Introduction to Digital Strategy

I'm delighted by the reviews that have come in so far for Digital Strategy for Schools - A Simple Guide:

"This is a tool that all schools could benefit from"

"This book is helpful and informative"

"A succinct and compelling guide for school leaders on how to transform their digital strategy"

I would highly recommend this book to others ... it can help you build but also refine all your existing processes

I'm also delighted that the book currently has only five star reviews; and that it is currently sat at 3rd on the best-sellers list for computer technology!

As promised, please find the entire introduction to Digital Strategy for Schools - A Simple Guide; the full version is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DSJNR6G8

Thank you all for your support.

Introduction

In this modern era, everyone needs a Digital Strategy. It has become a topic of discussion among senior leadership teams nationwide. Whenever someone mentions anything related to computing infrastructure - whether for students or staff - it often serves as justification for spending substantial sums on questionable, impulsive purchases. As statutory guidance increasingly integrates digital elements, schools have begun to recognize the need to bring their systems up to speed.

Oddly enough, the concept of a Digital Strategy sometimes appears to be a bit of a mythical panacea.

·????? Not enough computers in the lab for students?

• The Digital Strategy will fix that!

·????? Outdated curriculums that don’t leverage new technology?

o?? The Digital Strategy will fix that!

·????? Got staff who are uncertain about how to use digital tools?

o?? The Digital Strategy will fix that!

While these aspirations are of course well-intentioned, the key question remains: What exactly is a Digital Strategy?

Beyond being an amorphous catch-all, does it have a concrete meaning? More crucially, if it exists as something more than a “nice idea,” how can schools create a workable model and deploy it effectively?

These pragmatic questions that matter to practitioners are what this guide seeks to explore in detail.

In my career in education, I have done everything from supply teaching to serving as a Head. For an extended period, I have led computing curriculums across multiple schools, worked with prominent educational companies to develop pioneering approaches to learning, and lectured nationally on a range of digital topics. I have also deployed the Digital Strategy Plan outlined in this guide across multiple schools. This framework has been well received and, most importantly, proven effective. It simplifies complex processes into actionable documents, meaningful conversations, and, above all, clear progress.

This experience provides me with a unique insight—not only into the problem itself but also into the structures and people, from senior leaders to classroom teachers, tasked with developing and deploying the solutions we discuss.

So, let’s begin by defining what a Digital Strategy truly is.

Getting Started

A Digital Strategy can be divided into a few key components, all centered around ensuring there are documented “Intentions” (we’ll revisit these later) that are pursued to achieve desirable outcomes and reviewed on a regular, timetabled basis.

Here are the key areas:

·????? Infrastructure (both digital and physical)

·????? Accountability and key people

·????? Compliance and general day-to-day functionality

·????? Innovation and curriculums

Let’s explore each of these in more detail.

Infrastructure

?All schools now have some semblance of a digital infrastructure that underpins the day-to-day lives of everyone that works, attends and learns there. In its most basic form, this might be that the school has computers that staff log into to teach during the day and an additional suite of computers that students might use when being taught the computing curriculum. There might also be a bank of laptops somewhere that are used as a resource, a bit haphazardly, in various subjects; perhaps with a booking system, perhaps not.

Some schools will have something a bit more advanced; if the funding is there, there might be a suite with exciting additional tools, like 3D printers or perhaps a set of VR (virtual reality) headsets. There might be tablets that are distributed throughout the school for use during lessons and perhaps classrooms will consistently have SMARTBoards that can be written on and interacted with by students. Some schools might have an “innovation zone” or something similar, where robotics takes place using child-friendly kits or, if your school is truly blessed with funding, there are large, touch screen surfaces built with collaboration in mind.

It is worth noting that both of the above examples will also likely have a number of subscriptions to big name Learning Management Systems that will collect crucial data and store it for the school, often bought as a quick answer to looming compliance concerns - be that safeguarding systems, registration systems or for the broader handling of data. These may have been a hodgepodge piled on and accumulating over decades in some cases, with obsolete pieces calcifying amongst newer, less well-understood tech that staff haven't had training on.

Then, there’s the most basic bits of all; the cabling (be that ethernet cables for internet connections, for example), the Wi-Fi connections and subsequent extenders, adapters and hubs and whatever system is being used to create a network on which teachers can log on (thus making it so that they can take their account to whatever computer they log onto in school, so long as it is connected to said network).

Infrastructure is vital to making sure the rest of our Digital Strategy is possible. What we don’t want is to end up in a situation where the key people we want to be helping -? those who will lead the charge - are hamstrung with reactionary roles, running from classroom to classroom fixing non-functioning SMART Boards, doing impromptu and ad-hoc training for frustrated and anxious staff that don’t understand the need for these systems or how they will be integrated into their day-to-day lives.

Our infrastructure Intentions will be informed by the Digital Audit that we will complete, as outlined later. This will give us a thorough idea of what we have, why we originally sought to purchase it, if it can be used better and, after completing a cost-benefit analysis, if we still need to keep it (especially important to consider if it is a duplicative subscription, for example).

?Accountability and Key People

Most schools will have a small handful of people (sometimes as little as one or none) who manage all these systems. It will often fall to an IT engineer or someone in a similar role to try and keep track of everything above - and more. Not only are they often not trained in the sort of zoomed out, broad-scale thinking required to deploy and then subsequently manage the bigger ideas that will require buy-in from and training for all the staff, they are also sometimes personally victims of poor or incomplete handovers. This problem not only persists but intensifies the faster the revolving door for this position becomes – as less and less information will be provided to the newest hire.

?At this juncture, it is worth making it clear that IT engineers are probably not the people who should be tasked with designing, managing or implementing a Digital Strategy. They certainly should not be tasked with doing it without guidance or structure being provided by Senior Teams.

Their role is pivotal, important and should focus more on modernising, maintaining and fixing physical and digital infrastructure that isn’t meeting modern compliance standards. These can also be laid out in our Digital Strategy Plan, as specific Intentions – for example, transitioning to multi-factor authentication or upgrading the local servers.

Because Digital Strategy can be perceived as being “techy” it is then left, by omission, for the IT engineer or equivalent to attempt to juggle. Unless the engineer is outstanding and perhaps has come from another field that has required them to also manage people and create large scale organisational plans, this will likely fail. ??

It’s also possible that the school’s Head of Computing, or a similar role, has inadvertently been tasked - whether by request or by virtue of a title that sounds tech-oriented - with loosely managing an assortment of disconnected responsibilities related to infrastructure. The expectation may be that these efforts will somehow coalesce into a coherent, school-wide Digital Strategy. Spoiler alert: this approach rarely leads to successful outcomes.

A Head of Computing is ideally supposed to be focusing on creating exciting curriculums (which they will of course contribute to in the Digital Strategy Plan, in an Innovation and Curriculum section, for example). Even better, they could be helping to foster digital innovation in the wider curriculums throughout the school. However, they are also not suited to the task of overseeing all infrastructure and the broader Digital Strategy of a school.

Both IT Engineers and Computing Leads are vital components of a Digital Strategy and could, with the right training and structures (which we will go into detail on in the book) be leaders in developing and deploying Initiatives, but the ultimate oversight and Intentions, even for infrastructure, should be coming from a well-informed senior team working from a clear Digital Strategy Plan.

The reality is, however, that senior leaders can, understandably, feel less enthused about Digital Strategy.

They already have a lot on their plates, so the prospect of taking on a major role in something that appears complex—and, without a Digital Strategy Plan (DSP), undeniably chaotic—is understandably unappealing. However, they are uniquely positioned to oversee it due to their existing authority, the example and tone they can set for staff, the opportunity it provides to enhance their own digital competence and knowledge, and the fact that digital systems underpin so many critical aspects of school operations. Moreover, as time goes on, these systems will only become more integral to the school's success.

Therefore, senior leaders need to be directly involved in Digital Strategy, not just for the Digital Strategy to be a success, but, increasingly, for any school to function properly.

Ideally, creating a Director of Digital Strategy role, or equivalent, provides the oversight and leadership needed for our DSP to be a success. The Director of Digital Strategy (DSD) would be responsible for leading and managing the school’s DSP. They would make sure everything aligns with the school’s goals, working with senior leaders, IT staff, and others to get things done. The DSD also tracks progress, runs reviews, and ensures everyone does their part. They would carry out audits to see what’s working and what needs improving, using this to set clear priorities. The role also involves encouraging innovation, training staff, and building a strong culture of digital confidence. Ultimately, the DSD would be tasked with ensuring the strategy is practical, sustainable, and keeps up with changing needs.

There is also a fantastic opportunity here for you to create a Digital Ambassador Programme. Digital Ambassadors can then be responsible for helping to embed your practice throughout the school; they will be assigned to and accountable for key areas in the DSP and will report directly to the DSD, or equivalent.

Compliance and General Day-to-Day Functionality

There is an increasingly large set of requirements that schools must adhere to from a wide number of bodies and an even larger set of aspirational digital ideas that schools will of course want to try to strive for. Without this being outlined in a clear, methodical way that delegates specific responsibility to key people, all of this will firmly remain a “nice idea” that could happen “someday” - but not a concrete reality.?

This includes the day-to-day usage of the infrastructure that is already in place. Is there a clear training programme in place for staff - not just to create opportunities to improve and develop advanced and exciting techniques, but even for staff to grasp the basics?

Logging on, accessing a shared drive, finding key documents, registering pupils… Seemingly simple ideas that vary widely across schools and, once more, the induction style training necessary to bring staff up to scratch often simply does not exist. All of this could be rolled into your Digital Strategy Plan with clearly assigned personnel and, ideally, a working outline for new hires that is followed to make sure they are ready to hit the ground running from day one.

Innovation and Curriculums?

Funnily enough, this is the part of Digital Strategy that many schools attempt first. That’s completely understandable - it looks the flashiest, gets eyeballs and arrives with much fanfare.

·????? A new computing suite!

·????? A new set of kits for robotics!

·????? Tablets for KS1!

All these things are likely destined to end up being spectacularly expensive misfires if they are not incorporated into a well-oiled DSP that is up and running. With a DSP in place, then we could get not only the initial flurry of excitement but actual positive outcomes for students over subsequent years. ?

For exciting curriculum projects, some schools manage to get away without a DSP by having competent, energetic computing leads or teachers who want to take something on as a project of their own. The issue is that once that energy wanes, that interest fizzles or that member of staff moves on, that expensive initiative is now of little use.

When your Digital Audit is complete, you might find that there is a range of exciting technology left over from multiple failed “innovation projects” that can now be recycled into something meaningful in your DSP. This is an ideal outcome as it also leverages existing assets, rather than adding on to what can be an expensive set of propositions.

So – with all the above in mind, let’s move to thinking about creating a timeline for us to follow as we get started in earnest.

If you want to keep reading and to learn about:

? How to complete a Digital Audit

? How to set up your Digital Oversight Model

? How to plan and complete Milestone Reviews

? How to create a Digital Strategy Plan

And to have access to all of the templates for these key documents, you can now find both Kindle and paperback copies here on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DSJNR6G8

Thank you for your continued interest in the Digital Strategy Series. Stay tuned for the next scheduled edition, which will focus on how to create and use a Digital Oversight Model.