IWBNet Pty Ltd

supporting digital classrooms, digital schools

  • Home
  • Blog
    • Active Learning
    • BYOD
    • Classroom Management
    • Community
    • Digital Technologies
    • Flipped Learning
    • Innovation
    • Leadership
    • Learning Spaces
    • Personalised Learning
    • Teacher Health

The Ever-Changing Role in Digital Leadership (Mentoring and Coaching)

29 April, 2019 By Rick Noack Leave a Comment

This blog is the follow on from https://www.iwb.net.au/the-ever-changing-role-in-digital-leadership-kotter-model-unpacked/

and https://www.iwb.net.au/the-ever-changing-role-in-digital-leadership/

Mentoring and Coaching

In my previous blogpost, I took you on a journey of my leadership in moving a school forward into the digital age. By using the John Kotter Model I was able to unpack the steps it took for me to move my sites forward. Today I unpack this further to help you to understand the way in which I utilised coaching and mentoring strategies to guide my staff as I supported them to take their first steps in harnessing digital technologies themselves and also with their students, embedding them within their teaching and learning programs.

First of all let’s unpack Coaching and Mentoring particularly from an Educational Leader’s perspective.

Coaching involves the educational leader and teacher working together to collaboratively look at classroom approaches, interpersonal relationships, or organisational and administrative issues: all of which contribute to the achievement of the whole school improvement plan, and improvements in students’ learning. It is not evaluating and judging teacher performance rather it should be a positive impact on any teacher regardless how long they have been teaching.

Mentoring on the other hand is intended to support the development of all teachers where the leader acts as a support and guides teachers through negotiated/identified issues. This then creates a partnership between the leader and the teacher whereby they work together to achieve the improvements in the classroom practice. Often this occurs through conversations and observations.

In my role as principal and as my site began to lurch forward with technologies it became quite clear that my leadership had to focus on mentoring and coaching of some staff to support them. Through attending the leading a digital school conferences over time I have been able to glean a range of understandings and skills to be able to support my staff with the use of effective digital technologies in their classrooms, specifically ensuring that their purpose was to improve student learning outcomes.

In the early days it was important that I modelled the use of digital technologies in my day to day life at school as well as strategically placing myself in classrooms to observe teacher practice and the inclusiveness or not of digital technologies. This provided me with the opportunity to have open conversations with staff and discuss the range of possibilities and opportunities where digital technologies could enhance the learning for their students within their teaching and learning programs.

I found it extremely positive to sit beside teachers in their classrooms and discuss their teaching and learning programs with them. Through this we were able to identify strategic opportunities where teachers could dabble in digital technologies with their students. This began with the extensive take-aways which were seen and heard at the leading a digital school conferences, not only by myself but the staff which I had previously included and participated in the conferences as well. As a site I encouraged all participants and myself to form a Techie PLC to spend time trialling and sharing the range of new practices learnt from these extensive conferences. Often was the case I would work with teachers in their rooms to model the digital technology tools with their students to begin the first steps forward.

In all good modelling and coaching scenarios it was important for me to learn with and alongside the teachers. This provided the opportunities for rich dialogue to occur and help my staff trust in themselves to take this risk with digital learning, knowing that their leader understood and supported them to ‘give it a go’!

For me as the leader it was and still is an exciting time to be a part of as each staff member trials, implements and later embeds digital technologies in their learning programs. As you can appreciate the journey is never ending as the face of digital technologies continues to evolve at a rapid pace but the great delight is now I have staff who face this challenge head on and continue to evolve themselves.

In summary, the 3 most effective strategies as a leader I have embodied over time have been

  1. A continuing consistent message to staff around the importance of embedding digital tools with students and providing connected professional learning opportunities for staff (Leading a Digital School conference annually)
  2. Modelling and coaching my staff at each point of transition by building a culture of risk taking
  3. Learning with staff and embedding resourcing for digital technologies annually in the school budget.

Once again I will be taking my staff to this year’s ‘Leading a Digital School Conference’ as we continue to enhance our students’ learning through digital technologies. I look forward to seeing you there and would be most happy to have a chat.

Check out the program @ www.iwb.net.au/digital/program

Rick Noack

Filed Under: Digital Technologies, Leadership Tagged With: Coaching, Digital Leadership, digital technology, kotter, Leadership, Mentoring

3 Quick Ways to Increase the Digital Technology Count in Your School

7 June, 2018 By Rick Noack Leave a Comment

Here are 3 Quick Ways to Increase the Digital Technology Count in Your School, in Response to Amanda Taylor’s comment on my Blog post “The Ever Changing Role in Digital Leadership (Kotter Model unpacked)” Amanda asked “In an environment where BYOT is impractical due to extraordinary social poverty, how do we access the hardware to enact the amazing groundswell of pedagogical change the staff are poised to implement? We are desperately trying to instigate innovative teaching and learning on a limited number of devices as our school has no budget to supply the tech hardware. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.”

I have provided Amanda with 3 strategies which I have used to get more hands onto digital technology devices within the schools I have worked. Check out my response back to Amanda.

Hi Amanda,

Yes this is a very interesting issue to face however there are a couple of solutions.

  1. In South Australian Government Schools, we have the opportunity to apply for our ACE scheme which is an internal procurement process where the department sources possible digital technology options and schools can opt in for a lease type arrangement over 3 years. This then allows a greater purchase of digital technologies immediately with the cost spread over 3 years. This is how I have managed to do this in the schools I have worked.
  2. You could also look to Computer Recyclers in your state. Whilst you may not be getting the most up to date digital technology equipment, you can build the digital technology capabilities within your site quickly at a reasonable low cost, then begin to budget for a replacement plan over the coming 3-5 years.
  3. There are often trials/grants with Apple and a range of PC providers which many schools opt into. These do require some dedicated learning paths and often the grants allow for digital technologies to be supplied to the school.

With all of these options Amanda one of  the most important points is to strategically plan/map out where the digital technology equipment is most needed and who will be your early adopters so that the momentum takes hold. A well mapped out plan will help you identify where to start the groundswell.

I hope you are going to be able to make it to Melbourne for the Leading a Digital School Conference in August. I would be happy to chat with you more about this there.

Meet Rick Noack at the Leading a Digital School Conference 2019

Cheers

Rick

Filed Under: Digital Technologies Tagged With: Apple, purchasing, technology

The Ever Changing Role in Digital Leadership (Kotter Model unpacked)

26 March, 2018 By Rick Noack 2 Comments

The Ever Changing Role in Digital Leadership cont’d

8 Steps to Accelerate Change

This blog continues on from the Overview – https://www.iwb.net.au/the-ever-changing-role-in-digital-leadership/

  1. Create – sense of urgency  The Digital World surrounds us all and as our students enter our sites they have already been exposed to a vast array of digital tools. The students come to school with this background swell of digital access and in some instances are forced to leave the digital tools behind as they begin their educational learning journey. It is with this dilemma that I “Create the sense of Urgency” for staff at my site. I provide my staff with short current articles which support the movement of Digital Tools to enhance student learning and teacher pedagogy. This simple approach allows staff to see that the way in which we have taught in the past must change to support the students of now.
  2. Build – a guiding coalition With the realisation that the digital world is within our reach and that our students are at risk of ‘missing out’ a select few staff began to seize the moment and begin to question the changes needed in teacher pedagogy to employ digital tools to enhance the learning outcomes for all, including themselves as educators. This is the group I turned my focus to. We began with small group meetings (2-3) staff to share early thoughts and potential possibilities using digital tools in their classrooms. The group was able to pose important questions in a non-judgemental environment where no one had the answers but instead posed more questions. This group was provided time to explore possible solutions, investigate possible site directions and implications, dabble in their classrooms and enlist the most resource at their disposal – their students! This group was my guiding coalition! This was the first group of teachers to attend the IWB Leading a Digital School with me and not just my leadership team!
  3. Form – a strategic vision So we have the urgency created, a guiding coalition but that was not enough to lead the digital ‘revolution’ at my site. The energies were high and new found learning being trialled, but what for, where was this going to head, what were the intentions, and how will we know we were making a difference for our students? This was the defining moment for me as a leader in my site. Through the careful planning and ‘planting of seeds’ the digital leadership had begun to sprout. It was clear that a purpose and vision had to be defined and had to be embraced by those willing to guide the digital change required. Through the small group meetings, I was able to support the group to identify what a digital school would look like, sound like and feel like. At this point, it was time to dream big and set a vision for our site. We broke the vision down into 3 parts; our 10-year vision, 5-year vision, 1-year vision! From this point the group had defined the strategic vision for our site, no bars hold!
  4. Enlist – a volunteer army This is the time, as the leader, to engage with the staff who are willing to ‘have a go’, be the risk takers. The guiding coalition formed the initial wave of change agents with a few extra staff who had now been enticed into the, as stated by them, “the digital secrecy group!!!” As the leader I sat alongside each staff member learning, exploring, creating and developing an understanding with them and their students but always providing the guiding questions of “How will this improve student learning outcomes?” and “What are the implications for improving teacher pedagogical practice with digital tools?” This was the exciting time within our digital ‘revolution’ as staff and students flourished, failed, tried, created, explored, designed, embraced, even discarded digital technologies. This was the wheel beginning to turn and many more passengers began to climb on board and explore the digital train!
  5. Enable – action by removing barriers  With the staff and students actively embracing the new digital change, as the leader, it was key to remove any barriers in order for staff to truly see that the change was possible. School budgets were scrutinised to open up funding for the exploration and creativity to increase digital tool access to staff and students. Control over app installation, filtering, software settings and installation all handed over to the teachers. No longer did my staff need to wait for the IT guy to install a program, unblock a website or online program. My leadership in this supported staff to understand that there was nothing to break and that all would be good because we had a backup copy!!!! Not only enabling the staff and students to be the thoughtful risk takers but providing time for staff to meet with one another and explore, share and dialogue the effect the digital tools were having on their teaching practice and student learning outcomes gave rise to the second wave of wannabes!
  6. Generate – short term wins  Any good digital leader knows that short term gains support the continued growth towards the big audacious goals. It is this momentum and recognition which unleashed the fire in many of the staff at my site. Sending my staff to the Leading a Digital School Conferences over many years has supported staff to come to the realisation that their dabbling, experimenting and implementing digital technologies within their pedagogy provide their students with a deeply enhanced curriculum. Staff were encouraged to celebrate their successes with their peers, share their achievements and presented their best pedagogical practises which had embedded digital ICTs.
  7. Sustain – acceleration   As the digital leader of my site and through the empowerment and ownership of staff, digital technologies & pedagogies became embedded within our site improvement plan, leading to whole staff engagement with digital tools specifically tailored to the individual needs of each staff member. Staff planned and ran their own professional learning sessions and included targeted pedagogical practice sharing where digital technologies had enhanced student learning. The focus questions now became how do you use digital technologies and how does it enhance the learning for all your students? This continued to create excitement and commitment from all staff to embrace digital technologies within their classroom programs in order to challenge and engage students in a rich and meaningful global curriculum.
  8. Institute – change    From the initial spark grew the ever burning flame increasing in intensity over time. The digital change had arrived and as the Digital Leader at my site, it was important for the focus of digital tools and technology to be embedded within all aspects of our school and community where it is seen as part of the culture of the site and an expectation that the students are globally connected learners. This remains the paramount focus in digital leadership to further enhance student learning outcomes in a global digital world at my site. This supports the drive to maintain the effective change cycle.
John Kotter Model, 8 Steps to Accelerate Change

Given that this is one of many change models, as a leader of a digital school, this model provides a useful holistic approach to moving forward with digital leadership and digital technologies at any point within your own site’s journey. For me, the digital school leadership story begins once again as I embark on a change journey in a new site where the dinosaurs still roam! So join me at the Leading a Digital School Conference on the Sunshine Coast where I will present my journeys both past and present in my workshop……OMG I’m Back in the Dark Ages. Again!!

Filed Under: Digital Technologies, Leadership Tagged With: Change, digital, Digital Leadership, John Kotter

Tweets by IWBNet

Copyright © 2019 · IWBnet Pty Ltd · ABN 29 112 252 034 · Site Designed by Beltan Consultancy