The digital school and wirearchy

In a recent blog post at education.au Kerrie Smith raises the question What does it take to make a digital school?

"The school continually strives to take advantage of the opportunities afforded
within the digital paradigm to further enhance the quality and effectiveness
of the education it provides."

I have been thinking about this idea broadly while working with interested staff to develop their own 'virtual classrooms' in the school portal. This feature of our school network provides an opportunity to enhance the quality of our curriculum by: helping to digitalise content (colourful, clickable multimedia), structure units of work (websites embedded, rubrics uploaded, extension on hand), connecting and engaging students (document libraries, discussion, wikis, familiar interface) and provide easy access (school, home, travel). The challenge is how do we best teach our teachers how to utilise this powerful tool? Some answers may be contained in the recommended reading Leading a Digital School (edited by Mal Lee and Michael Gaffney, Acer press 2008) the next book I will be looking for.

In a follow up post by Kerrie, she describes a new concept in organisational structure called Wirearchy.

“a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority, based on knowledge, trust,
credibility and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and
technology."

Its connection with teaching and learning in a web 2.0 world can be found in this movie produced by a US anthropologist. Students accessing, trading and creating information in this environment definitely challenges the traditional role of the teacher as 'holder of knowledge'.