Digital Leaders & Mightybell
A short post to accompany a presentation at the AECRICT12 TeachMeet at Manchester Met Uni tonight.
Digital Leaders is a simple but brilliant idea that has gained great traction in schools across the UK and beyond over the past 3 years. In a nutshell.. use students to lead technology supported learning in your school. Student leadership in school is nothing new, and their knowledge and use of technology surpassing that of your staff is nothing new either. So why not put those two ideas together and see where it leads you? I’ve written before about it’s origins from GenYES to Kristian Still to Bob Harrison, Toshiba, Vital, the SSAT and on to many many great practitioners about the country.
There is currently an informal network that Shelli Blackburn and co are doing a great job of promoting, there’s also a more formal (with cost attached) SSAT network.
But you don’t even need these networks to start your own Digital Leaders, here’s a recipe…
- Advertise in your school for the positions;
- Request digital applications;
- Give pupils a formal interview – it’s a great experience for them;
- Hold a meeting/club every week or so, let the new team help you drive the use of technology across your school;
- Sit back and enjoy!
It’s as simple as that!
Mightybell is a great new website from the talented people that originally brought the world Ning.
Think of it as a cross between a message board and Pinterest. It’s incredibly easy to share links, videos, images, questions and posts, normally 2 clicks at most. And everything that’s added has an attached conversation. Below you can see a snap of our Stretford High Digital Leaders space that we use to share ideas and keep in touch in-between meetings.
And finally to tie it all together why don’t you join a Mightybell space that I’ve created to share examples and ideas from Digital Leaders around the world?!? Please feel free to join the space and add links to ideas or examples of work that your Digital Leaders have done.