Measuring the Impact of the School-wide Digital Innovation

Mart Laanpere, senior researcher @ Tallinn University, Estonia :: martl@tlu.ee

Measuring the Impact of the School-wide Digital Innovation

Technology generation shifts

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Estonian Strategy for Lifelong Learning: Digital Turn towards 1:1 computing

Digital turn in formal education system: digital culture into curricula, bottom-up innovation, sharing good practice, educational technologists in schools

Digital learning resources: digital textbooks, OER, quality management, recommender systems, Finnish-Estonian EduCloud

Digital infrastructure for learning : 1:1 computing, BYOD, interoperable ecosystem of services, mobile clients, school-wide digital turn (first in 20 pilot schools, then in 100, then 200)

Digital competences of teachers and students: competence models, self-assessment tools, mapping with course offerings and accreditation procedures, updating initial teacher education curricula

Digital infrastructure in Estonian schools

Erasmus+ project Creative Classroom: school survey 2014

Technology and fun are not enough

Successful educational innovation requires combination of three forces on the school level:

SCHOOL

Technology

Pedagogy

Change management

M.Fullan (2013) Stratosphere:Integrating Technology, Pedagogy and Change Knowledge

Whole school digital turn

The training and support is oriented on the level of a teacher

Diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 1992), OECD study (2002)

Whole school intervention models are needed

Old and new pedagogies

Tech use

Pedagogical capacity

Content knowledgeMaster required

content

Outcome: Content mastery

Old

New

Outcome: Deep learning

Teacher Pupil

Discover and master content together

Pedagogicalcapacity

Create and use new knowledge in the world

Ubiquitous technology

(Fullan 2013)

How to measure the progress and impact?

Scientific surveys (SITES, PISA)

School-level self-assessment tools: Hungary: eLEMER http://ikt.ofi.hu/english/

Finland: OPEKA http://opeka.fi/en/

UK: NAACE http://www.naace.co.uk/ictmark/

Ireland: http://www.digitalschools.ie

Norway: http://www.skolementor.no/index.php/en

iTEC: EduVista http://eduvista.eun.org/

Common European framework DigCompOrg due in 2017

Digital Mirror: assessing digital maturity

Digital Mirror: our original online tool for self- and peer-assessment of school’s digital maturity

Three dimensions of digital maturity:

Digital infrastructure (1-1 computing, BYOD, Wifi, support)

Pedagogical innovation (learning environment & resources, roles)

Change management (whole school policies, learning organisation)

5-point assessment scale (from iTEC innovation maturity model):

Exchange: teaching approach is not changed

Enrich: technology supports differentiated learning

Enhance: teaching and learning are re-designed

Extend: ubiquitous technology, learner takes control

Empower: beyond institutional boundaries, learner as co-author

Digital Mirror

Samsung Digital Turn project 2014-2015

Whole-school digital turn: focus on change management and pedagogical innovation (Fullan)

Every school found their own focus (8 + 12 schools)

Learners as creators: Kahoot, Geocaching, Digital storytelling, learner-created textbooks

Systemic and sustainable change: formative assessment with e-portfolios, 3D-modeling

Leadership: digital language immersion, regional lead

Self- and peer-assessment of school’s digital maturity using Digital Mirror, external evaluation by jury

Samsungdigipoore.ee

Samsung Digital Turn pilot schools

www.samsungdigipoore.ee

Empirical study in TVET context

Goal: improving construct validity and ecological validity

Participatory design-based research, involving 7 VET schools

We asked to perform 2 phases of self-assessment, followed by online survey and focus group interview

Results: Surprisingly positive feedback, high level of perceived usefulness, varying process (duration from 1,5 to 6 hours), differences in interpreting key concepts, unfamiliar concepts pushed to learn, surprising differences in levels (e.g. high level of infrastructure, low change management and vice versa), secondary uses of self-assessment results

Lessons learned

Digital Mirror works, although it takes time to adopt it

Teamwork is the key, school principal must be involved

Peer coaching and benchmarking was highly appreciated

Engage parents and local authorities, address also threats

Learn to make use of the publicity

Community building and specialised sub-groups need support

DigCompOrg

EU-level framework for self-assessing school’s digital maturity

Developed by JRC Seville, validated in 2017 in Estonia, Spain, Italy, Denmark

Estonian sample: 6 primary, 6 secondary, 6 vocational schools

User consultation survey (school leaders, teachers, students)

Testing the online Self-Assessment Tool

Our “hidden agenda”: integration with Digital Mirror

Conclusions

Schools are overwhelmed by surveys that only ask for data without giving anything back

Digital Mirror is useful as a data collection tool that supports teachers and school administration in implementing double-loop learning and becoming a learning organisation

Meso/school-level innovation model is often overlooked, yet very powerful in focusing on fundamental rather than spectacular side of innovation

Need to integrate Digital Mirror with EU-level framework DigCompOrg

Acknowledgments

Development of DigitalMirror is supported by MobilitasPlus programme and ERA Chair project

CEITER in Tallinn University: CEITER.tlu.ee

Some Rights Reserved

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.

The photo on the title slide comes from Flickr.comuser Michael Surran

The photos on the second slide are taken from the Estonian version of Wikipedia, Koolielu.ee and Flickr