If you want to start something new, to change things in a sustainable way and if you want to guide this change you need strategy development. Strategy development needs a multi-perspective view on and around an organization (strategic thinking), as well as the use of concrete instruments and concepts (strategic management). It follows a phase-based concept, which delivers answers to questions of meaning, norm, function and institution of an organization.
With our training course, we try to identify questions, which are important for schools, especially for the public sector. Our approach might sometimes differ from an economic one, due to the different conditions. Nevertheless, we would like to guide you through a path that enables you to develop your own Masterplan.
The SDD modules lead to answers for all related questions. The use of digital devices based on wise didactical and methodological decisions aims a change in learning and teaching structure. Organizing lessons by implementing digital media means more than using a beamer or checking e-mails during lessons. Digital media has many opportunities to change the teaching style to enlarge students’ motivation to learning. This needs a constructivist view on learning itself: students are creators of their learning, knowledge and skills, not as consumers. Due to that axiom, teaching has to address learning by methods, which activate students. Example approaches are self-organized or cooperative learning which allow students to make their own experiences. Teachers become facilitators within those activating environments (Hattie, 2010).
Moreover, it seems to be necessary, that digital media contributes a disappearance of borders between private and social life, which also involves school or working environments – they become an important part of everybody´s daily life. To make school a place to learn not only for teachers, but also for life, learning and digital media have to be connected. ‘In essence, to benefit from the full impact of ICT integration, ICT should be embedded into the school culture’ (Department of Education and Skills 2015, p.14). The ICT modules present examples of digital tools and solutions, which help to make decisions within your strategy development process.
How to develop a digital education strategy plan
Before you start, you need ideas. These ideas must represent an atmospheric picture of yout whole institution. Think about your school related to technological changes, changes of learning culture and what you want to represent (MODULE SDD1: Identifification of Leading Principles and Ideas).
Having clear ideas, you take a look on what you have already. That means, you analyse your school, but also your stakeholders. These are the people and groups, who are related to your school in a specific way. How can they support you? Who do you need to increase digital teaching and learning in your school? (MODULE SDD2: Analysis I – Environment and Organisation).
With both your ideas about your future institution and your actual state, you develop strategic options that might help to reach this future state. It won’t be possible to follow all found strategic options at the same time. Some of them might not even be useful or necessary for your school. That is why you select some of the strategic options during the next step: which fit with your ideas about a good digital school? (MODULE SDD3: Analysis II – Defining concrete strategies).
You have found strategic options, which sound feasible for your institution? Good! Next step is, to define goals and indicators to make your progress towards your future school measurable. You take different levels of goal levels into account, as well as index numbers (MODULE SDD4: Construction I – Goals and Indicators).
You know where you want to go, what it will take to get there and how you control the progress. Now you do the operational planning answering the question of content (what?) and time-schedule and milestones (when?). This is the second and last controlling instrument (MODULE SDD5: Construction II – Operational Planning).
