Digital Strategy or Technology Plan?

 

The Technology Plan is that which focuses on the investment an organisation will make in the use of technology overall and is considered as being more general or broad based. However, the Digital Strategy is a part of the overall technology plan and tends to be more specific. It places more emphasis on goals such as teaching, learning and assessment.

The Digital Strategy is guided by the strategic plan of an educational institution. It has a clear purpose, which is to utilise digital technology to achieve efficiency amongst teachers and administrators as well as leaders and to ensure that there is effective student learning as a result.

At my school, I believe if a technology plan is utilised rather than a digital strategy, students will have the devices and simply learn the basics of their use.  However with the digital strategy I believe they will be able to relate more to real world experiences as they will be used in all subject areas.

I hence propose a vision for a digital strategy for my school which is as follows:

Empower our school to build their digital skills and competencies in order to enhance effectiveness and efficiency thus leading to students who have a quest for knowledge, a desire for future learning and who through creativity will use their talents and skills to contribute to society socially, morally and academically, enriching student learning and enhancing pedagogical goals

Click below to watch a video on Shaping Your School's Digital Strategy

https://donnahblog.blogspot.com/2022/12/shaping-your-schools-digital-strategy.html

  I strongly believe that in line with this vision for the digital strategy, this will inculcate within students “a quest for knowledge and a desire for future learning”through exposure to technology on the scale which the digital strategy will offer.

As outlined in the vision for the digital strategy, exposure to a curriculum which fully encompasses the use of technology being integrated into all subject areas, being used confidently and effectively by all teaching staff will lead to students who “through creativity will use their talents and skills to contribute to society socially, morally and academically”.

According to Foley and McNally (2021) “This Strategy will continue to support all developments in the primary, junior and senior cycle curriculum with the overall aim that digital technology is an integral part of teaching, learning and assessment in every classroom and every subject”

The use of technology in the classroom leads to innovation. This is achieved through a combination of technology and pedagogy. Our vision for the digital strategy clearly states that it leads to "enriching student learning and enhancing pedagogical goals". Here,two innovative strategies; problem-based learning and project based learning can serve to incorporate the use of technology to enhance learning outcomes of students. In problem-based learning, skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, communication and analysis are realised. Here the teacher facilitator can use digital learning tools such as Padlet, Mentimeter or Google docs to achieve this. In project-based learning students learn by doing. The teacher creates real world situations and the students can use technology to enhance the learning process as they use skills like understanding, searching, choosing, discussing, applying, analysing and evaluating. AS the sision for the digital strategy states 

There are several other learning strategies which utilise technology. These are active learning, game-based learning, gamification, flipped classroom and differentiated learning. The use of these techniques can only help us to further realise and achieve our goals through this vision for the digital strategy as it will increase the "effectiveness" of the learning process and again "enriching student learning and enhancing pedagogical goals".

Click the link below to see the digital strategy

https://donnahblog.blogspot.com/2022/12/a-digital-strategy-lawrence-t-gay.html