Putting yourself in their shoes

[Sentro]

From September I am starting a major new project across the school titled ‘IT for Learning’. The aim is to get back to using IT for what it should be used for in a school; learning (or teaching!). The main focus of the project is to work through a series of mini projects with staff. Looking at how we can implement good practice with IT in small areas across the school. We hope to do this in so many areas that eventually they all join up. The projects can be hardware, software or just general practice based.

 

I’m interested to know how you all take feedback or requests from your teaching staff in areas of IT development. Do you have focus groups or do you simply rely on staff requesting things/identifying potential developments for you.

 

As an IT pro I can easily think up solutions; but how do you know what the problems/gaps are without being a member of teaching staff?

[SYNACK]

As an IT pro I can easily think up solutions; but how do you know what the problems/gaps are without being a member of teaching staff?

 

Observing teacher style. You need to get put into some of the classes for a day or more to just sit and quietly observe. The have the same practice during teacher training and some PD so it is an established process that they should understand. That way you can see the problems/ideas in context and come up with tech ideas/solutions that you can put forward for further consideration/brainstorming with other technical people and other teachers.