New idea in Schools needed?

These are some thoughts that I have had over a number of years.

One thing I am seeing more in school is the need for a developer. Someone who can take that google form to the next level. A lot of schools are moving down a Google Apps for Education or Office 365 route. But these are great upto a certain point. What happens when the google form that was designed for 20 students to fill in a survey or gain feedback suddenly is required to be used by 200 students. Yes, one could say that is the purpose of that, however it is getting the information into a useable format ready to be used by something else. Say, you subject option choice system, or your schools curriculum guide. These start to have a lot of extra work added to them to make them work and you need someone with a excel mind to turn "Level 3 English" into "ENG3", simple find and replace work, but what happens if you have 90+ subjects at your school over the three levels. That is where some serious work is needed. And you also need to find out which of the 89 students hasen't comepleted the requirements, VLOOKUP's and a number of other tricks are there to help you. But what about a system to show Value Added? What about a system for students to choose a change in there timetable each week, three times a week and have it so it can be added into the Student Management System. What about a system that shows planning for students over three NCEA levels for students to plan and then enter what they have completed each day. How about a system that allows studenst to meet the requirements of the Level One Physical Education Assessment by filling out a on-line journal, which teachers have access to be able to provide feedforward.

All these systems require some thought, analysis, development, coding and maintenace. How often in your school would you like to try and do something different, but can't as you don't have a developer.

You school may have a Digital Technologies department, and if they are doing NCEA Digital technologies and Generic Technologies they may be able to help you develop that system that you require. Real life projects are great things to work on. But you may have to give up some time for the students to talk to you, work with you, see how the current system works. Don't be afraid to give feedback if it is not what you are after, or they have gone down the wrong track. That is why feedback meetings are just as important to them as well your own students.