Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Change - Assignment #2
“What started out as a personal use of
technology has become systemic to every facet of leadership. Digital leadership
can thus be defined as establishing direction, influencing others, and initiating
sustainable change through the access of information, and establishing relationships
in order to anticipate changes pivotal to school success in the future.” Pillars of Digital Leadership, Eric
Sheninger
The quote above, from Pillars of Digital Leadership by Eric
Sheninger, really defines how technology has influenced both schools and
leadership within schools over the years. I feel that if you, as a leader, are
ignoring the influences of technology on your leadership then you are not being
a forward thinking leader. Immediately, as a leader, your most important job is
to ensure that innovations involving technology are open, available and
encouraged. In the video on the Secrets of Change, the three main qualities of
leadership are defined as hope, a selfless attitude, and a love for learning.
That last quality is what separates innovative leaders from status quo leaders.
In today’s world, life long learning is realized through exploring new
technology and new ways to engage students.
Standard four encourages leadership through
the effective use of technology resources. A huge part of this is money
management and being able to effectively and efficiently spend your budget.
This is the largest caution in the change process that needs to be realized
because if you make an investment that ends up not being utilized by staff,
then you have not created a sustainable change. This can be avoided through a
lot of piloting, grant writing, committee work and following a strict cycle of
analysis that takes teacher opinions and student data into high consideration.
The most immediate step that a leader
can take is to become knowledgeable and comfortable with types of technology
that you think will benefit the school or technology that staff has shown an
interest in. Knowing what is available in terms of funds and resources is vital
for a leader to be able to answer questions about what is possible. The
specific details of what types of technology you would explore depends heavily
on the environment of your school, what resources are available and what
comfort level your staff has with technology. If you find a resource that you
think would really benefit the staff and the school, then you need to model its
use to your staff in some type of form.
Part D of standard four talks about
developing strategic partnerships to support systematic improvement. This is
another step that is vital to the success of technology implications within
your school. Good partnerships with businesses or staff members who are
knowledgeable and interested in technology are invaluable as you move forward
into digital leadership. Having contacts within the school, district and
community that can support you in your digital leadership will help you to
create sustainable programs that will have far reaching benefits for your
students.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Generational Differences - Assignment #1
The three
readings on Digital Nativism were very thought provoking and voiced some thoughts I have had myself. I disagree that there is a divide between those who
would be considered ‘digital natives’ and those who are not. My mom sold Apple
computers as one of her first jobs right out of college in the 80’s and she has
loved technology ever since. She laments not majoring in some type of
technology based job while she was in college. We had one of the newest macs
when we were growing up and she was always the person we yelled for when the
screen froze. So, I grew up learning technology from my mom, who would not be
considered a digital native, but a digital immigrant. As such, I have a lot of
respect for people who did not grow up with technology, but jump in full
throttle to new technology and work to learn it with joy and interest. I heartily disagree with
defining people as digital immigrants or natives based purely on their age. I
have seen students who struggle with the technology in schools the same way
that adults can struggle. Today’s generation does want to be met
on their level to a certain extent, but I think that they can benefit from learning from other
generations as well. I worry that our students are losing their love of
learning due to the easy access of information. Students are not as willing to
explore multiple modes of gathering information, they are instead content to
click on the first google link that pops up to answer whatever they need.
Being born in 1989, I am a Millennial
and while reading, “Do Generational Differences Matter In Instructional Design?" I found that a lot of the predictions and assumptions that were mad
about Millennials, as a group did not apply to me or my friends who are also
Millnnials. However, I was slightly offended by some of the assumptions made
about digital immigrants in “Digital Natives Digital Immigrants” by Marc
Prensky. He completely seemed to discredit the idea that people who are digital
immigrants would have nothing new to bring to the table and that they, instead
need to adapt to meet the needs of the digital natives. Just as it is with our
current political landscape, this struck me as a very black and white way to
look at the world. The world is colored in shades of grey and the answer is
most always to compromise. We will never grow as a society, or to focus back on
education, as a school if the leader is unwilling to compromise. As a
principal, you need to appreciate what each staff member and student brings to
the table. The staff all brings unique values, skills and opinions to the
table. Your challenge, as a leader, is to bring these differing skills and
backgrounds together to unite towards a common vision or goal.
The
students we teach today are the Sesame Street Generation, and I suppose I am
also a little bit of that as well. They expect learning to be fun, interesting
and delivered in ten second sound bites. The articles discusses this and terms
these students ‘digital natives’. With this, comes amazing innovations in
learning and also new challenges. Students no longer need to use a thesaurus or
a dictionary, yet these are the “approved tools” that they can use on state
testing. There is a distinct need in schools today to reach forward but there
is an anchor tying us to past tools and hindering us from being completely free
with innovations. As a principal, I think that promoting innovations in a
positive way is a really good method to further engaging staff and students
towards new technology.
However,
with new technology comes different legal and social issues as discussed in
standard 5. I think that a really large generational difference that shows now
is how we communicate. Students today are more comfortable texting and
expressing their feelings over social media than other generations. With social
media, comes cyber bullying and a whole host of discipline issues to deal with
as a principal. However, there are also more tools available to us to train
teachers and to help staff members deal with these issues. So it is not all
bad. Social media also allows students to have an outlet and a way to express
their feelings on current issues. Students are, I think, more interested in
larger social issues than they have been in the past. The question, to me, is
how do we channel their interest into action?
In standard 5, the first part
discusses equitable access for all learners. When I read this, I think not only
of students, but also the adult learners in our buildings. I also see immense
value in the fourth bullet that speaks of modeling the use of contemporary
communication and collaboration tools. A principal not only needs to be an
instructional leader but they also need to be a technological leader. I don’t
mean that the principal should be the technology expert, but they should make
an effort to engage and learn new technology, and that will encourage their
staff to engage as well. As a Principal, it is important to be open to new
ideas and to create a culture within the building where teachers feel safe to
come to you with new ideas without the fear of being told no at every turn. I
believe that teachers, at their core, are innovators and as a leader, it is my
job to encourage this and push teachers to continue to innovate and try new
things to promote student achievement and college/world readiness.
Monday, July 11, 2016
PILOT Self Assessment Results
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