IDEAL Future Work Package 2 Report

45 Technology mentors coming from the local school to observe lessons is the right thing to do, but it is also scary. The mentor needs to be very empathetic, it needs to happen organically and the teacher needs to feel it is 100% supportive rather than controlling. Be empathetic. (LV, 9 years as school principal) So If I think of myself previously, I'd just like them, to empathize. (IE P27) Empathy still needed because people are afraid. They're often afraid to use it like they're afraid to make mistakes. They're afraid of, like deleting things. ….. put yourself in their shoes understanding, why? (IE P7) And is that something that's missing within leadership across the sector …. on emotional intelligence …. and the positive relationship. (IE P25) In addition participants described the importance of collaboration Education professionals also need to be able to work collaboratively - with different institutions and with their colleagues (LV in-service teacher 7 years) “It will be important to develop distributed leadership skills to facilitate effective collaboration and teamwork in geographically dispersed digital environments.” (Sp P2) The referred to collaborating with those outside the education sector, e.g. the technology industry and the need to network. The reference to industry and external collaboration implies that fostering interdisciplinary relationships and bringing in outside expertise is an important skill that digital leaders must have. This was particularly prevalent in Ireland where educators are influenced largely by technology companies A big problem faced by the interviewee and his colleagues is the lack of dissemination of materials already developed in Latvia - materials are being developed, but most Latvian teachers do not know that they exist/where they are. For example, there are wonderful, valuable, innovative final papers at the University of Latvia and other universities, but people (teachers, students) are not exposed to them or do not know that they have been created. The participant suggests that there should be a system to ensure that these materials reach teachers - courses, seminars, advertisements, short informative video clips on YouTube - so that education professionals know where to look. (LV in-service teacher 7 years) the school university partnership, the teachers and the teacher educators or the digital technology experts. They need to work in concert with each other and that could be that must be a kind of a continuum. (IE P28) communicating with external bodies that will come in and work with teachers or work with the learning team, or work with management (IE P2) I worked with are one of the lead industry guys that I worked with and we still meet regularly. This is a meaningful relationship and we still meet up maybe every two or three months. So we'll have a chat and like I suppose he would have gone above and beyond to support me. (IE P25) Collaboration was identified as important in a leadership role to avail of a wider range of expertise as it is impossible for one person to have all of the relevant skills. As a leader, realize that they can't do it all, so they'll have to get others on board with them so that it's more of that collaborative piece. (IE P27) Technological language can sometimes disempower individuals and so critical to collaboration is communication, although not a digital skill being able to simplify technology essential to good relationships and creating buy in. This was particularly prevalent for non-English speaking partners who find a lot of technical language is in English