Meet our Director of Innovation and Learning Technology

ntroducing James Dove, Director of Innovation and Learning Technologies

1. Can you share a little about your professional journey and what attracted you to the role of DILT?

My professional journey has always been centred on people, learning, creativity, and building strong school cultures. Over the past 26 years, I have worked across classroom teaching, curriculum leadership, Arts leadership, and whole-school digital strategy, most recently as Digital Learning Coordinator K–12 and Director of Digital Integration at Corpus Christi College.

At Corpus Christi, I worked within a large K–12 community of approximately 1,850 students, which gave me a strong understanding of how digital learning needs to develop progressively across a student’s whole school journey.

A major part of my work has been developing staff capability through coaching, mentoring, and building teams such as Digital Pioneers, Digital Ambassadors, Apple Learning Coaches, and AI Pioneers. These groups helped build a collaborative culture where staff could learn together, try new ideas in their classrooms, and share practical examples with colleagues.

Corpus Christi had been an Apple school since 2011, and I was responsible for leading the Apple Distinguished School re-registration process across 2018–2021, 2021–2024, and 2024–2027. That process was an opportunity to reflect deeply on our practice, document impact, and tell the story of how technology, creativity, staff learning, and student agency were developing across the College.

What attracted me to St Mark’s was the opportunity to bring that experience into a new K–12 community with a clear sense of values and purpose. For me, the DILT role is about supporting teachers, strengthening systems, and ensuring technology serves the real work of education: helping students grow in confidence, wisdom, creativity, responsibility, and connection.

2. What were some highlights of your time at Corpus Christi College?

One of the great highlights of my time at Corpus Christi was seeing staff grow in confidence and begin to lead digital learning themselves. Sustainable change happens when expertise sits close to the classroom, so developing staff teams such as Digital Pioneers, Digital Ambassadors, Apple Learning Coaches, and AI Pioneers was central to the work.

A key part of my work was developing staff teams who could lead digital learning from within the classroom. Through these groups, teachers were supported to learn together, experiment with new approaches, and share practical examples with colleagues. My role was to provide the coaching, structure, and encouragement needed for staff to build confidence. Over time, this helped create a culture where digital learning was collaborative, purposeful, and grounded in real classroom practice.

I am also proud of the College’s ongoing Apple Distinguished School journey. Leading the re-registration process across three cycles required us to keep reflecting on how technology was genuinely supporting learning, creativity, accessibility, and student agency.

Another highlight was helping build a coherent K–12 digital learning pathway. As students moved through the College, they developed skills in video, photography, drawing, music, 3D design, coding, podcasting, and digital storytelling.

For me, the most rewarding part was not one single project or award. It was the culture — seeing staff support one another, mentor colleagues, take risks, and build a shared belief that technology could make learning more creative, inclusive, and meaningful.

3. How have your Arts and educational leadership experiences shaped your approach to teaching and learning?

My background in the Arts taught me that learning is most powerful when people are active participants. Students — and staff — need opportunities to create, rehearse, refine, receive feedback, and share their work with others. That has shaped how I approach professional learning as much as how I approach classroom learning.

I do not believe professional learning should be a one-off event where everyone is expected to move at the same pace. Staff need time, encouragement, coaching, and the chance to apply ideas in their own context. That is why I have always valued mentoring models, coaching cycles, and communities of practice.

A good example of this is my work on the Apple Education Community, including the project**“Let’s Act It Out!”**, which supports senior students to create radio plays using GarageBand while developing voice, character, sound design, editing, mixing, and performance skills.

That project reflects what I value in both teaching and staff development: practical creativity, clear structure, confidence-building, and learning that results in something authentic.

4. What does the Director of Innovation and Learning Technology do?

The Director of Innovation and Learning Technology helps ensure that technology, systems, infrastructure, learning spaces, and professional learning all work together to support excellent teaching and learning.

A key part of the role is staff development. Technology strategy only works when teachers feel confident, supported, and clear about its purpose. In my planning, this means building clear expectations for baseline digital practice, embedding coaching into faculty and team structures, and providing short, contextual professional learning tied directly to classroom need.

The role is also about creating the right culture. That means listening before acting, reducing unnecessary complexity, building trust, and ensuring staff experience clear communication, fewer competing initiatives, and support that feels practical rather than overwhelming.

Ultimately, I see the role as one of service. It is about removing barriers, supporting teachers, strengthening learning and helping students use technology wisely and creatively.

5. What does innovation in education look like to you?

Innovation is not about chasing the newest tool. It is about making learning better.

Sometimes innovation is visible — a creative digital project, a student podcast, an AI-supported workflow, a new learning space, or a micro-credential pathway. But often innovation is quieter. It might be simplifying a process, reducing the number of platforms, improving access for students, or helping a teacher feel more confident with a tool they already have.

I often think about innovation through three connected areas: mindset, skill set, and tool set. Mindset shapes culture, skill set builds capacity, and tool set supports the work — but the tool should never become the work itself. That is why coaching and mentoring matter. Innovation grows best when staff feel safe, supported, respected, and trusted to try things in ways that make sense for their students.

6. How can technology enhance student learning, and how do we manage the challenges?

Technology enhances learning when teachers are confident enough to use it intentionally. The quality of a learning experience depends far less on the tool itself and far more on the teacher’s ability to design meaningful learning.

At, staff development was central to this. By building teams of Digital Pioneers, Digital Ambassadors, Apple Learning Coaches, and AI Pioneers, we supported teachers to help students create through video, photography, drawing, music, 3D design, coding, podcasting, and digital storytelling.

Technology also enhances learning when it supports accessibility. Through Universal Design for Learning, iPad accessibility features, flexible course design, and different entry points into the curriculum, students can access and demonstrate learning in ways that better reflect their strengths.

Of course, technology also brings challenges. It can distract, overwhelm, or create poor habits if not supported by clear expectations and strong teaching. That is why digital citizenship, ethical decision-making, privacy, wellbeing, and balance need to be part of the learning culture.

The answer is not simply more technology or less technology. It is better professional judgement — built through coaching, shared practice, and a clear culture of purposeful use.

7. What trends in educational technology are you most excited about?

I am most excited by technologies that support teachers and strengthen learning rather than adding more noise.

AI is a major area of interest. I see AI as a possible strategic work partner for teachers — supporting planning, feedback, differentiation, resource design, administration, and workflow — but it must be introduced carefully and transparently. At St Mark’s, my approach is to introduce AI slowly, within clear boundaries, and with strong attention to pedagogy, assessment, security, and purpose.

I am also excited by creative learning tools and global educator communities. Apple’s Everyone Can Create resources support teachers to bring drawing, photography, music, video, and podcasting into everyday lessons, helping students become creators rather than just consumers.

The most exciting technology is not always the newest. It is the technology that helps teachers teach well, students express their thinking, and learning become more accessible, creative, and human.

8. What skills do students need to thrive in the future?

Students need more than content knowledge. They need to apply knowledge, transfer it, question it, create with it, and use it ethically in unfamiliar situations.

Frameworks such as Melbourne Metrics are helpful because they identify complex competencies such as acting ethically, active citizenship, agency in learning, communication, collaboration, quality thinking, and personal development. These broaden our understanding of student success beyond traditional marks and grades.

This aligns strongly with the World Economic Forum’s future skills, including analytical thinking, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility, technological literacy, AI and big data, curiosity, lifelong learning, leadership, and social influence.

For me, students need:

• Agency — knowing how to learn, not just what to learn.
• Ethical judgement — making responsible decisions in digital and human spaces.
• Quality thinking — analysing, questioning, and improving ideas.
• Creativity — generating and expressing new possibilities.
• Collaboration and communication — working well with others.
• Technological fluency — using AI and digital tools wisely and critically.
• Resilience — adapting to change with confidence.

But students only develop these skills when teachers are supported to design learning that makes them visible. Staff capability and student capability are connected. If we want students to become confident, ethical, creative users of technology, we need to invest deeply in teachers as designers of learning.

9. What have been your first impressions of the St Mark’s community?

My first impressions of St Mark’s have been very positive. What has stood out most is the warmth of the community and the professionalism of the staff.

I have noticed a genuine care for students and a willingness among staff to reflect and improve. That is an excellent foundation for innovation, because change works best in a culture of trust.

On a personal level, I feel grateful to be joining St Mark’s at this point in its journey. There is already a strong foundation, and I am looking forward to learning from the people here before shaping next steps. My early focus is to listen carefully, understand staff needs, recognise existing strengths, and build confidence gradually.

The aim is not to add pressure or create another layer of work. It is to build shared capability over time, with staff feeling supported, heard, and involved in the direction of innovation and learning technology.

10. What are you most looking forward to achieving in your first year?

In my first year, I am most looking forward to building relationships and developing a sustainable staff development model.

My priority is to understand staff needs first. That means listening, auditing classroom practice, identifying existing strengths, and understanding where staff feel confident and where they need support. I do not believe in rolling out large initiatives before people are ready.

The first-year plan is deliberately sequenced. Early work focuses on listening, auditing, relationship-building, and leadership alignment. The middle phase focuses on quick wins and coaching pilots in willing teams. Later work focuses on broader practice expectations and sharing early exemplars without mandating them.

I want to establish coaching-support routines, develop Learning Coaches and Digital Learning roles, and build a culture where staff feel they are learning with someone beside them, not being judged from above. In my view, we do not rush consensus — we build confidence.

11. Outside of work, what are some of your interests?

Outside of school, music and creative community are a big part of my life. I DJ on RTRFM, including shows such as Rock Rattle and Roll and Soul Sides, and my wife Jemima and I run a creative collective called The DOVECOTE.

Radio and creative work keep me connected to music, storytelling, audience, culture, and community. They also feed back into how I think about education and leadership. Whether working with a radio audience, a staff team, or a classroom of students, you need to listen carefully, understand the people in front of you, and create the conditions for connection.

12. What might people be surprised to learn about you?

People might be surprised by how much of my life outside school is connected to music and creative community.

I am a DJ on RTRFM, presenting on Rock Rattle and Roll and Soul Sides, and my wife and I run The DOVECOTE, a creative collective built around music, art, culture, and bringing people together.

That creative work is a big part of who I am. It also connects with my work in schools. A good learning culture, like a good creative community, depends on trust, rhythm, voice, listening, and shared energy.

Whether I am mentoring staff, developing Digital Ambassadors, working with students, contributing to Apple resources, speaking at an education event, or playing records on air, I am interested in the same thing: helping people connect with ideas, with each other, and with what they can create.

A final thought for our teaching community

If there is one thing I would want staff to know, it is this: innovation should not feel like another demand. Done well, it should create clarity, confidence, and possibility.

My approach is to lead alongside staff — listening first, building trust, supporting practical growth, and celebrating thoughtful practice. Technology should never be the centre of the story. Teachers and students are the centre of the story. Technology is there to support the learning, the relationships, the creativity, and the community we are building together. I want everyone to love what they do with technology.