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We now have a framework and complete set of Level 1 and Level 2 Digital Leader Open Badges. These are available for consultation during September and will be available via the Makewaves platform from the beginning of October.

I would like to outline my vision for developing Digital Leaders in my school and our main feeder primary using these badges. I want my students to qualify as level 2 Digital Leaders in the next 12 to 18 months. I also want the plan to be sustainable to continue producing Digital Leaders with ongoing capacity to improve ICT within both schools.

I am not going to worry about Level 1 badges. I know my Digital Leaders have been working and are capable of working at Level 2 and that is what I am going to get them working on.

There are nine badges:

Leader
Networker
Reporter
Creator
Educator
Presenter
Technician
Reviewer
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Our DLs know they are special, because due to the hard work of Mrs Gow at Pickering Community Junior School, we have Digital Leaders in our biggest feeder Primary School as well as at Lady Lumley’s.  We had heard exciting news about the new ICT suite at PCJS, so we were looking forward to seeing the new room.
However, it is about developing young people rather than the technology, so as you can see from the comments below, there was greater excitement about seeing friends and ex-teachers.

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Welcome to all #dlchat, DLN blog users and anyone who coordinates – or is planning to coordinate – a group of students to help encourage better use of ICT around school. We now have a framework for accrediting digital leaders at three different levels and badges will be ready to use from September onwards.

Paul Scott and I have been writing a framework for Digital Leader Open Badges with support from DigitalMe and Makewaves. We now have a framework, badge designs, and have started developing the step-by-step tasks needed for students to complete each mission and gain a badge.

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My Digital Leaders have trialled AppFurnace and we are now rolling it out to all of Year 9 (and Year 8 and 9 next year).

See www.gr8ict.com/appfurnace where I will build up user links
and Kudlian Soft for details for getting it for your school.

As far as I know, it is the only mobile phone app that has a player for both iOS and Android – published by Calvium.

We now have a L1 and L2 framework, with ideas for L3 (L3 is harder to construct…), and to show how Digital Leaders can progress over time, we now have live Reporter missions at Levels 1, 2 and 3.

Here are the first Digital Leaders badges which follow the framework as part of a coherent Digital Leader qualification:

L1 https://www.makewav.es/badge/1541/   L2 https://www.makewav.es/badge/1542/   L3 https://www.makewav.es/badge/1543/

Go to the Digital Leader Network on Makewaves to find out how to join (for free) and have your DLs follow missions and be awarded badges.

Here is the link for the Digital Leader framework work-in-progress, and please read and comment, but also read below for the context…

There continues to be a great of interest about Digital Leaders shown with #dlchat, DLN, and DLN Makewaves, with increasing numbers in primary schools and to a lesser extent, secondary schools – see briefing sheet for summary. However, what we need to do is bring together the different experiences of digital leader coordinators and share good practice. Following discussions with @triches, @chrismayoh and @naace at #bett14 this year, @Pederosa and @gr8ict have been working together, with encouragement from @triches, to make a start.

Our aim has become:
“an easily understood framework for running digital leaders in years 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8/9 that encompasses current practice, breaks it down into small tasks, and means that digital leaders can progress through these key stages developing their leadership and technical skills. This means potential digital leader coordinators will have an easy route into starting digital leaders at this important stage in the new computing curriculum. It will also enable the use of digital leader #openbadges with simple and shared criteria (missions) for digital leaders to progress over a period of time in both primary and secondary schools”.

At my Leicester talk I was asked for a definition of digital leaders. I suggested:

“A team of enthusiastic students who work with teachers and students on regular or one-off projects to improve improve learning with digital technologies”.

And I showed a mind map of current practice:

I am working with a group of North Yorkshire schools to continue to develop a network of digital leaders in North Yorkshire, following North Yorkshire Digital Leaders’ Conference – #DLNY13 – 21st June 2013.

Chris Sharples recommends that we should focus on a broad and balanced computing curriculum, which includes computer science, but is not taken over by it. We need to find new ways for young people to demonstrate the digital skills required by employers.

Ahead of BETT14, I was invited last week to a Stone Group roundtable debate hosted by Simon Harbridge, CEO of Stone Group. There was a broad range of people from industry, education and non-profit organisations, with a brief to develop concrete suggestions to “How do we bridge the gap between education and the real world?”.

This is a question that I am always trying to address as a Head of ICT in a North Yorkshire comprehensive.  My colleagues and I need a broad and balanced computing curriculum to continue to offer pathways for our students into a spread of IT industries.

I do not recognise our ICT curriculum as being “boring” or “clearly inadequate” (Michael Gove, “What does it mean to be an educated person?” 09-05-2013) and neither have OFSTED who in their last two visits judged our ICT lessons “outstanding” as did our LA using the new framework in July.

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6 Secondary Digital Leaders / Chris Sharples (@gr8ict) / Students & Head of ICT at Lady Lumley’s School
“We should be developing young people as much as the technology.  Digital Leaders from Lady Lumley’s School will explain how they work as Digital Leaders in school; working with students, teachers and the eLearning Manager; earning DL badges and sharing their experiences on the Makewaves social media platform with other DLs in other schools as part of the DL network.  Chris will give some insights to help you set up and nurture your own Digital Leaders if you don’t have them already and point you towards useful contacts, examples and resources on the DLN blog, Makewaves Digital Leader Network and www.gr8ict.com”

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