Digital Literacy Role

Review 2014

Overview
Teaching Information Digital Literacy is about addressing the changing nature of subject
knowledge and acknowledging that young people will need different kinds of skills,
knowledge and understanding in order to develop their subject expertise.
My role as Information Literacy Teacher at Nagle Catholic College was formalised at the start
of 2014 . The main focus for this position was to inform and instruct, both teachers and
students, in using a wide range of technologies collaboratively, creatively and critically as
well as embedding the research process into class programs. Following my visit to three
schools in Perth, who had teachers in a similar role, i.e. Newman, Hale and Scotch Colleges,
as well as in-depth discussions with Ann Boyle, the schools Library Manager, as to what the
needs were within the library, the task of defining this new position to suit our College
began.
As the year progressed, it has become more apparent where my services were most needed
and how I could best serve the staff and students at the College. My position has evolved
into one of support, offering PD, on a weekly basis, supporting teachers in the area of ICT,
supplying support materials to assist learning programs, meeting the teachers ICT needs in
the classroom, supporting the Library staff in up-skilling their technical knowledge and
providing ICT technical support on a needs basis. This support has enabled staff and
students to use the technology within the school with more confidence.

Staff Support
The staff have expressed, how the availability of easy accessible support, has encouraged
them to integrate ICT into their planning and teaching with more confidence. The assistance
I have been able to provide over the year has been in the form of one-to-one PD and
support in the classroom in the actual delivery of the ICT skills lesson. The ICT survey,
administered early in 2014, provided valuable information in regard to identifying the
present needs of the staff at Nagle. The majority of staff preferred to have mini PD sessions
and online support. So The Coffee Club was formed, offering mini professional
development sessions (30 minute sessions) to all staff. The content of these PD sessions was
obtained through the survey, addressing areas of most need within the school and from
meeting with Melanie Jodah, Nagles Digital Learning Coordinator, identifying skills teachers
may need when using SEQTA. The online component resulted in a library teacher page
http://nccteacher.weebly.com (password: teach) being created, the aim of which is to
provide all staff, within the school, access to resources the school subscribes to, in addition
to the resources used during the pd sessions and other valuable links. This is a one-stop site
for all of the teaching tools available to staff at Nagle. The digital resources, developed to
support the Study Skills and Integration Units, was embraced enthusiastically by the
teachers, so a special thankyou goes to them all.
The support, I have offered, has not been limited to just teaching staff, as I have recently
converted all maintenance and ground keeping records from paper to online . This was
done to streamline the process and provide a practical solution to the record keeping
process, when the team were away from their desks.

Digital Literacy Role

Review 2014

Student Support

As well as providing technical support through the library staff and Help Desk, Shelley
Alexander and myself have rewritten the Year 7 computer and integrated skills programmes
to include issues relating to how to be a responsible digital citizen in the present world.
To encourage students to use their devices and to offer an alternative way of delivering the
study skills programme, a series of interactive ibooks were created for both Year 7 and Year
8 as well as an interactive magazine, called Insight, for Year 10, which addressed the
Research Process and some outcomes from the Australian Curriculum. The students have
provided some very positive feedback after using these for the first time.
Each year level now has a portal, which is a one stop for all library links and information
relating to study skills. This portal will be promoted enthusiastically in 2015.

ICT Support
ICT support has included basic IT support for teachers in the classroom. As the teachers are
starting to integrate the iPads into their lessons, I have seen the need to organise kits that
enable the iPads to be connected to the projector, so sharing of work can be done more easily.
Presently it is proving difficult and is a need the teachers have expressed as necessary. The new
Apple TV is an alternative technology presently being trialled, in the library. This year I have
assisted teachers with the trial of Learning Field, addressing the need for students to have their
email correctly set up. The problem of correct email setup has been a large issue right across all
year levels.

The ICT Helpdesk, Technagle, was formed at the start of the year, to relieve some of the
pressure from the IT Department and to provide easily accessible support to the students.
The team presently consists of the Library Staff as well as a group of 10 eager students, from
Year 7-11, who would like to pursue a career in IT. These students are rostered on during
lunch Mon-Fri and are supported by the Library Staff. The students will gain many skills
whilst on the team, especially skills in technical troubleshooting, public service and
professional behaviour. My role has been to oversee the group, up-skill them, as well to
maintain the Help Desk web page. This web page has now moved to SEQTA, where the
students have their own portal. One of the difficulties faced this year was in keeping them
motivated to attend roster, as most technical issues are sent to us during class times, so
there was little to no demand during rostered times. To keep the members motivated, I am
in the process of gamifying the Help Desk so they can earn points for attending roster and
meetings, assisting students, supervising and cleaning computer areas.

What Next in 2015?

In 2015, my objective is to address the changing needs within Nagle working closely with
Ann Boyle and Melanie Jodah, ensuring both staff and students are given the support they
need in using the library, SEQTA and Coneqt.

The Year 9 and 10 study skills courses will be revised, making sure they satisfy the Australian
Curriculum Guidelines and the research process adopted at the school. Feedback from the

Digital Literacy Role

Review 2014
magazine and ibooks has been very positive from both teachers and students, so I hope to
develop more of these digitally enriched resources spanning across more curriculum areas.
The research process will continue to form an integral part of all resources developed,
ensuring all students become better equipped to deal with study and assignments. It will
also be promoted within the library through slideshows and displays, such as the proposed
enquiry wall.

Following from the Edutech Conference 2014, a number of key ideas were taken from the
sessions and I plan to be involved in implementing them in 2015:

Interactive centre- The Library is constantly evolving and the future plan for Einstein
Circuit looks exciting. Einstein Circuit has been a great place for students to use
technology, but with all students owning BYOD, the hope is to make this more of a
collaborative integration area. This will add another dimension to learning that
enables collaborative work to be done in a suitable setting. We have begun phase 1
of this plan with an interactive projector table added as well as an interactive
Commbox. These will be promoted through The Coffee Club in 2015. The Commbox
has been used this year during the study skills sessions for students to present to the
class as well as the Resilience Doughnut workshops.
Enquiry Wall- An enquiry wall, displaying open ended questions relating to units of
work being studied in the classroom, will be created. Students can add to the wall
with answers to the questions over the course of the unit.
Use Library iPads to search Oliver. -These devices will be set up for searching the
Oliver Database. Suitable covers have been purchased to accommodate these iPads.

The Coffee Club will continue to operate, addressing new content and revisiting content
covered in 2014. Resources will be developed to post onto the teachers library page, thus
offering support through mini PD sessions and online sevices.
The new library page, parent, teacher and students portals will be constantly updated to
accommodate the needs of all concerned.

Supporting teachers and students in using their devices and solving technical issues that
may arise on a day-to-day basis, will continue to form an integral part of my role.
Connection Kits will be assembled, making them available for teachers to borrow in order to
connect iPads to the projectors within the school. Technagle, the student help desk, will
continue to operate. The gamification of the desk hopefully will provide an incentive to all
members to continue working on this team.

I understand my role will continue to evolve to suit the needs of the staff here at Nagle
Catholic College. I hope to promote my role more within the school and to provide possible
ICT integration ideas across a wide range of subject areas.