Sharing Good Practice
some form of lesson filming
technology by our headmaster, and
having very limited knowledge myself,
I was lucky enough to be able to call
upon expertise both inside my school
and from the wider educational
community. In the first instance, our
head of ICT researched some products
and came up with a short list for us to
evaluate. The technical expertise of the
ICT academic team, together with our
IT support department, was invaluable
as we had to ensure that any system
was both user friendly and had reliable
software to aid the sharing of videos.
Once the research on a variety of
platforms had been completed we
selected a clear winner and went with
it. However, as we would be making
a significant capital investment we
wanted to make sure we made the
right choice. Luckily Charlotte Hendy,
who was head of teaching and learning
at Dubai English Speaking College
(DESC) at the time, was happy to
welcome a delegation to visit and
examine how our chosen devices were
being used at her school. One of the
DESC middle leaders had actually
used our chosen device as a basis for
her National Professional Qualification
for Middle Leadership ( NPQML )
research task, so we were able to get
a real insight into the pros and cons of
using it.
To trial the system we called upon our
outstanding teachers, people we knew
would be comfortable with any of their
lessons being used. There was no
great fanfare, they were simply asked
to have a go and over the course of a
month we soon accumulated a number
of videos. The teachers were fantastic
at feeding back and soon we had
compiled a list of dos and don’ts for
the device. As we were now certain we
had the right device, we bought some
and distributed them across the junior
and senior schools. CPD was delivered
on the technicalities and before long,
staff were filming themselves teaching.
The leadership team were deliberately
vague with the uses of the device as
we were far keener for staff to ‘have
a go’ as opposed to focusing too
much on outcome. Our main goal
was for staff to become proficient and
confident at using the system. We also
believed that having an open ended
nature to how the platform was used
would enable staff to explore a variety
of ways to use the system.
We were amazed at the sheer
ingenuity of the staff members. One
member of staff began to film CPD
sessions, initially for those unable to
attend but later for everyone so that
important sections could be reviewed
later. Staff who were nervous about
having another adult in the room
while they were teaching opted to
film their lessons instead, sending
the link to the designated observer
to view later. The Maths department
began filming explanations for their
students and sharing them to support
understanding both in school and for
homework tasks. The head of science,
who knew she was going to be out
of school one day, filmed herself
explaining the cover work so all the
cover teacher had to do was click the
link; the students responded positively
to this innovative and unexpected use
of video technology. The devices are
now even being used to capture visiting
speakers so that we have a permanent
record of the presentations.
Although the introduction of videoing
lessons has been successful, there is
still some way to go before this initiative
is fully embedded. One area that still
needs to be addressed is the fear
around being able to show progress
when using a camera as opposed to
having an observer physically in the
room. We have now offered our staff the
option of videoing themselves instead
of their formal lesson observations.
Moving forward, the next stage is
building banks of good practice,
for example a selection of clips of
teachers
displaying
outstanding
questioning or differentiation. The
aim would be to utilise these videos to
support a member of staff who wants
to develop a certain aspect of their
practice. This would be more practical
than the advice that is often given at
the moment which is generally to go
and watch teacher X as they are good
at questioning. The teacher would
be able to see four or five different
practitioners all applying diverse
techniques to address the same
learning need.
Longer term, we aim to develop a
bank of explanations of key concepts
for each subject that we can share
with students to support their
learning virtually, giving them access
to their teachers even when they
are not in school. Overall, despite
initial fears from some staff, we have
found the introduction to be fairly
straightforward. My advice is that you
ensure that you choose a device and
platform that is easy to use.
Michael Strachan is an experienced educational leader, currently working as
Deputy Head at Repton School Dubai. He writes a wide variety of materials,
ranging from textbooks to opinion pieces on leadership & pedagogy. A
seasoned CPD presenter and researcher, his most recent collaboration was with
the University of Middlesex Dubai.
Class Time
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