have mentioned ‘motivation’ as one of your key points here and I have seen this first hand in my own classroom. Children who are reluctant to write, read for meaning, collaborate on projects can suddenly have an attitude transformation when a digital device is entered into the equation. Completing their work with the aid of this can be highly motivating and enable them to reach their potential in school.
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Using and applying a SSE enables educators to have clear and concise goals with pathways and a roadmap for success. It provides a structure with a step by step guide to achieving a goal for a class, a year group or perhaps as a whole school. In terms of digital tools, multimedia content has become more and more prevalent in classrooms. Videos, imagery and simulations allow children to engage and explore different scenarios easily and create a deeper understanding in a risk-free environment of the classroom. Gamification of points, leaderboards and challenges motivate students in a fun and visual manner. In my opinion, online collaboration through various learning platforms provides us with a huge opportunity for children to interact, share and review work efficiently. Online platforms such as Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams create a social experience with ample diverse opportunities.
In my experience teaching in a school with a large access to resources such as iPads, Chromebooks and Macbooks, our team have made a big effort to integrate digital technology into the school. Technology is an essential tool in the modern classroom where children are now proficient and capable of using hardware (more than most teachers!). However, I think embedding a SSE will help our school refine standards set for tech in the classroom. For example, teachers fall into the trap of letting children play, for example, Minecraft freely for one hour while they busy themselves with something else. Technology is there to compliment a lesson and it is there for us to use it for the benefit of the class, not as a ‘filler’. I believe a focus on collaborative learning through projectwork where children can build up a body of work together as a team whilst the teacher can facilitate the learning and provide assessment online easily and efficiently. As staff, fortnightly meetings regarding digital technology would be useful to upskill and keep informed about the ever-changing environment online. Staff can too collaborate on useful resources, applications and websites that worked effectively in their classrooms.
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Using digital technology in the classroom has really changed how we teach and how students learn. Interactive tools like whiteboards, apps, and online resources make lessons more engaging and fun for students. By following the School Self-Evaluation guidelines, we can look at how well we’re using these tools and find ways to improve.
For the 2023-2026 period, we have the chance to focus our SSE on digital technology, aligning with the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. This helps us stay up-to-date with best practices.
Improving our use of digital tools impacts the whole school, bringing teachers together and helping students get ready for a tech-focused world. By using the Digital Strategy to guide our decisions, teaching, and professional development, we can make sure we’re using technology in the best possible way to support student learning.
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In society today digital technology is a must. Students are growing up surrounded by technology and it is important we, as educators, show students how to use it responsibly. As a teacher, I have noticed how the students attention span has reduced and often we need to use digital tools to keep them focused and on task. There are so many digital resources available today – Interactive boards, Tablets, Google Classroom, Kahoot, Podcasting, Blogging, Minecraft Education, AI, etc. All these different platforms and tools help make lessons more interesting and also helps develop skills students will need for their future. As we know 85% of future jobs have not even been created yet but we do know they will involve technology in some capacity so it is important we incorporate it into our teaching and learning where possible.
Using the School Self-Evaluation Guidelines, we can ensure we are prepared and ready for using technology in the school. Technology will be incorporated into the new Primary School Curriculum, starting 2025. This will be an adjustment for some teachers and it is important the school is prepared for this. Using the Digital Strategy Guidelines, we can focus on particular objectives in our SSE to ensure the school and teachers are prepared and ready for the future. -
Digital tools have transformed the educational landscape, they offer new opportunities for creating engaging and interactive learning experiences. By integrating these tools into teaching practices, we teachers can design lessons that are not only informative but also dynamic, catering to diverse learning styles. Through multimedia presentations, interactive simulations, and collaborative platforms, students are more actively involved in their learning, making the process more meaningful and effective. The impact it has on motivation and engagement alone shows the clear benefits of these digital tools.
Applying the SSE Guidelines, particularly with a focus on digital technology, can give schools an opportunity to critically assess and improve their teaching practices. During the 2023-2026 period, schools have the autonomy to tailor their SSE to their specific needs, aligning it with the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. This alignment ensures that schools are not only integrating technology but doing so in a way that enhances learning outcomes and teacher effectiveness.
Developing the use of digital technology impacts schools by fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. We as educators have a responsibility to keep our skill set up to date and in line with the best practices. It encourages teachers to explore new teaching methodologies, engage in professional development, and collaborate more effectively. By using the Digital Strategy as a guiding framework, schools can make informed decisions that enhance both instruction and overall school performance, ultimately preparing students for a digital future.
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The Irish education system is currently transforming through the integration of digital technologies, guided by the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. Integrating digital technology in classrooms has transformed teaching and learning. Interactive tools such as whiteboards, apps, and online resources enhance student engagement. By adhering to the School Self-Evaluation guidelines, we can assess our use of these technologies and identify areas for improvement. This initiative aims to equip students with vital digital skills and encourage innovative teaching methods among educators. It highlights the importance of providing teachers with the resources and professional development needed to effectively use digital tools in their classrooms. By incorporating engaging learning experiences like blended learning and online assessments, schools can customize education to fit individual needs. Furthermore, promoting collaboration among teachers, students, and parents through digital platforms strengthens community involvement in education. Ultimately, the strategy aims to enrich the curriculum and prepare students for future digital challenges, fostering a more adaptive and responsive educational environment.
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Hi Rachel,
Welcome to the online part of this course. Thank you for your overview of the SSE process. As you have said, it’s a great way to allow schools to identify their own priority areas for improvement arounds the four domains in both teaching and learning, and leadership and management. Some of the areas you have mentioned are perfect areas for a school to hone in on, and create meaningful and trackable action plans to monitor improvement.
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Digital tools create engaging and enhanced learning environments for children by offering interactive, personalised experiences that differentiate for the different learning styles in the classroom. Through gamified lessons such as Minecraft education, multimedia content, and real-time feedback, these tools make learning more engaging and fun. The learning can be child led for the most part aiding children’s decision making and critical thinking skills. There is also great scope for collaborative work which is fantastic experience for children. Adaptive learning technologies tailor content to each child’s specific needs, ensuring they learn effectively. This combination of interactivity, personalisation, and collaboration makes digital tools essential for fostering a deeper, more engaging learning experience. Developing my use of digital technology as a teacher will impact my school by enhancing the overall quality of education and fostering a more dynamic learning environment in my classroom. This approach can improve student outcomes by making lessons more interactive and accessible. In terms of SSE, it is important to bring your learning back to the school and share it with your colleagues. This might provide scope for conversions/reflections about where we feel we are in terms of our proficiency in digital technology as a school. Whole school evaluations and action plans then could be formulated to improve this.
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Using digital tools is vital in todays classrooms. Integrating digital tools into everyday practice and delivery of learning can really help children engage and attend to learning outcomes. When used correctly it can help build and sustain concentration and attention. It can also be used effectively as a reward or motivation to do prior work in order to engage with the technology later. I find that the children are willing to collaborate more meaningfully if they are allowed to work in pairs to achieve a task or project. Another fantastic outcome of applying digital tools in the classroom is that it allows for accurate differentiation. Usually the platform makes modifications in real time to allow the children to proceed with a task or if they fail provide them with a more moderated task. It allows for graceful failing and therefore the childrens learning confidence and motivation is not reduced and they continue to learn at their pace. I think in a large and busy classroom this is a vital key for progession and learning and therefore why when suitable it should be integrated into daily learning.
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As we are all aware, the children of today are growing up in a world of ever-changing technological advances. It is paramount that schools equip children with the skills and competencies they need to survive in today’s society and make a contribution towards the future. Digital tools can be used creatively to develop computational thinking and coding skills in children across all subjects. With the clever use of technology, children will not even realise that they are learning. Using the six step approach to evaluation, it is vital to identify your focus and gather your evidence. To improve your teaching, analysing and making judgements are important steps in your journey. It is then necessary to write your report and your improvement plan. The next step is to put your plan in place, monitor your actions and evaluate the impact. This will help to ensure that you are a reflective practioner.
As mentioned above, schools need to ensure our young population have the necessary digital skills and literacy required to contribute to today’s society. As a teacher, it is part of my role to ensure I develop the digital skills required to teach effectively in the 21st century. If teachers fall behind this will have a detrimental impact on the school. We should all take it on ourselves to make sure we are keeping up with technology as the responsibility for developing the future generation lies in our hands
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Digital technology, significantly enhances student learning by creating engaging and interactive experiences. It enables students to collaborate, share their work, and receive real-time feedback, making learning more dynamic and accessible. Digital tools can cater to various learning styles, ensuring that students are more engaged and motivated. It can differentiate easily and students can even set their own targets. Gamification can also further participation and enjoyment.
Incorporating digital tools into the classroom can also promote a culture of innovation, where students and teachers experiment with new approaches and technologies. This aligns well with the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. While reflecting on practices through School Self-Evaluation (SSE) is important, the primary focus should be on using these tools to improve learning outcomes and prepare students for a digital future. By aligning instructional practices and professional development with the Digital Strategy, schools can ensure that digital technologies are effectively used to enhance education and foster a future-ready learning environment.
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Digital tools form a pivotal role in education, providing multiple benefits regarding children’s learning. Digital whiteboards, tablets, educational apps, movie-making software etc. bring teaching and learning experiences in line with how the world has adapted to the digital age. Digital technology provides us with the tools to be more innovative in our teaching and create more diverse lessons in class. They enhance engagement, curiosity and interactivity in the classroom. Motivation to participate and learn has been one aspect that digital technologies have added in recent years. They add an extra dimension to the traditional, non-digital, methodologies used in school. I do think it is important not to depend on digital tools in isolation, but rather in combination with other methodologies.
Our school has invested significantly in digital technology and it is well incorporated in the curriculum at this stage. Each class grouping have access to their own class set of tablets. These have been great in supplementing and enhancing teaching and learning in the classroom. Using these for presenting, research, games based learning, problem solving, collaborative and cooperative projects etc. has certainly improved engagement and diversity in learning within our school. There are lego coding sets which are timetabled so that each class gets a six week block of working with them. These have proved to be very popular and have fostered incredible creativity and innovation from the children when developing their own coding and engineering projects. Critical and creative thinking are encouraged and fostered through this area.
The digital learning team in the school are constantly improving our stock of digital technology and, more importantly to me, helping and developing teachers who are less comfortable in this area to embrace these technologies and use them effectively in the classroom. Collaboration within the school is vital for improving the overall effectiveness of using digital tools for learning, and ensuring that we move forward collectively with how we implement the use of such technologies in the future.
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Hi Michael,
Thank you for your post. It is great to hear that significant investment has allowed for the embedding of digital technologies across curricular areas in your school. With each class group having access to their own set of devices, it certainly makes their use more attractive. I am a firm believer that for digital integration to be fully possible, our teachers need access to reliable devices and reliable internet connectivity. When children are having problems getting online or devices are not working or charged, it can be very difficult to manage the classroom and can often lead to a reluctance towards using the devices.
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How can digital tools create engaging and interactive learning experiences?
Digital tools can offer an inclusive and differentiated opportunity for learning and communication of learning to children of diverse abilities. With the use of digital technologies children with differentiated needs have a greater opportunity to engage with lessons enabling teachers to carry out focused teaching moments with others in the classroom that may not always get adequate attention from the teacher and/or more focused interactions with children with regular and frequent needs of support. Having access to, and ability to use ICT tools within the classroom and school environment offers children and teaching staff the opportunity to develop skills in technologies that will take them into the future; gaining experience on troubleshooting, problem solving and adaptation with updating and developing technologies. Game-based learning through digital devices gives children the opportunity to engage in learning in an environment that they find fun and enjoyable and that they can relate to their own lives outside of the classroom. Digital game-based learning also offers teachers opportunity for assessment both in and outside of school hours which can be carried out on individual profiles or as collaborative works projects with the ability to give feedback either in person or digitally, depending on the needs, abilities or interests of the children- in a way they will respond most effectively to.
Apply School Self-Evaluation Guidelines to improve your teaching.
In taking Step 2 – Gathering Evidence,from the SSE Guidelines, a focus on digital learning within our school will be essential to recognizing children’s own previous experience, expectations, understanding and abilities as well as teachers’ individual practices and teachers collaborative practices that are effective and progressive in our current environment. Using technologies to carry out such gathering of evidence in itself can make compiling the results of surveys, questionnaires, interviews and inventory easier to present and analyse. I believe it will be very interesting to compare children’s perceptions of digital technology with that of teachers’ and of course comparing it to parents’ own ideas or understanding as to what digital technology means within primary schools from these findings.
How does developing your use of digital technology impact your school?
Up until recent years developing my own use of digital technologies within my classroom has had a somewhat negative effect on my fellow colleagues, in that they displayed less confidence and optimism towards using technologies in their classrooms, in feeling overwhelmed and disinterested – the flight instead of fight reaction! This also left gaps in children’s use of technologies from class to class making it difficult to progress with particular planning relating to ICT and curricular areas. On completion of this course so far, I am feeling more competent in my awareness and positive attitude towards the implementation of digital technologies within primary schools and I feel responsible to begin a focused and necessary evaluation of digital learning within my school for the development of the pupils today and of course the current teachers who will impact on the future of many children to come.
During the 2023-2026 period, schools have the autonomy to choose the focus of their School Self-Evaluation (SSE). Align your SSE with the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 for best practices.
Offering staff within the primary school to engage in CPD workshops, collaborative group work, peer teaching budding systems etc to help get hands-on experience and eye-opening opportunities of how digital learning within the classroom can enhance and support all areas of the curriculum in a world that our children are growing up in. Developing in and moving forward into the possibilities of the future is imperative. The SSE enables school to choose a focus best suited to their own environment, therefore within my own school I hope to encourage my own colleagues to align the digital strategy for schools with our SSE, gives us the opportunity to upskill and to become motivated to teach old and new topics through new methodologies whilst also embedding lifelong skills in the children that can be incorporated and applied to future technologies, hobbies and career paths.
Use the Digital Strategy to guide decision-making, instruction, and professional development
The digital strategy guide offers fantastic support and guidelines that can for example, be applied during the Gathering Evidence and the Monitoring Actions and Evaluate Impact stages of the SSE Guidelines in particular, when undertaking a school self-evaluation of our digital strategy within our school. The TPACK model. Technological knowledge (TK), Pedagogical knowledge (PK), Content knowledge (CK), offers focused attention on areas that need surveying and responding to when implementing development within our school to ensure we tailor adaptations to our own environment, And not get disheartened by comparing to external bodies would take one step at a time relating to ourselves. -
Digital tools are transforming how we engage students and enhance learning experiences in the classroom. These technologes open new pathways for students to interact with the curriculum, making learning more accessible and personalised. For instance, students who may struggle with traditional methods, can demonstrate their understanding through digital platforms that better suit their learning style. Additionally, digital tools encourage collaboration, allowing students to work together not only within the classroom but also with peers in other schools or even in different countries, enriching their educational experience. The possibilities are vast.
Applying the School Self-Evaluation (SSE) Guidelines provides a structured approach for schools to reflect on their current practices, identify areas of need, and set targeted goals for enhancement. This ongoing reflection and communication process helps create a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring that we are always striving to offer the best possible educational experience in our schools.
The development of digital technology in schools significantly impacts both teaching and learning. By integrating tools such as interactive whiteboards, iPads, and Chromebooks, we can create more engaging, adaptable, and versatile lessons. These technologies not only make learning fun but also help students develop critical 21st-century skills like problem-solving and collaboration. Also, digital tools provide an effective way to assess learning, allowing for better reflection and continuous feedback. As we align our School Self-Evaluation with the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027, we ensure that our decisions and professional development are guided by best practices, ultimately leading to a more up to date and future-ready learning environment.
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Digital technology has the potential to significantly enhance student learning by creating engaging and interactive experiences. Tools such as interactive quizzes, educational games, and virtual reality experiences can captivate students’ attention and facilitate active participation. For instance, platforms like Kahoot! and Nearpod offer opportunities for real-time feedback and collaboration, fostering a sense of community even in a digital space.
I believe it so important to integrate digital tools across all areas of the curriculum as these are the skills our students will need for jobs in the future and don’t yet exist. Technology is such a part of children’s lives today and can therefore be harnessed in the classroom to give motivation and ensure engagement.
There are also so many ways that digital tools can be used in the class to facilitate differentiation and different learning styles.
Developing our own digital skills as practitioners will give us the leg up and confidence to integrate it in our classrooms, and the more buy in from teachers will see a more streamlined integration of technology across the whole school. As I enhance my digital technology skills, I also contribute to a culture of innovation in my school. This collaborative environment encourages professional development and shared learning, ultimately leading to improved teaching practices and student success. Engaging with digital tools not only transforms my instructional methods but also positively influences the overall educational framework in our school community.
Applying School Self-Evaluation (SSE) guidelines can help in assessing the effectiveness of these digital tools in the classroom. By continuously evaluating how technology impacts student outcomes, educators can make informed adjustments to their teaching strategies. Moreover, integrating the Digital Strategy for Schools 2027 into our SSE ensures that our approach aligns with national educational goals, emphasizing best practices in technology use.
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