Purpose of Implementation

 

Purpose of Implementation

The advent of the Covid 19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown period thrust Barbados and its educators firmly into digital teaching and learning. We battled simultaneously with teaching using a new modality without much training as well as struggling to support students instructionally and technically using this digital pathway. Digital Learning while not a subject or a curriculum became central to all things educational. This new tool firmly captured that it can be embedded in the curriculum thereby adding value to the teaching and learning process when it is used appropriately. However, the lack of training or direction given to its initial implementation was a hindrance. The purpose of digital technology is to awaken and to facilitate intellectual curiosity. The staff of West Terrace Primary is cognizant of the fact that we are educating digital natives and so our teaching and learning must reflect that reality. Considering the pedagogical implication that digital learning can be highly motivating for the learner, in particular, those children who find the traditional methodologies of the school setting constraining can improve productivity and efficiency, its proper implementation is paramount. It is against this backdrop that we will strive to maximize the potential for children’s learning using digital technologies, where appropriate.

Why a digital strategy and not a technological plan?

A Technology Plan entails an  overview of your current technology. Essentially, it is a blueprint for how technology assists in meeting the institution’s mission.  It is an instrument to help prioritize and budget for the     technology tools that are most important for achieving    organizational goals.

 

Conversely, a digital strategy is a written plan that clarifies the institution’s online goals and helps you put the right technology and processes in place to achieve these goals. It clarifies the purpose for the use of digital technologies in educational institutions. The digital strategy is guided by the overall strategic plan of the educational institution. It delineates the development and implementation of the use of technology in enhancing teaching learning and assessment; provides a platform for data-driven decision making and evidence-based education;  and should assess current approaches in digital teaching and learning, including perceived challenges and opportunities that can be used to inform its development and implementation in our schools.

While a technology plan details the school’s investment in and use of technology and how it will affect operations, a digital strategy sets up goals and objectives for how technology will be implemented and used as part of achieving those goals.

Godina (2021) explained the difference in the following way:

• Digital strategy examines the ways technology can be leveraged to transform practices, processes and procedures within an organisation – changing the business strategy as it does so
• Technology (plan) strategy looks to change, fix, or improve technology without impacting on an organisation's strategy

 

As a part of the public school system educators were given technology. Essentially there was no consultation on the needs of specific schools. All institutions were treated the same with a one size fits all technology solution. It is now imperative that each institution carve out a strategy in keeping with its overall mission and vision to properly integrate technology via a digital strategy into the school. The technology plan in essence is subsumed under the digital strategy. It is simply one part of the strategy that will underpin the realisation of the overall goals and vision in the school. It is for this reason that a digital strategy will be developed to guide the proper implementation and integration of various digital pathways and technologies into the West Terrace Primary School. This roadmap will be used to guide the digital competence and confidence of stakeholders as we look towards the future.