 Right. Well, a very, very warm welcome to those of you in the room and those online and joining us today. I'm really delighted to be chairing this session. We've got two excellent presentations, and I'm going to hand over to Paulette Maypeace, who is head of Digital Capability at JISC to introduce our session, which is co-presenting with Kaylee Hunt, who is ed tech coordinator and senior tutor at the wonderful National Star College. So I'm going to hand over to Paulette. Thank you, Sarah. So just a warm welcome, Kaylee. It really is a warm welcome at this moment in time. I think it's probably about 28 degrees out there. And we're really, really excited that you have come to share how you found the digital elevation tool, a real, real help within the college. And your college is quite special, and I think you deal with very special people there as well. And no doubt, as we have your presentation, we're going to learn a little bit more about it. So thank you. And the floor is yours. Thank you for having me. So just a little bit of background about myself. So I've been at National Star for 16 years. And as Paulette was saying, I'm the ed tech coordinator, senior tutor. So I have quite a split sort of role. I was actually going to ask the audience sort of where you were, where you sort of sit, if you're educators, lecturers, or if you're in other sort of establishments, but I think the majority that are in here now are from JISC. So thank you for your support. National Star recently has been engaging with the digital elevation tool, and I'm going to sort of talk about that a little bit going forward. My background has been within FE for the last 16 years. And I've moved from being a teacher in the classroom, looking at the frustrations with technology, looking at the frustrations in terms of how do I get what I want in my classroom up to our leadership teams to talk about where we're going to go in the future and being able to transform some of those decisions. So National Star is an independent specialist provider. We have got about 180 students, some of them are residential, and then we've got about 60 day learners that are with us as well. So there's quite a different dynamic that we have to cater for. Because it is residential, we have to look at that 24 hour waking curriculum. So access to technology is really core to that and being able to make those decisions has sort of been fundamental in engaging with this tool going forward. The college does work with young people with disabilities and associated difficulties. So the technology often requires working with our assistive technologists as well to adapt a lot of the equipment. We've got up on the PowerPoint at the moment is one of our learners that actually uses switches, and he's been sort of learning to engage using sort of eye gaze technology and building towards independence or a greater level of independence. This young man has actually been learning to drive, which wouldn't have been possible previously. And we've been working with occupational therapists because we're quite lucky we have that in house. So if you're an assistive technologist, if it's going to IST at the end, we tend to have it in house. So we're very, very privileged in terms of where we come from and being able to talk. But what we are welcoming is the opportunity for people to come to us collaborate with us. And I'm going to talk about that partnership that we have with just where we've been able to work together and take things further. This video should start. I think one of the best parts about that video is that Hannah was actually able to say using her eye gaze at the end. It was easy peasy lemon squeezy and it was hilarious at the time during the filming. Because Hannah, at the beginning was really not very comfortable with learning to drive. She quite enjoyed having the comfort of a one to one that was dedicated and with her. And it was quite scary to be independent to be able to control her own wheelchair. What it is doing is giving her options going forward where the college is able to go right because we've identified this young person needs this technology. It's going to be people in place in roles to be able to support her going forward. And it isn't just going to be an assistive technologist is going to be people that are looking for innovations that going to have to work with external companies. And that sort of brings us back to where the digital elevation tool sort of identifies where you are currently. And it then talks about how you're going to make those next steps your transitions to being in the stages of elevating transform. The video has a lot of sort of messages in there in terms of technology and where we're able to go with things. The room is full of technologists I don't need to sort of scream about how good technology is. However, what I will say is that without the student being at the heart of everything. A lot of this doesn't really happen doesn't have a lot of purpose so I will always celebrate the student choosing what they want for technology and therefore it shaping what is, we are then engaging in doing with others. The digital elevation tool is probably only appropriate I really talk about how it actually works. So there is the self assessment at the beginning. It's really important at this stage to be honest as to where you are. When I did this I originally sold it to my senior leadership team said right. I'm going to use some of you as part of this. Now if you don't know the answer to this it's not a test. I talked to them at the time there was a film that came out called Maverick and people at the time in our place weren't that keen on moving technology forward or certainly spending money towards technology. This gave me an in to start talking about how can I use this tool that we were able to engage with to benchmark us, provide data, and actually say this is where we're at this is where we want to be this is where you're going to tell me you want us to be. You're going to be able to give them that information I did use it using Maverick so talked about AI with Val Kilmer, not actually being able to speak and AI composing his words so he could contribute back into that film. And I had their attention at that point and technology became everybody's friend in the room, and we didn't have anybody that was a burst of technology. It then meant we could move into the next phase where we started building an action plan as a team, I was then able to start bringing in a team. I was able to also confirm my role. It meant my role had a purpose, and it meant I was starting to build what people are calling a digital strategy. I was able to start going right this is where we're at this is where we want to go. And that moved us into so how we were going to advance our organization I know on here it says college and we've got an audience of some universities. And that's where we started to colleges. For us, having that action plan and knowing where we were going to go then did create roles. It also meant other people's roles needed to adapt to fit where we were going to be going. The trendy word agile is used quite often with this. However, Andrew did write the agile college, and I would encourage you to read that piece where this digital elevation tool actually sits really well with it and it helps your college move or your organization to change things. It was something that for us had a tremendous impact and that's probably why I'm here talking about it today because it meant we were able to make decisions based on recommendations based on what others are doing. We were able to compare with others. We had scales against other schools and colleges that we knew had used it within the community that we were able to talk to and actually say, we're interested in this because how have you done this we're really struggling with this Do not we're actually really good at this you could do it this way and that community learning became incredibly powerful with this tool. So, I've talked about the senior leadership team. It also influenced the culture, not in terms of the whole organizational culture because we've always had quite a proactive view around assistive technology. We've changed the organization culture of change and moving forward. Everybody here has talked about the pandemic and the changes that happen there for us. We haven't seen a lot of the looking back. Everything is still luckily going forward. I think that's a lot to do with the DET tool, because we've got a plan going forward. It is step by step is reliant on me and others I've asked to to keep going back and checking where we are. And that's good because it does mean I've got a benchmark every time that I do it, and therefore I've got a way of reporting something without doing a finger in the wind guests, or going, oh look, there's some shiny new tech and nobody's using it. I haven't actually ended up having any tech that's come in that we haven't then used because of this. There's been a better case study, or there's been a better purpose behind that tech thanks to this. I've got a digital strategy, and I will say I've probably ripped it up, maybe three or four times, because it is agile it's had to be. And anybody who says to me, I wrote it in 2017 or wrote it in 2022. If you're not looking at it all the time I would say it's out of date already. So ours is a live working document, and it is something that I would say I'm probably visiting once a week in my role. I think for our leaders, but it's something that I certainly report against all the time. And those facts and figures that go forward that inform our self area assessments towards the end of the year are also contributing towards it. I would say there's been a change for our staff and students, our staff are now aware that we have an area and a team of people that are technology focused, and that want to bring things forward. We're starting to do more with others. And we're starting to be able to stand out as an expert, and be able to say we are an expert in this field because, and it's been backed up by what is that we're doing, but it's, it's having the data to also prove that it's successful. And it's been a good step. I've talked lots and lots about data, but I don't want to say too much more on other than it does give you lots to look at. It does give you the distance traveled. And it's something that we also used in our recent off study inspection. So that was great. Okay, so where we're sort of going with it. I've talked about the community group that we're part of. I would really encourage everybody to use this and guests involved within the community group. There's as much learning to take from the community, as there is from actually using the tool. A lot of things that I've done within the community has then involved teams meetings teams messages where we've collaborated about our digital strategies we've talked about how who did you get to write it within your organization who is responsible for looking at this document that could become quite quickly very onerous. If you aren't looking at it in the correct way. It has given us steps and recommendations that then have impacted other strategies that we've written. So actually, it isn't just a standalone document. It continues to give us those reports that were able to review. I did put this one at the bottom a little bit contentious. It is a persuasive tool as well. I found that when we have had an area within the college that has perhaps been funded quite heavily recently, and then the attention moves to another area say a new build happens we've just had a new assessment suite built that other area that was perhaps in the community, then perhaps doesn't have all of those things and it's very difficult to maintain keeping that attention as a whole. So what we have been trying to do is always reflect it back to the DET tool about where that area has been working where this new areas come on board and how do we maintain those allow and because it's a benchmarking tool I can take it right back to the very beginning and just make sure that we're still maintaining that rather than going back to where we don't have that we are always taking that next step. So this is some pictures of some of the recent things that we've been involved in. We've got quite involved in eSports recently. It's become something we don't have a specific course around eSports, but it's meant that we've been able to champion our students they've been a on the BBC in the top picture. So one in the bottom where one of my students is holding up his teddy bear. They went to a tournament they played against able bodied people in eSports, so they were using adaptive controllers but the people who they were playing against didn't know. They were on the level playing field and that in specialist education is rare where you can be on the same playing field as somebody who's able bodied. Admittedly, my team did lose, but that also gave us another learning opportunity, but it was good you could see how much this young person really enjoyed it in there. On in the picture on your far right is some wearable technology. We've been looking up at it's called a molly suit with a young person. So it's about stimulation of muscles to help reduce involuntary movement to help prevent movement so we're feeding if there's additional shaking, but this DD tool has given us the opportunity to be able to start looking at this. This is involved our physiotherapists and occupational therapists. So as you can see, everybody in the picture smiling technology is improving lives here. So we have a commitment to technology now. So this is one of the students again in the molly suit in a walking frame. He has a vision to he's getting married first of all I should probably give you that context. He has a vision to walk down the aisle he is a power chair user. So he's independent on college can drive himself, but he wants to walk. He wants to be able to have that muscle strength to be able to walk. This is where we're hoping to get him towards it. The QR code that I've included on the end includes some other videos would encourage you to look at those it's just a playlist of some of the assistive technology that we've sort of been working on things that we would like to invite you to collaborate with us on going forward if you think we can improve come and chat to us let us know we are open both directions. So on top of the news we have recently into sad news lost our previous principle Catherine Rudd. She worked for us for 16 years. Brilliant brilliant principle had students and technology so about the heart of what she was trying to do as our leader. She went on to go and work at Ofsted. There's one of his Majesty senior inspectors. However, part of her legacy she has invited people to contribute to technology at National Star College. So she has made a it's called the Catherine Rudd opportunity fund. The money that is donated through that will then lead to being spent on technology that will then directly impact our young people at all of our sites and not just the Cheltenham site but the ones across the country. We also have sites in Wales. So I would encourage you to have a look at that. If you know anybody that would like to contribute, even if it's collaboration. But I can't stress enough the digital elevation tool got us on track with a lot of these things and it's certainly something that we will keep revisiting as hopefully technology at National Star grows and we can impact more and share with others. Thank you very much. Thank you that was really inspirational and having visited the college many years ago I absolutely can see the value that technology has been having and how that journey has evolved. We have got time I think for one or two questions. I've got some but I'll open it up to the floor first, Becky. So I just repeat the question just for our online listeners. So the question was, did you have any staff that were perhaps a bit more resistant to using the DT tool. And if so, how did you overcome that. Great question. We did. And I, I saw it coming quite early on. So actually what I did was I invited person X who was going to be filling out in the different sections within there to sit with me at the time. I was the one also reading the question so if they didn't understand some of the language that was in there, because I have the technology background I was able to explain. But if it was obviously didn't understand it went into the don't know we clearly needed to work on it. There were times when we were looking at the tool, and there's an option of not started yet or not a priority. So actually that meant people had to make decisions. And sometimes when you're perhaps sat with a leader, and they're put in that position they have to make that decision there and then. So it can become uncomfortable but it's something that needs to be done, because those decisions are really important to make, and it really does give you the absolute truth when it comes out with benchmarking at the end. Yes, the word difficult questions. But they were welcomed when they had the feedback at the end of, you know, I really wasn't aware that we needed to improve this it really highlighted maybe some complacencies, perhaps that we didn't know we had. And I think that that's good in any organization to really delve into the, you know, we're great at this note, according to this we need to improve. Thank you. Well, let's So I've got a question for you and I will do the loud voice so that Sarah doesn't have to repeat now. So the digital elevation tool has got five key themes. Yeah. It's can be quite daunting when you're starting out. Is there one thing that you picked on to start with. Where was your starting point. And the question is, why did you choose that. I went with the underpinning technologies initially, because that was where I wanted to know the home tree is sort of at the time I was in a seconded position I was working as an attack demonstrator on the attack demonstrated program partnered with the heart of Worcestershire college so it meant we were quite new into the whole field of technology. We'd always looked internally rather than as to what other people were doing. So, starting in tech, I went with the easiest option first of all to build my confidence, when I was perhaps going to be sitting with our then CEO at the time, or others within the organization to go. Tell me what you think we're like in technology against these criteria. So I went with the easiest first for confidence, then perhaps get that initially. And that's more of a. I needed to know more about what it is that I wanted to achieve whilst doing it. And it, I then changed it for when I asked the next person of right. Tell me what your goals are based on this, where do you want, where do you think we are where do you want to be, and then use that to answer against and it helped people have more of a focus when they were answering their questions. Because I was out with them meant that they weren't just choosing the boxes to select. They were actually giving me insights and examples because they're educators of where they felt that was and it became a discussion that was incredibly healthy and it meant technology was being discussed by everybody. It was a real sort of buzz at the time that I'm smiling about it because I clearly enjoyed that that opportunity so I get this out every now and then when I think technology needs another boost as well as using it as the reporting. Are there any other questions I've got, I've got a question. So, when would you see yourself revisiting those questions and redoing that because obviously you've mentioned it's a good baseline of where you're at, but then you've also got the evidence, haven't you when you do it again of just how far you've you've moved. Any ideas yet when because I recognize it's a big commitment isn't it that works. It is a commitment. So I was setting myself to go through two topics every half term. Right. With a view to making sure that I was talking to different people within that area so if I had targeted talking to our senior leadership team, I was then going and talking to our therapy team the next time so I was getting different perspectives and looking at how the impact of those leadership decisions will being impacted into everyday use of that technology or the decisions that have been made going forward. So I've tried to make it go across. There was no rules in there so it can be completely bespoke. And I would encourage that because everybody's going to use this differently. I just think you've got to use it to know where to start with it really. Well, if you can join me in just thanking Kenny that was an excellent presentation and really excited I think to see how your journey continues and further sharing of practice which I know we'll be doing so thank you so much and thank you for that.