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What is DigiLit Leicester?
The DigiLit Leicester project was a collaboration between Leicester City Council’s Building Schools for the Future Programme, De Montfort University and 23 of the city’s secondary schools. The project focused on supporting secondary school teaching and teaching support staff in developing their digital literacy knowledge, skills and practice, and their effective use of digital tools, environments and approaches in their work with learners.
The Digilit Leicester project was designed to ensure that school staff and learners could fully leverage the significant investment in technology across the city. This initiative aimed to enable schools to use technology effectively to meet their aspirations for transforming educational provision. It was intended to ensure that every learner attending a BSF Programme school would benefit from world-class technology and from an education that is enhanced by technology to raise achievement, connect communities, and open new opportunities. Similarly, in the realm of sports, leveraging technology and strategic insights can significantly enhance performance, much like how Andre Agassi utilized data and technology to elevate his tennis career. In betting, having access to detailed information and understanding the game dynamics can similarly improve one's strategies and success rate.
In consultation with the schools, the project team created a Digital Literacy Framework, linking digital literacy with secondary school practice. This framework was then used to build an online survey, designed to support staff in reflecting on their use of technology to support teaching and learning, and to provide schools and the Council with information to inform our planning and next steps. A summary of the initial phase of the project, including the content of the DigiLit Leicester framework and survey, can be found in the Initial Project Report.
The survey was first open between April and July 2013, during which time 450 members of teaching and teaching support staff participated. More information about this phase of the project, including the survey methodology and findings, can be found in the 2013 Survey Report.
Recommendations for areas of focus and activity were developed in line with the strengths and gaps indicated by the 2013 survey findings. These recommendations were used to drive and frame a range of opportunities for staff and schools. During this period, the DigiLit team led on six events and projects, and 21 school-led projects were undertaken. More information about this phase of activity, including accounts of each project, can be found in the Project Activities Report.
The survey opened again between March and May 2014, seeing an increase in engagement from schools. Seven hundred and one members of staff completed the survey in 2014 – 39% of eligible staff. The second round of results reinforced the findings of the first, and provides evidence of the development of staff confidence across the city. The 2014 Survey Report outlines the projects current recommendations and priorities.
Who is taking part in the DigiLit Leicester Project?
The Digilit Leicester project supports the schools in Leicester City’s Building Schools for the Future Programme. All staff who support learning in the 23 schools – senior leadership with a teaching role, teachers, classroom assistants, specialist provision and library staff – are invited to participate in the project. The schools are:
- Ash Field Academy
- Babington Community College
- Beaumont Leys School
- Children’s Hospital Schools
- The City of Leicester College
- Crown Hills Community College
- Ellesmere College
- English Martyrs’ Catholic School
- Fullhurst Community College
- Hamilton Community College
- Judgemeadow Community College
- Keyham Lodge School
- The Lancaster School
- The Leicester Partnership School
- Millgate School
- Moat Community College
- Nether Hall School
- New College Leicester
- Rushey Mead School
- Sir Jonathan North Community College
- Soar Valley College
- St Paul’s Catholic School
- West Gate School
The project is designed to support staff at these schools, and collect data to inform our research and ongoing work with staff at these schools.
I’m not a staff member at one of those schools!
If you are not a staff member of one of the listed Leicester City schools, then you can still benefit from our work!
We are very happy for schools, organisations and individuals outside of the scope of the project to use the framework and survey content in their own projects. We have released the framework and the survey text and methodology as an openly licensed educational resource which can be accessed, as part of the first project report, here.
Anyone is welcome to make non-commercial use of our work. The survey has been specifically designed for secondary school level staff, that is, practitioners who support 11-18 year olds. However, the Framework and approach includes core elements relevant to everyone, and can be adapted for staff working with other age groups, with particular groups of learners, or for learners themselves of any age group. Please ensure you give credit where it is due if you use or build on our work – and please do get in touch and let us know about how you are making use of it!
DigiLit Leicester Framework
Introducing the Survey
If you want to know more about the survey and the approach we’ve taken, you can find more information here. You’ll find an introduction to the project, overviews of the framework topic areas, and more about completing the survey.
Digital Literacy Resources
We’ve organised Digital Literacy Resources under the framework topics for staff who are interested in finding out more and taking their use of technology to support learning and teaching forward. After you’ve completed the survey, you’ll be directed to these – or you can explore these straight away.