Learning through lockdown: The value of Relationships in a Crisis – Part 1

It was wonderful for members of the ISC Digital Strategy group (ISCDigital) to be involved in this project in shortlisting and being the schools shortlisted. We all learned so much working with Ty Goddard from the Education Foundation, Amazon, Jisc, NetSupport and Intel to bring together the best use of digital from all sectors so it could be understood and easily shared to increase the chance of transferring successful use of technology. Unfortunately, both Neelam Palmar from Ashford international and Rachel Evans from Wimbledon High like many of the 83 schools awarded by the EdTech 50 schools initiative were inundated with requests to visit the school. As a result, the next part of the project will be to create a website in partnership with Amazon to host not only the details of each school’s success but also short video clips to avoid schools being swamped with requests for visits.

You can read more about the project and the event here and here.

Much of all our work has been reprioritised as a result of the Covid19 virus, just like Ian Yorston’s Sabbatical, and I am sure we are all wondering what life will be like after Lockdown.

We were aware of the challenges that we might face with the Virus thanks to past chair of the ISC Digital group Mark Steed who is now at Kellet school Hong Kong. Mark has been able to provide outstanding support to us and schools across the world as a result of his ability to communicate the challenges and solutions he came through with outstanding candour, sharing through his great blog and seminars and social sharing on twitter and LinkedIn so other schools can learn from his successes and mistakes. His latest sharing on Re-Opening After Lockdown will be essential reading for all school as we begin to consider going back to normal, whatever that will look like.

When Julie Robinson asked me to begin collating an online response to Covid19 I had no idea how useful this resource would be for schools and how many visits the page would get. Schools companies and teachers were all keen to share their successes and lessons learned, just like Mark Steed, and so updating the website at some points might have been an hourly occurrence after school but was a valuable exercise helping my school and was clearly useful to others.

Realising the Value of aggregating resources to simplify the advice & practical steps for school leaders, Ty Goddard and I decided it was necessary to create the [Developing Digital Leadership Bulletin Coronavirus][10]. With the help of Ronan McNicholl and a whole host of people from wide ranging working group including edTech Companies organisations, Schools and Colleges we were able to publish this document online within a week.