Ensuring Impact of EdTech - a Journey

As the sensationalist, mainstream media machine continues to peddle the myth that technology in schools has no impact and is a waste of time and money, it is heartening to see more and more examples of real impact, such as this wonderful story from The Kindergarten Starters in Dubai.

Of course it doesn't happen overnight. Of course it doesn't work when schools just throw technology at a traditional curriculum, never moving past the substitution level in SAMR.

As Mal Lee and Roger Broadie have pointed out, digital transformation in a school takes an average of 5 years, and Asha Alexander, Principal of The Kindergarten Starters - Dubai always knew this would be a long, difficult and arduous journey.  Her relentless focus on student outcomes, self-belief, courage and determination to transform the life chances of her children have never wavered - and the rewards are clear.

Implicit in this story are two key factors in school digital transformation - where these are absent, we know that digital initiatives really do fail, providing ammunition for the naysayers. It's hard work and not easy to get them right, but it is necessary to ensure these pillars of transformation are in place to support the journey to digital normalisation. The factors are:

1. Re-imagining the curriculum and associated pedagogies, with clarity of the desired outcomes for students. The school spent a long time re-writing the curriculum and, as stated in the article, the children now learn in a completely different way - on the redefinition level in SAMR.

2. Leadership - the right people in the right roles and distributed across the school. The connection and teamwork between the Digital Leader and Curriculum Leader was no accident!

Enjoy this heartening story!

'Edtech: How to spend wisely'

By Asha Alexander, Principal, The Kindergarten Starters - Dubai

Edtech is a dizzying world. It changes so fast that by the time we are deliberating an even more advanced version of a resource beckons. Buying a product has become harder as we are inundated with the range of resources that has made decision making maddening.

Five years into our digital journey, I am a more balanced purchaser. I put my money where I will see the most long lasting impact.

Let me start at the beginning. The first year of our digital journey was undoubtedly the most chaotic. We were in a trance as we experimented with all the possibilities we saw for our children. We were grabbing everything that appeared to be useful in our limited budget and agonizing over the constraints we were under. At the end of that year, we reviewed our purchase and decided we need to have a plan for our spending. There were so many purchases that had diverted our limited funds and we had not been able to maximize the impact it had on learning.  Some very appealing products were overpriced and many we had selected were under performing.

A thought struck us that if students brought in their own devices, we could move the funds that were being diverted to purchase laptops and put it to more profitable use. The campus was WiFi enabled and the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) was launched. Five years into our digital journey 3000 students from Grades 2-5 bring their devices, thus enabling us to cut costs on laptops and tablets.

We studied our school’s performance and analyzed data to see what could help our children learn better in Science and Mathematics which were our focal points as we needed to improve student learning. We were helped by our Digital Advisor to identify the best products which had been vetted by the Research and Development wing of our organization, compare pricing and negotiate for better deals through our large network of schools.

The Introduction of Robotics, 3D printing and Coding brought us in touch with LEGO Mindstorms and EV3 Kits which have changed the way children learn at our school. There is greater enjoyment as children have moved out of their passive roles of knowledge recipients to becoming active seekers of knowledge.

Mindspark is an adaptive learning tool that has improved Math scores at our school. Mastery of a concept has to occur before students can move to the next level. The self-paced instruction allows students to work on areas that need attention and allows the school to gain information on their progress and the number of hours the student has used the tool.

Harcourt’s Math in Focus, 3P Learning’s Mathletics, Mc Graw Hill’s Science Resource are among our carefully selected resources. Read and Write Text Help is nothing short of visionary as we see the tremendous strides our students are taking in language learning.

Part of the layout in transforming our school has gone into the selection and appointment of key personnel to drive the digital journey. In order that we make the right EdTech choices, we have appointed a Head of Digital Learning and a Head of Curriculum who work in tandem with the Digital Learning Coordinators of every Grade to cascade the learning. A key component of the selection of EdTech is the professional development and support we receive from the providers to maximize the benefits of the resource for both students and teachers.

Through Innovate my School, we had the opportunity to interact with several providers at our Speed Networking event last year that enabled teachers to interact directly with carefully selected providers to gain an understanding of how the resources would affect instruction in the classroom.

We have come a long way in our process of winnowing the plethora of products that are on offer. I have learned that we cannot and must not listen to the sales pitch alone but consult colleagues in our network, pay close attention to my Digital Advisor and Head of Digital Learning to make a difference to student learning.

In five years we have moved our Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) scores from 489 in Science and Math to 591 in Science and 549 in Math in 2015. That is only due to the changed curriculum and the digital delivery of content.

By upgrading our purchasing practices and spending wisely, we have increased the benefits to students even as we have saved money.