Ask the Connected Learning Advisory: Using digital technologies to support learning in a senior secondary context

The Connected Learning Advisory has recently produced the guide to showcase the ways that schools are using technology in the senior secondary years. Innovative use of digital technology to support learning in secondary education is being driven by a changing world and an emerging awareness of the importance of addressing the needs of all learners.

This guide for schools, leaders and teachers provides ideas, resources, and stories illustrating how New Zealand secondary schools using digital technologies to extend and enhance learning in four key areas:

• Learners at the centre: Digital technologies are being used to personalise learning, support diverse learners and provide flexible and authentic options that celebrate student culture and identity.
  
  
• Curriculum design: Schools are innovating to provide a curriculum that makes the most of emerging technologies to meet the needs of their learners.
  
  NZCER (2013)(external link) reports that “88% of teachers worked in faculty teams that had redesigned senior courses in the last two years” (p. 29).
  
  Schools are providing virtual and online courses and courses that cater for student interest areas. They are developing connections between traditional subject areas with cross curricular and project based learning.
  
  
• Connecting and collaborating: Schools, teachers, and learners are building online communities and social networks to support and enrich their learning. Cloud and web based platforms are providing options for students to collaborate in new ways and access their learning anywhere, anytime and from anyplace.
  
  
• Digital assessment: Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning so digital assessment makes sense when students are using digital technologies in their learning and vice versa. This part of the guide, developed in consultation with NZQA, outlines how technology is being used in strengths based assessment and how schools can prepare for NZQA’s move to digital assessment.

The Using digital technologies to support learning in a secondary context guide is available on the Connected Learning Advisory website(external link)

Further support can be obtained by getting in touch with the Connected Learning Advisory.

Contact the Connected Learning Advisory

The Connected Learning Advisory is supporting hundreds of schools, and now also Communities of Learning, as they make strategic decisions related to learning with digital technologies.

If you have a query about integrating technology with teaching and learning, or you want to suggest a topic for this column, contact the Connected Learning Advisory by calling 0800 700 400 or using the online form on the CLA website(external link)

The Ministry of Education’s Connected Learning Advisory is managed by CORE Education.