Technology shapes our world in terms of the way we communicate and learn. We must embrace this, seize the opportunities that technology provides, and prepare ourselves for providing education that is connected, informed and enriched.
Our vision for digital learning
When students use technology in their education they are able to learn on their own terms; it is personalised and flexible. Based on this understanding, our plan is for teachers to be using digital/ ICT resources so that students have a richer learning experience.
Our plan
Our comparative advantage will depend on our ability to leverage digital/ICT technologies in order to provide integrated, digitised learning that is student-centric, and teaching that is varied, efficient and ICT-enabled within day-to-day learning.
This is our three-step plan to deliver that vision.
- Increase students’ digital and media literacy as an embedded component of digitised subject learning
Our pedagogical model will be oriented around students’ varying degrees of guided digitised learning, through a framework of materials scaffolded with teacher guidance, with media usage and mediated self-directed digital access to develop students’ ICT literacy.
- Empower teachers to shape students’ “digital learning”
We will support teachers to drive their own digital aspirations for their subjects, enabling them to plan, resource and implement digital approaches and measure the success of this in terms of students’ level of engagement and depth of learning.
- Build our school’s digital capability for communication and information-sharing
We will embrace digital interactions and communication with parents and each other as a driving force for efficiency and for promoting the school as a “digi-centric” environment for students’ learning.
Putting this into practice
Students
We have two goals for our students. First, we aim to prepare them for further study with enhanced digital literacy skills so that they are able to personalise and manage their future learning. Second, we want them to have access to the wealth of online materials and resources that enhance their learning.
In practice, we will strive to ensure that students will:
- Receive more personalised, flexible and high-quality learning experiences than they might experience in the ‘traditional’ classroom
- Have access to resources that develop the essential digital literacy skills they need for the future
- Receive unique access to subjects they are studying
Accessibility:
- to course materials wherever, whenever, however
Confidence and competence:
- engagement with, and informed choices about appropriate use of, digital learning
- every student is a user of technology to support and develop his/her own learning
- students are able to be stretched by tools that enable them to innovate, discover and invent
Teachers
Our teachers will have regular and customised professional development (i.e. coaching and mentoring) as well as access to quality digital resources with the ultimate goal of greater value added to student learning.
In practice, teachers will:
- Have access to a wide range of digital resources and media, making content development and lesson planning more innovative and creative
- Embed digital resources into lesson plans and day-to-day teaching thus increasing their efficiency and effectiveness
- Be able to make assessments online
- Access the professional development they need to successfully integrate digital learning into their teaching
What this means for teachers
Skills:
- teachers know when to use/not to use technology (i.e. teachers confidently drop in and out of using technology in their teaching)
Culture for technology:
- a culture of using digital resources to enrich learning and engage learners
- use of technology to plan, teach, assess, communicate, share and learn
Access:
- access to technologies that complement and transform teaching
Leadership and Management
The Principal and operational management will use ZSC digital infrastructure to raise efficiency in managing education data and with data-sharing.
In practice, leadership and operational management will:
- Reinforce the school and college with digital technologies and infrastructure that attract and retain talented teachers, making the school a progressive and innovative place to work
- Use the digital infrastructure to manage community relationships and teacher-student interactions
What this means
- student management information to support decision-making
- internal communications that are efficient and accurate
- competitiveness