DigiAwards and 'Learn Create Share'

For 5 plus years now I've sat on the GCSN (Greater Christchurch Schools' Network) Trust Board offering a secondary principal's voice to their wonderful work. Their focus is on bridging the digital divide for those in the greater Christchurch area for whom this is an obstacle.

Last week I went along to the annual DigiAwards ceremony. This was a first for me. The awards are organised by CORE Education, and GCSN is one of three sponsors of the award this year (with the Ministry of Education, and SchoolDocs). Students from Year 1 to 8 put forward their work capturing their learning in digital form. The event got me thinking.

You can use these links to se what DigiAwards is all about

I have to admit that as I sat there, I was channeling Elwyn Richardson.

Had Elwyn been teaching in this digital age, I think he'd have been right in there, in the Digiawards.

The work I saw was a direct, deliberate, and outstanding, example of our Manaiakalani kaupapa 'learn, create, share'. These children of varying ages had created digital learning objects, and these were shared via the DigiAwards platform. I'm not sure how else they were shared, perhaps with communities, with whānau? I hope they were shared with those authentic audiences out there. But the DLO's were created with the express purpose of sharing the children's learning. The children there on the night last week received direct feedback from an appreciative audience. You could see the pride!!!

With my Manaiakalani hat on, I have probably sounded a little like that proverbial 'broken record' to my colleagues around the GCSN Board table, but my most persistent comment has been on the need to ensure that schools have clarity around the pedagogy that they are employing as they embrace digital transformation in education. There is I suspect ample evidence that doing so without a sound pedagogical underpinning is mostly doomed to failure (I haven't gone out there and looked at the evidence, I haven't done the research, but those media articles you see about the negative impact of digital technology on learning are I suspect mostly founded in those 'give 'em all a device and we'll transform their learning' schools.)

Where and I going with this 'ramble'?

The DigiAwards has, possibly unintentionally, highlighted what is achieved with the 'learn create share' pedagogy.  There is certainly scope to expand the 'share' component. For example, do these schools use blogging as a tool? Edublogs, and age appropriate moderated tool, is sitting right there waiting. And there is creativity sitting front and centre for our learners.

I'd love to see the achievement data for those children who participated. Our Manaiakalani network captures some of the most comprehensive data in the country on the impact of 'Learn Create Share'. We accelerate writing at twice national averages. We accelerate reading and maths at 1.5x the national averages. 

If as I am suggesting those students engaged in the DigiAwards are effectively getting a dose of our Manaiakalani medicine, if they are effectively experiencing 'learn create share', what impact could we have system wide if this were rolled out to more schools? Do we actually have teachers who unknowingly have embraced 'learn create share'? I am always attracted to the concept of system wide change and improvement. Could it be that experiences as simple as DigiAwards could do that?

What I do know is that I'll be pushing our Uru Mānuka cluster to engage fully with Digiawards in 2023.