Innovation and digital: find out what measure 15081 allows you to deploy in your communities

As part of the Digital Education Action Plan, measure 15081 of the budgetary rules has been improved in order to stimulate the development of innovative teaching practices. The form for submitting innovation projects linked to digital technologies has been available since May 27 for school administrators on the CollecteInfo portal. In this article, François Lake shares with you the experience of his school team in relation to measurement.

By François Lake
Teacher of 5^e year at L'Arpège school in Sainte-Julie
Twitter: @Francois_Lake

Few people and establishments know the measure "Innovation projects linked to digital technologies" from the Ministry of Education and yet it is a real gold mine. Indeed, our school has benefited from it for two years now and I take this article to inform you on the subject. Here are the different ways in which we have used the amounts of this measure, the undeniable advantages it has brought us and the concrete results it has generated for our school.

Foster the professional development of the team

For two years, our school has enjoyed significant amounts of money thanks to measure 15081. In the first year we received a grant worth 20,000$ and this year the amount was 26,000$. Thanks to these amounts, the school team was able to participate in several training sessions and seminars such as Clair in New Brunswick (3 teachers), REFER in Montreal and Quebec (6 teachers), AQUOPS (18 teachers out of two). years) and the Digital Summit (8 teachers over two years). These are, of course, major events which promote the use of digital technology in schools and which are very interesting. We know many teachers who have envied us to be able to participate in all these conferences and congresses. Indeed, participating in these congresses is expensive. Usually a school cannot allow so many teachers to go on training, even if the whole thing was spread over two years. We also met several times regulars in these events who paid out of their own pockets the amounts necessary to go there. When you talk to these people, they are often surprised to learn how fortunate we are, and all of you, to be able to take advantage of this measure. 

Another very interesting aspect is that we were able to take advantage of free time for the teachers in the school in the form of training, mentoring and peer modeling. Indeed, teachers more comfortable with technology were able to accompany their colleagues in various fields such as the use of iPad carts in an educational way, robotics, programming and the creative laboratory. As teachers, we would all like to have more time to improve ourselves in these areas and it is often that same time that we lack. Measure 15081 comes to overcome this difficulty. The often heavy tasks, the appropriation of a new level, the integration of digital technology and all the other elements of the teacher's life mean that we abandon certain aspects of his continuing education over the years. Thanks to these releases, teachers were able to continue to improve their skills without feeling overwhelmed by the reality of the teaching world.

Considerable benefits

What are the benefits of all this? Let's say it right away, they are huge. Firstly, the teachers were very grateful to be able to take the time to appropriate the use of digital in an educational way. Thanks to these seminars, conferences and in-house training, many have realized that digital technology is not an addition to the task, but rather a way of doing better and / or differently what we are already doing.

What they saw as a mountain turned out to be a small hillock.

We made sure to start from the needs and capacities of each one in order to support them in their feeling of professional competence and allow them to evolve at their own pace. All staff members were consulted and received training, development and support tailored to their needs. 

No one was left out.

The members of the school team appreciated developing a feeling of competence in digital technology before accompanying their students to their class. Obviously, as Margarida Romero said so well to Clair, in 2018, one must have a tolerance for ambiguity as a teacher. We can always be unsettled by a student who knows more about the subject than we do, but a feeling of basic competence is helpful in order to take the first steps in class. This is what we gave to the teachers at the school.

For teachers who are less comfortable, I have, for example, done modeling in their class in robotics. This allowed them to better understand the thinking behind robotics, the links with science, mathematics, programming and even French. The goal is not to do everything for them, however. Following this modeling, they gained confidence and are now doing robotics on their own, all with a smile! Concern has given way to pleasure. The teachers in question have become autonomous and that is the beauty of it. 

In my opinion, it would not have been possible without this measure.

What about the students?

It is also important to note that no student is forgotten in this adventure. We talk more and more about the skills of the 21^e century and we are convinced, at our school, that it is important to equip students at this level. The measure has enabled us to equip teachers to support their students. Thus, they continue to work on the elements of the PFEQ while allowing the students to develop these skills. From computational thinking, collaboration and problem solving, students develop skills that will be useful to them throughout their lives. With the new digital competence framework, which has just been presented at the Digital Summit, we realize that all of our efforts over the past five years (and particularly in the last two years) have enabled our students to flourish. and to develop these so-called skills. 

To finish…

The positive results of measure 15081 are huge for our school. Firstly, teachers are extremely enthusiastic about having had the time to develop their digital skills. They are happy to better understand its usefulness and now know how to use it to take students further while still sticking to the training program. Then, the teachers who were more comfortable at the base are, for their part, motivated to discover new approaches and to help their colleagues. Finally, the students benefit from support more suited to today's reality and carry out absolutely incredible projects. Whether it is the creation of a remote-controlled racing car with Micro: Bits, green screen video projects, the programming of an application or any other project, students are motivated and develop skills that will be useful to them all their life. life.

In summary, I believe it is important to remember that the measurement "Innovation projects linked to digital technologies" allowed the members of our school to be better equipped to deal with the use of digital technology and to allow students to go further than we could have imagined. I therefore invite you to take this opportunity to educate a generation that will be ready to face the world of the future.

• Do you want to submit an innovation project related to digital technologies? Talk to your principal (school, teaching center or educational services) who has access to the deposit form on the CollecteInfo Portal.
• To see other examples of projects funded by measure 15081, it's this way.
• To find out more about the possibilities of this measure in higher education, it's this way.