Education Minister Norma Foley TD discusses

Minister Norma Foley TD: Digital teaching, learning and assessment

There has been great progress in recent weeks with the return of our entire school community to in-school learning. Minister for Education Norma Foley TD writes.

The phased approach to returning to inschool learning has been made possible with the support and work of everyone in school communities, and by the progress made in curbing the levels of Covid-19 in the community.

In early 2020, education systems around the world were faced with an unprecedented challenge following mass school closures as part of public health efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. More than 100 million learners, educators, education and training staff globally were affected. To ensure the continuity of teaching, learning and assessment, digital technologies were used on a large and unprecedented scale particularly in the remote environment.

Challenges

I want to acknowledge the challenges faced by teachers and school leaders with the sudden move to a remote learning environment. You delivered a balanced and manageable programme, ensured that learners were not overwhelmed by information and supported the most vulnerable children and young people and for this I thank you.

The use of digital technologies in teaching and learning is not a new concept in the Irish education system. A number of government strategies and initiatives over the last two decades have encouraged and promoted the effective use of digital technologies in teaching and learning. Significant progress has been made under the current Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020 – Enhancing Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

The focus of this strategy is on the effective use of digital technologies in teaching and learning, assessment and in leadership and management. The strategy has been underpinned by a €210 million investment through an infrastructure grant for schools. The implementation of the strategy in schools is supported by a Digital Learning Framework and comprehensive digital learning planning guidelines. This is backed up by extensive continuous professional development (CPD), resources and supports for teachers and school leaders.

Initial research and surveys conducted on the experiences during the pandemic indicate that some schools found the transition to online learning somewhat easier. Many of those schools were familiar with online learning platforms and adapted quickly to providing learner feedback on work submitted digitally. For others, their capacity to provide continuity of

learning was impeded by poor broadband connectivity in some home environments and the lack of digital devices for both teacher and learners and alternative methods of delivery had to be deployed.

Moving swiftly to alleviate some of the immediate challenges, €100 million in grant funding was issued to schools during 2020 to improve ICT infrastructure and to support teaching and learning using digital technologies. Schools were advised that this funding could be prioritised to assist them in addressing their ICT needs arising out of the Covid-19 environment, including the purchase of digital devices to loan to students and teachers, software, essential learning platforms and other ICT solutions as determined by the needs of the individual school.

The Department provided schools with a suite of guidance materials, agreed with the education partners, to enable schools to mediate the curriculum safely for all pupils/students in a Covid19 context. This included the following requirements for schools:

• regular engagement with pupils/students;

• a blend of guided and independent learning tasks/experiences;

• appropriate and engaging learning opportunities;

• learning tasks;

• two-way feedback between home and school; and

• support for pupils/students with special educational needs.

Professional development

All schools are required to have a communication and learning platform in place. Schools can select the platform that best suits their own needs. Extensive support and guidance on the use of many of the most commonly used platforms is provided by the Department’s support service, the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), and its technology in education team at www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie.

The continued professional development of teachers and their upskilling on the effective use of digital technologies will continue to be a key priority for the Department and its teacher support service, PDST. The Inspectorate also provided an advisory service to schools to support the delivery of remote learning and to provide assistance to school leaders in particular during school closures.

A dedicated PDST portal on remote learning includes information on popular communication and learning platforms, digital tools and resources, video conferencing, webinars to support and inspire teachers to identify good practice and a dedicated online course for teachers for remote learning. In general the two most applicable blended learning models as identified by PDST are the enriched virtual model and the flipped classroom model.

The PDST leadership team is also available to support school leaders in leading remote teaching and learning process through school support, national programmes and localised networks. Also with regard to training, the Centre for School Leadership developed an online module in terms of mentoring newly appointment principals and as well as for professional learning for mentors and 1:1 coaching.

“I want to acknowledge the challenges faced by teachers and school leaders with the sudden move to a remote learning environment.”

Online safety

Along with the many benefits for our learners in using technology to access education, participation in the online environment can expose our children and young people to online risks. While schools have a key role in educating children about online safety, internet safety does not lie solely within the remit of the school environment. Providing an effective response to online safety requires collaboration between many stakeholders including government, parents, educators, industry and individuals themselves.

The Department continues to make available extensive training and curricular supports and resources to assist schools in the development of policies and practices on the safe use of the internet and on the prevention of bullying and harassment using the internet. The Webwise programme is a key educational resource in this area: www.webwise.ie.

Digital technology is a tool to be employed by teachers to enhance and support teaching and learning it will never replace the teacher in the teaching process. Regular engagement with pupils and students supplemented by digital technologies, will continue to be important elements of the education provided by teachers.

Digital strategy

The current digital strategy for schools expires at the end of this school year and I was pleased to recently announce the consultation process, as we work to develop the new strategy. It will build on the progress to date and the learnings from the impact of Covid-19 and online learning.

The consultation framework is designed to be wide-ranging and effective, to ensure that a broad variety of views and ideas are considered in developing the new strategy. It is available here: https://www.gov.ie/en/consultation/ and I encourage educators, parents and all those interested to have their say in this important area over the coming weeks.

Creating the right cloud experience

We have seen a rapid acceleration of digital transformation over the last 12 months, and the pandemic has acted as a catalyst to accelerate many transformation projects. The most common one was the rapid shift to support a remote or hybrid workforce to deliver services long-term.

We have also seen organisations thrive as they adapted their business model to enable them to operate and meet their customer needs throughout the various stages of restrictions.

In the early stages of these transformations, immediate decisions had to be made and services quickly provided so the organisation could operate, however these decisions need to be evaluated again as the economic environment changes.

How do we do it?

Cloud has been many organisations’ default position for a few years now, and while it’s definitely part of that digital transformation journey, organisations need to understand their true requirements or it can lead to inefficiencies, unnecessary expense and can also degrade user experiences. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and it can be difficult to know where to start.

Before we go much further, it’s helpful to create a common baseline for context. We may all be familiar with the term cloud, but what do we actually mean when we refer to it? If we look at the different types of cloud and what they entail, it helps gain a better understanding of what might suit each organisation’s needs: • Public cloud

Computing services offered by a third party by which scalable and elastic ITenabled capabilities are delivered asa-service using internet technologies.

Use cases include off-site data storage, online office applications and software development.

• Private cloud

Infrastructure, software, and services combined to deliver the cloud experience within a private network. In this scenario, the organisation has more control over it and increased security. Located in a data centre operated by, or on the behalf of, your organisation.

• Hybrid cloud

Combines private cloud with one or more public cloud services to work together. Offers agility and flexibility, supporting a remote workforce.

• Multi cloud

Uses multiple cloud services from different providers to ensure the best service for each workload. Can be cost effective, easily scalable, and agile.

We must also consider the fact that all of these options reside within a data centre, local or remote, yet in the majority of cases, we interact with our customers, employees or citizens out in the community. That is why today organisations need to consider the end point as part of the overall mix of service delivery.

The Edge: what is it?

As the expectations and requirements of customers evolve, we need to be able to facilitate fast decision-making, so we can exceed these expectations. Recent improvements in connectivity outside the data centre now mean that we can distribute compute and data to deliver more effective outcomes.

Instead of operating from large, centralised data centres, Edge computing operates from a more distributed model, with small centres of data springing up closer to the end user to support immediate low latency insights and decision-making, therefore enhancing the customer experience. Edge will definitely play a role in many organisations’ services mix. The question for every organisation will be how and where?

It is for these reasons that our view of hybrid cloud needs to adapt to factor in the importance of the Edge requirement. At HPE we believe that hybrid cloud is a way to architect and operate IT that takes advantage of cloud capabilities, cost, performance and agility available on-premises, on public and private cloud, and at edge locations. Hybrid cloud is not simply using public cloud and private cloud for your workloads. It is cloud everywhere.

With this expanded thinking and keeping in mind that 70 per cent of workloads are currently not suitable for public cloud, it is crucial to understand your organisation’s requirements before taking your next step. Areas to consider include:

• Who are your customers? (Customers, citizens, workforce.)

• Where are your users? Your organisation doesn’t stop at your cloud edge, how do you interact with them?

• What are the workloads and applications used? It’s important that they sit where they are best placed.

For example, does the workload require fast scalability for peaks in demand, something the public cloud providers excel in, whereas if you have services or workloads that need to be closer to the user or the process, then private cloud will deliver the low latency from your private data centre.

• What skills do you have today, and what skills will you need in the future?

• What organisational or cultural changes will this transformation require, to be successful?

Getting the right mix to support your organisation will ensure you have created the best foundation that will enable an agile and scalable environment that is cost effective, efficient and secure, offering a breadth of services to support the skills of your staff and deliver the requirements of your customers.

Taking action

We have seen organisations jump to cloud without proper consideration and understanding of their requirement and the upstream and downstream impacts of these changes on the organisation and their customers. It is therefore very important to involve a partner who can help you understand what the correct mix looks like for your circumstances and can help drive a successful cloud strategy by providing the insights needed to achieve the most efficient, cost-effective, and beneficial cloud environment, specific to your requirements. HPE has a vast breadth of knowledge and experience in advising organisations on creating the right mix of cloud, appropriate for their business objectives.

We understand that cloud is a continuous journey, rather than a destination. Contact Davin Cody for more information, or if you’re interested in getting assistance with your cloud journey.

Davin Cody Chief Technology Officer HPE davin@hpe.com