Redefining how staff collaborate

Using Google Sites and Drive school wide. 

Arriving at ENPS in late 2014 I was asked to think about how staff share curriculum and documents. Even in my first few weeks my inbox would quickly fill up with information from others that wanted to share it, and on occasions I had so many versions of files I was confused as to which one I was meant to be using!  So what do you do when staff want to be connected, long to share documents and have been craving somewhere to share and store their goodies? You get Google site making. 

This was a journey, as the school was already signed up for Google Apps for Ed and a lone ranger had been exploring and trialling a few sites with staff previously, however it was all new to me. In short this is how I went about it:

1. Study what exist already. I visited, pushed buttons and used the features of the existing server, existing intranet and visited the existing Google sites.  
2. Spoke to and took notes from key stakeholders - the Assistant Principal, the teachers (all Year levels and specialists) and the Admin staff were not always sure what they wanted, but they did know what they did not want and this was great data to start with. 
3. Establish a 3 concept design brief -  SIMPLE TO USE - HARD TO STUFF UP - SCHOOL WIDE TRANSPARENT
4. Get building!  
5.  Get staff onto it, support them to use it and then use feedback 6 months in to refine it, grown it, tweak it. 

You can see a quick tour of the ENPS Staff Hub here to the left.

To help staff access and use the ENPS Staff Hub I had to think creatively. You see I was not on hand to help them every time they had a request so I needed to support staff to use it and be empowered to teach others also. Based on the just in time PD model I developed and offered the following professional learning opportunities;

• Whole Staff PD sessions showcasing the first features to be unveiled Padlet live update bulletin  and embedded Google Calendar 
• Techie Breakky sessions to support staff accessing Hub and using basic features. These were matched to the staff who attended starting points so varied in content. 
• Techie Breakky sessions for advanced users to share the role of Admin with a group of staff who could support each other and their peers 
• Modelling how to use it just in time with teams who are running meetings or planning timelines, curriculum or other exciting teacher things 
• Creation and sharing of site map, protocols for adding sections as well as instructions to Admin users to help with long term use and development 
• Creation of Staff Hub iBook to help users learn at their point of need - featuring step by step instructions, movies and labelled diagrams! 

See the iBook here - ENPS Staff Hub iBook or watch a quick flick through below