We are part of something big

It takes a village to raise a child. 

My story with Aginic began late 2019. At the time I wanted to return back to engineering roots and focus more on doing great things with technology. I found Aginic through a friend from engineering and immediately I was drawn to the place for two reasons:

• They shared values that I have admired in previous jobs I have worked in.
• It was clear that everyone had a deep drive to create change using data and technology. 

A couple months after starting, I came into the eDash project with the Northern Territory Department of Education (NT DoE). By then, the project itself was entering its 3rd year of delivery and the eDash platform had established its reputation in the NT as a platform that helped teachers, principals and school staff see their students’ data in one place. 

As I continued the eDash journey, I have seen the evolution of the platform and how it transformed to not only help school staff but department staff, of whom use the platform for school improvement initiatives and continual reporting.

Throughout this project I was able to see the immediate impact eDash had on people who used the platform. However, the true value of what we have built became more apparent after the production release of the “Transitioning Delve Dashboard” in late 2020.  This dashboard aimed to identify students who were at risk of not transitioning successfully from primary school to high school.

Kate, a Network Leader, shared her experience using the Transitioning Delve dashboard and how it enabled NT DoE and a middle school to create specific classes for students who were at risk of not completing their Year 12 NTCET journey. Through the collaboration with NT DoE and the school, these students were treated as individuals and were provided the specific help each one needed to continue their Year 12 NTCET journey. Every student in this middle school who required assistance were placed in a senior secondary college. 

One thing struck me deeply when hearing this story. What if these children were missed and were not placed in a senior secondary college? These children may live a very different life after school, and potentially live a life a lot worse off because they would have not been flagged as students who need help.

As a developer, we develop great things and solve problems. Do it long enough and it becomes harder to truly appreciate the impacts we make on the world around us, especially if the impacts are on the little people that sit in classrooms each day. I am reminded that what we build today can spark a significant change for tomorrow, sometimes going so far to say that the work we do now could spark a generational change for both kids and society in NT as a whole.

I am also reminded that eDash is a tool that people like Kate use to create this change. The fact that we have the ability to enable the adults of today to better support the adults of tomorrow is truly a surreal and satisfying feeling. 

We are a piece of the modern day village that helps raise children of today to be the leaders of tomorrow. Our contribution developing eDash may seem small in the grand scheme of things, but no matter how you look at it, we are part of something big.