THE DFE’S SIX ‘DIGITAL STANDARDS’ FOR 2030 ARE MOSTLY A NON-EVENT
Except for one.
The DfE is consulting about another new set of ‘digital’ standards for schools to achieve by 2030.
This is the list of areas covered:
… and this is the detail - https://consult.education.gov.uk/reliable-and-safe-technology/narrowing-the-digital-divide-in-schools/.
One look at the list suggests that, as so often, the DfE is at least ten years behind the curve on this. In 2015 schools worried about their broadband and wireless speeds and things like firewalls but, by 2030 these will no longer be considerations - just as you no longer have to worry about hand cranking your car or reading a map.
In fact, as the DfE’s consultation already reveals, the vast majority of schools already meet the required standards for most of the items on the list.
There is one item there, however, which will and should cause some brow furrowing among school leaders. That is the question of ‘Digital leadership and governance’.
Over the coming years, keeping up with software developments will be increasingly difficult.
AI driven tools and agents will make it possible to make teaching and learning – especially in special needs – better and much more efficient. But keeping up with it all and knowing which whizzy gizmos are really useful and which are a waste of time, will be difficult. There are likely to be dead ends and frustrations but this is a journey that every school leader - and ultimately, every teacher - will have to make to avoid becoming irrelevant.
This is where a software partner like Earwig can be so useful. We work with thousands of SEND teachers every week and have done for more than ten years. We know that all special needs settings are different. So they need different solutions and support. Earwig provides this and, over the next five years we will take our clients, from Teaching Assistants to MAT CEOs, on an AI inspired path to better, individualised curricula, better lesson planning, better teaching and better outcomes for pupils. Also much greater efficiency, meaning lower operating costs for schools and more face-time with children.
We believe that the secret to empowering teachers with AI supported functionality successfully, is not to trumpet the AI elements. Just keep adding small improvements so as not to intimidate the non-techies and keep adding them until, when they look back a couple of years, they find that they way that they use technology to teach has changed dramatically.
I remember a school Head telling me that, since going all in with Earwig, he had no worries about Ofsted inspections. He just sat down with the inspector, and a couple of hot coffees, opened up his Earwig dashboard and said ‘Ask me anything’.
Now, when school leaders are asked ‘What are you doing to show ‘digital leadership and governance’ they can point to their Earwig account and say ‘We have a clear plan and it’s all in hand. Look at this.’
For a preview of where Earwig is headed over the next couple of years, check out this earlier blog post.
Peter Gelardi
CEO Earwig Academic Reporting Ltd