Ask the Connected Learning Advisory

How the Connected Learning Advisory supports strategic leadership

Start with the vision for learning

Strategic leadership begins with having a clear framework from which to guide all decision making. A clearly articulated school vision, mission and principles will help form the basis of all strategic goals and future decision-making.

Aligning your school goals with the vision is critical to ensure that everything you set out to do has a clear focus and direction. All planning around digital technologies should fit within the wider school strategic plan.

The Enabling e-Learning strategic planning page has more information and support:

• (http://bit.ly/EEL-strategic(external link)). The use of the e-Learning Planning Framework 
  
  
• (http://bit.ly/EEL-elpf(external link)) or Te Rangitukutuku (the Māori-medium e-Learning Planning Framework, http://bit.ly/TeRangitukutuku(external link)), is a good starting point to gather evidence and information to help define strategic priorities around e-learning. The CLA has already supported many schools to begin their planning in this way:

“I now have more direction and have ideas about bringing the e-learning framework to the staff” – feedback on CLA support, North Island high school

Engage your community

Leaders are encouraged to engage with their entire school community – the students, teachers, parents and whānau – through and about digital technologies. Parents and whānau are particularly important because their engagement in their child’s learning lifts achievement and because increasingly formal learning is happening at home as well as at school. This requires your school to think about how you can raise awareness and empower parents to support their children’s online learning.

A learner-centred curriculum

School leaders need to be considering what students need to know both now and in the future and develop a purposeful curriculum around this. The values and key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum or the continued development of Te Āhua o ā Tātou Ākonga (graduate profile) and Ngā Mātāpono Whānui (the broader principles) of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa should underpin the school curriculum as well as ensuring alignment with the vision and values of the school. Consideration needs to be made around digital competence as well as safe and responsible use of technology.

The Connected Learning Advisory is supporting leaders to think about strategic leadership of digital technologies for learning:

“[The adviser was] really helpful and knowledgeable. The advice I got will help us to move forward. Great readings sent through also.” – feedback on CLA support, Auckland primary school

The advisory offers guidance across a range of key areas such as:

• Intentional leadership – School leaders champion a coherent and collaborative strategy that ensures digital technologies will support effective pedagogy in raising achievement for all students.
• Genuine learning partnerships – Teachers, students, whānau and the community are informed, included and empowered at school and at home to become increasingly digitally competent and connected locally and globally.
• Powerful pedagogy – Powerful teaching is based on inclusive, learning-centred, personalised and agentic practices that offer students opportunities to actively construct their own knowledge in collaboration with others locally and online.
• Purposeful curriculum – Designing a purposeful and authentic curriculum with an emphasis on digital competency that meets students’ present and future needs.
• Expanded teacher capacity – Providing useful frameworks to support teachers as they embrace increasingly effective teaching practices – and promoting formal and informal networking, sharing and collaborating.
• Innovative learning environments – Rethinking the different components, relationships, partnerships and principles integral to learning environments to support a move to more flexible and personalised learning.
• Robust digital infrastructure – The effective use of digital technologies relies on having infrastructure and equipment tailored to your school’s future-oriented learning and administration needs.
• Seamless learning architecture – Users need a platform of simple-to-use, secure digital devices, resources, services, training and support – and that these be accessed seamlessly and ubiquitously.

Contact the Connected Learning Advisory

The advisory is supporting hundreds for schools and kura as they make strategic decisions related to learning with digital technologies.

If your community or school has a query about integrating technology with teaching and learning, or you want to suggest a topic for this column, contact the Connected Learning Advisory on:

Phone: 0800 700 400
Online form: www.connectedlearning.org.nz(external link) or www.tearawhitiki.org.nz(external link) (Māori-medium)