Reflection #1 - Digital Leadership

Eric Sheninger very completely discusses the need for teachers and leaders to grow with the technology that is changing our world. Over the course of his book, he outlines how he sees the next generation of digital leaders interacting with technology. He focuses on being very clear that there is no room for excuses about not wanting to get involved with technology; the time is now.

A lot of the ideals of leadership that he discussed aligned with what I have learned over the course of my program. Digital leaders need to be transparent, build relationships, communicate clearly, and lead with vision. All of these themes connect to strong leaders and are echoed in Sheninger’s writing. I believe there is a lot of fear associated with technology because every person has had a negative experience with technology either personally or professionally. To overcome those fears, teachers need a strong leader who is passionate about technology within a school. Through the use of the seven pillars outlined in Digital Leadership, Sheninger outlines a step by step process for leaders to attack change head on within their buildings.

Sheninger outlines teacher responsibilities as digital leaders and principal responsibilities. For teacher responsibilities, the biggest take away for me is about the idea of digital citizenship. Students have access to so much technology today and they are constantly exploring the next ‘new thing’ without a lot of thought for potential consequences. Schools are slowly catching up to what students are doing and disciplining them when appropriate, but we are not teaching students what it means to be digital citizens. The future of this world is in technology and if we are not teaching our students to take care of it, then we are not preparing them to be citizens of the world. If we do not grow and include digital citizenship as a pillar of conversation within our classes, then we are doing our students a huge disservice. To create authentic student engagement with technology, we must teach them that their digital footprint will not go away. They need to be asked what type of digital footprint do they really want to leave on the world? As educators at all levels, we need to then provide them an opportunity to leave a positive digital footprint.

As a building leader, the most important part of digital leadership is creating meaningful teacher professional development and building PLN’s around this work. As Sheninger states in chapter 8, it is vital that leaders also have their own PLN with other leaders. “It is the consistent give and take at the individual level that makes a collective PLN exponentially stronger, more knowledgeable, and wiser. Why would any leader refuse th[is] opportunity?” (Sheninger p.119, 2014). As leaders work to grow their own capacity around technology, they are becoming digital leaders for their staff. Through interactions with their own peers, leaders are more encouraged to take risks and lead their staff into a digital change.

Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.