Enabling e-Learning 30 day leadership challenge

In the month of November, 2011, we asked people to contribute ONE top tip when recruiting new staff to help sustain e-learning in your school. The following slides are a collation of 30 top tips. We hope you find this useful when recruiting new staff in the future.

Thank you to everyone who contributed in some way. http://bit.ly/vpfGr7

Top Tip 1
Employers:
Offer your applicants the choice of submitting their application as a video and/or presentation.
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Top Tip 2
Employee:
Express excitement about learning using e-technologies for the purposes of greater educational achievement.

Top Tip 3
Employee:
Create and share a

digital multimedia CV to capture how you

already communicate and share online as well demonstrating the richness of your career experiences.
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Top Tip 4
Employers:
Put your application information online as digital material for prospective applicants to download.

Top Tip 5

Employee:
Dont get caught up in the flashly whizz-bang tools. Its really about effective integration throughout the curriculum - to support, relevant and meaningful tasks. The pedagogy behind it.
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Top Tip 6
Employers:
Take extra notice of those teachers using on-line environments as part of what they do everyday. Ask if they are they part of a collaborative network? On Twitter? Do they have their own or a class blog? Is it current?
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Top Tip 7

Employee:
Put forward a CV which stands out from the crowd, whether it be interactive or online, or in a creative format to get attention. This must include the "meat in the sandwich" as well.
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Top Tip 8

Employers:
Have a section in the application to show an indication of how comfortable that person is with e-learning and if they are willing to accept the challenge to up skill if need be.
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Top Tip 9

Employee:
Ask yourself, 1. Have I immersed and applied myself alongside my students in the Inquiry and e-Learning process?
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Top Tip 10
Employee:
Ask yourself, 2. Have I collected my own evidential data along the way using a range of synchronous and asynchronous mediums?
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Top Tip 11
Employee:
Ask yourself, 1. Am I or have I proactively engaged in some form of recorded reflective practice, paper or online, alone and also with others?
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Top Tip 12

Employers:
Ask open-ended questions like "what role does ICT/e-learning play in your classroom?" That way it opens the door for the teacher to offer their views/skills/knowledge on the topic without any leading/pre-empting from the interviewers. 13

Top Tip 13

Employers:
Look for applicants who have a track record of reflection...could be a blog, a journal, or contributions to a community, or it could be private reflections conducted in an ePortfolio around planning professional goals.
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Top Tip 14

Employee:
Use a platform like MyPortfolio to create a digital CV and model they way we want out students to share.
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Top Tip 15

Employers:
When selecting new applicants, look for informal examples of professional learning - such as the discussions in online professional learning communities as well as more formal occasions and events.
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Top Tip 16

Employee:
Have some level of understanding around effective elearning pedagogy, as well as the basics around daily use of commonly used technologies and tools laptops, email, web2.0, internet use and safety. 17

Top Tip 17
Employers:
Look for applicants with the ability to show alignment/coherence between his/her vision for learning, the principles which sit behind this vision through to the practices in the classroom. Ask them how they "walk the talk.
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Top Tip 18

Employee:
Have a willingness to try new things and adapt to new technologies you may not have previously used, (eg interactive whiteboards). Use/see the benefits of effective ICT use in todays classrooms.
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Top Tip 19

Employers:
Add into job descriptions - the ability to have some e-learning skills or show energy around elearning and a willingness to be open minded to learn all the new skills in this 21st century.
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Top Tip 20

Employers:
Include students in your interview panel. You will learn a lot about the way the applicant interacts with them. Debrief fully with the students to find out what insights they have gained.
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Top Tip 21

Employers:
Ask applicants how they already (or might) cater for diversity in their classrooms.
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Top Tip 22

Employee:
In the context of catering for diversity in the classroom, show how you encourage learners to share where they come from and what inspires them outside school.
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Top Tip 23

Employers:
Ask applicants to describe how they might create environments (digital media, hands-on experiences, text and visual images, video) where learners can express their understanding in different ways that are meaningful for them. 24

Top Tip 24
Employers:
Look to see if applicants are always thinking about multiple methods for sharing information and instruction recognising that learners are engaged in different ways at different times.

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Top Tip 25

Employers:
Ask an applicant to describe how they use the tools of e-learning to personalize and diversify learning for individual students.

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Top Tip 26

Employers:
When looking at beginning teachers (as well as a good CV); look at the fine details through their practicum reports, rank from their referees, interests and strengths alongside those of the school and whether they exhibit the "X Factor" something which stands them out from a large 27 crowd.

Top Tip 27

Employers:
Ask an applicant how they use e-learning tools to scaffold home/school partnerships - foster learning and engagement?
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Top Tip 28
21st Century learner, risk-taker, teacher

Employers:
Look for the person first. If the person impresses the committee with their abilities to learn, then they will be able to learn to effectively integrate elearning into their classroom.

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Top Tip 29

Employee:
Think about combining a paper and digital application. That way you ensure potential employers can print material as well as view online. For the brave, on the last page add a QR code to your digital CV online.
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Top Tip 30
Employers:
Consider new ways to accept written referees/ reports such as creating a questionnaire in SurveyMonkey and asking referees to complete. The ease and convenience of gathering this information online is our Top Tip #30.
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 Images sourced from:

Ucentralarkansas Wix web design www.wix.com http://www.rgbstock.com/ http://www.fansigngenerator.com/ Arztsamui @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Photostock @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Jscreationzs @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Master isolated images @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Ohmega1982 @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Danilo Rizzuti @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Digitalart @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Salvatore Vuono @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
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