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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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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 tools can make lessons more interactive for students by making them more accessible and easily differentiated. Activities can be easily differentiated and tailored to particular groups and abilities. Lessons can become more collaborative and can challenge students to use problem solving skills along with communication skills. By teachers improving their own uses of digital technology, they can encourage and model these digital skills for their students while also making their lessons more efficient, engaging and collaborative. It is important that a school chooses their own focus of their SSE, so that they can focus on where the majority of their students level would be with digital skills, as this may differ widely across schools. Resources differ hugely across schools, and therefore the skills and experiences of students will be very different, depending on the resources that the school has access to. Professional development is also essential for teachers in order for them to be able to keep their own skills up to date. The Digital Strategy can guide a school in assessing the aspects that they will work towards in the future and highlight areas that would be beneficial for professional development and instruction. It is important that schools work collaboratively, with a whole school plan in place to ensure that by the end of their schooling, students will have been able to develop the relevant digital skills.
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Digital tools can create engaging and interactive learning experiences in a variety of ways. It allows for accessibility so all children can engage at some level. It facilitates differentiation. In our school we have moved towards improvements in our digital hardware. Students have access to chrome books during the week. These devices can be used collaboratively, with students engaged on group tasks. This improves their communication skills and has enhanced their skills in problem solving. These skills are critical to our students. We are a DEIS school so it is really important that our students get the opportunities to engage with technology so they are equipped with the skills they will need as they progress and into the future. Our school has a focus on problem solving in numeracy and digital technology provides many opportunities – for example with coding tasks for students to engage in computational learning. We share and present learning tasks which in turn helps with data collection and reporting on progress towards our SSE goals.
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Digital technology is a powerful tool to enhance childrens learning. It can lead to increased engagement across all subjects of the curriculum. When used effectively digital technology can also be a powerful tool for inclusion, differentiation and assessment. While using digital tools in the curriculum, it is important to have a targeted focus on which digital skills are being developed, as this will give the students the skills essential in a technological world.
Applying the SSE process to Digital Learning in the school allows you to evaluate how digital tools are being used in the school and how well the digital learning plan is being implemented. Involving children, parents and teachers in this process means that many viewpoints are being considered to create the most comprehensive plan. Having this plan in place means that any funding is being used in a meaningful way that will benefit the learning of the students.
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Integrating digital technology into primary schools in Ireland enriches student learning by making lessons more engaging and interactive. Apps, interactive whiteboards, and multimedia resources cater to diverse learning styles, capturing students’ attention and fostering curiosity. It mirrors the use of digital technology at home and can really assist in creating school-home links.
Aligning with the School Self-Evaluation (SSE) Guidelines, schools can focus on digital technologies in their schools if they wish, but perhaps those who can’t can instead try and adopt digital devices across the curriculum, including the focus of their SSE.
Prioritising professional development helps teachers stay current with technological advancements, ultimately creating a dynamic and effective learning environment that prepares students for a digitally connected world. The current education system we have was created at a time we can hardly compare today’s technology to. By using the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 document, all schools can ensure they are following best practice and keep abreast of the ever changing technology revolution.
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Hi Barra,
Undoubtedly teachers need to be given the space to get comfortable with technology in their classroom and supported throughout. The continual changes in this space as you’ve mooted make many teachers, I think, apprehensive about using digital learning tools. Key, as you reference is the provision of relevant CPD on integrating technology. Going right back to the early days of technology in schools, over twenty years ago now, there has been an expectation that teachers should pick up digital skills on the fly, almost by osmosis. Granted, local education centres offer a host of courses for up-skilling but these require staff to turn up in their own time which won’t work for everyone. CPD needs to be whole-school, onsite and relevant to the needs of each school for there to be any chance of creating/facilitating that ‘dynamic and effective learning environment that prepares students for a digitally connected world.’ that you reference.
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Digital tools let students collaborate in new ways, question the world around them, connect their work with the world, create products that demonstrate their understanding, and wonder about new topics they encounter. These strategies can help you integrate technology into a lesson as you design learning activities.
The vision of the Digital Strategy is to “realise the potential of digital technologies to enhance teaching, learning and assessment so that Ireland’s young people become engaged thinkers, active learners, knowledge constructors and global citizens to participate fully in society and the economy”. The strategy promotes the embedding of digital technologies in all classroom and school activity so that the use of digital technology becomes a seamless part of the whole education experience. It underpins the development of 21st Century skills in our young people; skills such as communication and collaboration, critical thinking and analytic reasoning, research skills, creativity, problem solving and team work
Developing my use of digital technology can have a profound impact on a school in several ways:
For example :Technology can make lessons more engaging and interactive.
Technology facilitates better communication and collaboration among students and teachers.
Teachers can continuously improve their skills through online courses, webinars, and professional learning communities. Digital tools can streamline administrative tasks, such as grading, attendance tracking, and communication with parents.
Ensuring all students have access to digital tools can help close the achievement gap.
Overall, integrating digital technology in teaching not only enhances the learning experience but also supports teachers in their professional growth and improves the overall efficiency of school operations.
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Digital tools can help create engaging and interactive learning experiences by making them more interesting and appealing to children and helping to cater to different learning styles and needs. They can also encourage collaboration amongst students as they develop their communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills.
The digital strategy for schools ensures that children have access to teaching and learning that incorporates necessary digital tools that will allow them to gain the skills they need in an ever evolving technical age. By embedding digital technology across the curriculum we can enhance the learning experiences for children and allow all learners to reach their full potential including those with additional educational needs and equip them for the future in a digital world.
Through SSE and CPD on digital tools and technology, teachers can learn to provide more engaging, interactive content, learn to offer more individualised experiences for children and help students to connect to the real world problems and scenarios they might face in STEM careers or life in the future.
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The children of today have grown up in a technological world and need to be equipped to deal with the ever changing advances being made. Digital skills can help develop computational thinking and coding skills in children while using digital tools in lessons allow for more interactive, engaging and accessible to all.
By choosing digital learning as the SSE focus, schools can evaluate how well the digital learning plan is being implemented and whether the school has/is using its resources effectively. Schools can reflect on practices used and change accordingly going forward to better suit the need of the school.
Professional development of all teachers through a range of mentoring, modelling and courses will allow teachers to feel comfortable in imparting this knowledge on the children and staying up to date on relevant advances. By using the Digital Strategies for schools to 2027 document, all schools will be following best practice.
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Developing digital literacy with our pupils is of critical importance to their future success in the digital age. The development of these skills can be directly linked to the teaching and leanring already taking place in our classrooms. Creative solutions to integrating digital tools into learning are key for the students to allow them to build on their application of skills such a research skills, typing skills, coding skills and computational skills. The amazing varieties of digit tools available, can ensure for engaging and interactive lessons in the classroom. Time is needed to allow for purposeful planning and selection of these tools – time for the teacher to use the tool to it full potential whilst also allowing the pupils time to use the tool in a meaningful way, on a repeated number of occasions to develop their digital literacy.
To add to this, it is necessary for the SSE plan to be an ongoing focus and allow us to be steered in a clear direction. The wide variety of digital tools available to teacher to familiarise themselves with, can be a dawnting process and also discouraging at times. Teach meets and the sharing of knowledge and expertise within a staff, at a slow and meaningful rate, allows people to learn from each other whilst also allowing them a time-frame to explore and use the tool within their classroom. Avoiding an overload of information is something which we need to remember, and instead refer to the identified plan which has been put in place to meet the needs or both pupils and teachers.
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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.
I think a school as a whole needs to prioritise this and encourage CPD in this area for all teachers, particularly as it will soon form part of the curriculum. Obviously there will be teachers who do not feel as confident in this area as others so it’s important to take small steps and provide support where needed.The tools and information is there in various documents to guide a digital plan and the SSE will be an important step in seeing where the gaps are.
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