Dulwich News | A Spotlight on Digital Innovation

We are in the midst of a new technological revolution (commonly known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution) that is fundamentally changing the way we live, work and relate to one another. It means we must keep pioneering to ensure our education is evolving so that our students are well-equipped to thrive – not just today, but in the world of tomorrow. 

Using digital technologies in education isn’t a new concept. Since very early on, we have brought laptops into classrooms, used interactive screens for presentations, taught coding in computer science classes, introduced exciting engineering skills in SE21 labs, and so on.

But the onset of Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies that have transformed businesses, and indeed, classrooms and learning experiences worldwide – including our own. It means that nurturing our students to be global citizens who are equipped with digital skills and literacy has become all the more important.

Digital Innovation: IT + Edtech

Digital innovation at Dulwich encompasses two broad aspects: information technology (IT) and learning innovation through educational technology (edtech).

IT comprises our digital backbone – hardware, systems, infrastructure technologies and platforms that we use every day. It includes classroom technologies, like student and teacher laptops, interactive screens. 

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Edtech, on the other hand, is about learning innovation, and refers to tools that, in conjunction with instructional theories and practices, amplify new ways of teaching and learning. For us, that could include applications and tools like “Reflect” – a wellbeing and social emotional check-in app in Microsoft Teams, but also professional learning that equip teachers with the necessary digital skills to facilitate learning, providing "teacherpreneurship" opportunities like the Pioneering Spirit Grant, and much, much more.

D3 is a key digital transformation project that our Digital Services team is driving on in collaboration with our educators. It encompasses both IT and edtech aspects.

Reimagining education and unleashing student potential

With D3, we’re tapping into the full power of technology to truly personalise learning and to enable new learning opportunities.

D3 gives students the freedom to shape their own learning, work at their own pace and deep dive into topics that excite them within the curriculum. They will be able to co-create, communicate and collaborate with classmates, teachers and peers throughout our international learning community with ease.

At the same time, D3 will deliver a connected learning, teaching and administration experience across our family of schools, by drawing together learning resources, data and analytics and make powerful collaboration tools more accessible than ever before.

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As we bring digital innovation into our schools, the aim is not more technology but rather to bring to the life new pedagogies and experiences for all stakeholders. One way we do this is through our exciting Pioneering Spirit Grant initiative.

Introducing the Pioneering Spirit Grant of 2022 (PSG):

The Pioneering Spirit Grant (PSG) is our initiative that seeks to champion a culture of innovation and sustainability by promoting, fostering and recognising student entrepreneurship and educators’ innovative projects. A total of more than 1 million RMB will be used to fund winning innovative ideas that improve student learning experiences.

“The PSG was an opportunity for me to make a real impact on student learning using innovative technology in education. As a PE teacher with a sports coaching background, I took inspiration from high-performance sport where technology is providing teams and athletes with an edge in performance enhancement. More specifically, video technology is supporting athletes from as young as six in various aspects of their personal and athletic development. I wanted to take that high-performance mentality and use of technology, adapting it to our context at Dulwich College (Singapore). The students can observe and reflect on their performance in real-time, using a multitude of devices to support this during PE lessons. Streaming the video through performance analysis software allows staff and students to clip and edit learning sequences that are meaningful to the individual, sharing them on platforms such as Seesaw, which makes the learning process personalised and relevant.”

—— Will Patz

 

Currently, candidates are preparing for the final round of the process. We are looking forward to seeing which ideas will ultimately be selected for funding!

 

A special thank you to the Group Digital Services team, especially Daniela Silva (Group Head Of Learning Innovation And EdTech) who contributed the feature above.

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