This presentation was delivered by Michael Payton-Greene at the Digital Futures in Teacher Education regional conference (2 October 2012, Sheffield United Football Ground). For more information about the project, see www.digitalfutures.org

1. Digital Futures in Education
Michael Payton-Greene
Wales High School
http://whsteachingandlearning.wordpress.com

2. Some context . . .
• MA APSE at the University of Sheffield, exploring digital
literacy
• Dissertation accepted that social networking and the
collaborative phase of the internet (Web 2.0) could
change the way we think, learn and behave.
• The study aimed to explore if social networking could be
used to help the way students learn, enabling them to
make learning easier and help them make better progress.
• The study worked on the assumption that the way we
are literate is increasingly important; in particular,
the need to be digitally literate is increasingly important for
the current market place and to be socially active as a
digital citizen.

3. The Dissertation
• Teachers at WHS participated in a pilot focussed on
sharing and reflecting on good practice.
• VI form Economics and English Literature students
were set and submitted homework on facebook,
contributed to online dialogues with their
peers/teachers, shared their own content and read
articles/watched clips that contributed to further
discussion in lessons.
• The study found that Web 2.0 platforms had the
powerful potential to:
- enhance communication
- increase engagement
- use cognitive processes that were enabled by
being ‘digitally literate’ in a digital space.

4. Designing a case study
- Digital Literacy
- OERs
- What about a teacher
focussed case study?

5. WALES HIGH SCHOOL
THE SCHOOL
• Outstanding 2006 – no OFSTED inspection since
• 50% of staff 20year + service at WHS.
• Key Measure – 5A*-C (inc. English and Maths) = 58% 2012
• SCHOOL PRIORITY – Improving Teaching and Learning
CONTEXT
• Departments work independently
• No mechanisms for sharing good practice across the school
• Outstanding and Good practice in areas of the school, but not
seen by those outside the department.

6. What DfT wanted:
- Digital Literacy
- OERs
What WHS wanted:
- Improved teaching and
learning
- Professional Dialogues
and sharing good
practice
- Foundations for a system
of collaboration

7. THE SPACE

8. THE SPACE

9. The class seemed to
THE SPACE
enjoy
experimenting
with different
equations and it
made a dry topic a
little but more fun

10. THE SPACE

11. QR CODE GENERATORS
• Write information about your area of
school
• On a laptop create a QR code
• Test it using an ipods
• Print it
• Try them out!
Group 1: PE / Group 2: Reception / Group 3:
Library / Group 4: Dinner Hall / Group 5:
HOY / PSA Group 6: Learning Support
Group 7: Digital Day / Group 8: Digital Day

12. Student tasks :

14. HOW WILL
WE BE
SUCCESSFUL?

15. TODAY
YOU WILL
CREATE
AN ESSAY

17. • Easy to use – similar to a normal website or
Open Educational Resource already used by
staff.
• Professional Dialogues take place which enable
and encourage the sharing of good practice –
the collaborative element enhances cognitive
approaches to pedagogy and practice.
• Easy to access resources using the drop down
menu. The ability to ‘categorise’ and ‘tag’
resources is key – resources are easy to use and
find.
• The benefit of comments attached to resources
is valuable; it enhances the resources with
guidance about how it may be used, and,
enables different perspectives that make the
outcome of the resource clear.
• Enables teachers to explore the benefits of
digital literacy themselves.
• Provides possibility for wider access – i.e.
primary schools, learning community partners,
Universities etc

18. • Difficult to initially get signed up to.
An external website, separate to the
main VLE and website.
• Not placed in a prominent place to
enable more traffic to the space. The
majority of users will be those directed
or encouraged to go to the site.
• Any resources or videos etc need to be
on a separate share filing website – i.e.
slideshare. This is problematic in terms
of being re-directed if items need to be
printed etc. There are also issues
related to aspects of safeguarding.
• Student work, videos and pictures are
not currently on the space, but it
would make the sharing of good
practice much more fruitful.

19. TO BE DEVELOPED FURTHER AT WALES . . .
• to widen participation so that every department has a representative to
contribute towards the blog;
• to have half-termly ideas/strategies/policies posted on to the space and
used/reviewed by departmental areas;
• to work with NQT/ITT students to help their professional practice via the online
space;
• to enable the blog to be used as a performance management / coaching tool,
as required;
• to share student work and lessons using photos/videos;
• to focus content on school priorities and important moments i.e. literacy, T&L
policies, creative approaches during Arts Week, drama approaches during
school performance period, lesson observation week resources, 6th form teaching
strategies etc.
• to create a termly magazine in paper and electronic format highlighting good
practice to share with staff, highlighting best practice.
• to explore ways to improve the digital literacy skills of students and staff
through workshops and INSET exploring digital learning tools and
applications.