Creating a staff demand for professional development
Using Workspace Skills to support teachers in an international school.
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Background
Jerudong International School (JIS) is a co-educational day and boarding school in Brunei, Southeast Asia. There are over 1680 students and more than 200 staff members. JIS has offered a British International Education since January 1997.
Teacher Rollout
JIS Head of Digital Learning, Jon Kitchin, first heard about Workspace Skills after he became a Google Certified Trainer. He signed up for the Google Certified Trainer/Innovator/Coach Workspace Skills offer in June 2021, allowing free access for up to 50 teachers. He offered Workspace Skills to his 200 teachers on a first-come, first-served basis. He had a waitlist within a week. JIS converted to a full domain in August in order to allow more access.
Jon liked the fact that his teachers could dip in and out as they needed as the tutorials do not need to be completed in a linear manner. Users can complete the tutorials in any order and an unlimited number of times. JIS also uses Workspace Skills to support incoming teachers. Teachers who join a school using Google Workspace often need to increase their skills to be able to use the tools effectively. The tutorials are shared with teachers via Google Classroom before arriving in Brunei, allowing the school to offer training to new staff no matter when they join. Ed, one of Jon’s teachers really liked earning badges and said, “the reward to a badge upon completion of each section is a fantastic motivator and really kept me engaged throughout. I genuinely looked forward to each new section and wanted to learn to be at my best.”
Impact
Jon and Jerudong International School have approached using Workspace Skills tutorials with a self-self paced flipped approach. Staff meetings are not focused on completing the tutorials, but teachers bring questions, challenges, and things they learned to the meetings. Jon believes that Professional Development should not be approached from a one size fits all model and using Workspace Skills allows for differentiation, a flipped approach, and allows for asynchronous learning for teachers.
Next Steps
In the future the school plans to use the tutorials to support administrative staff, before moving on to older students, helping them all to make the most of Google Workspace for Education.