For three years now, Scott McLeod has called on ed tech bloggers to participate in what he has dubbed Leadership Day. On his blog Dangerously Irrelevant ( http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2009/07/calling- all-bloggers-leadership-day-2009.html), he asks bloggers to post “something related to effective school technology leadership: successes, challenges, reflections, needs, wants.” His purpose is simple: Many of our school leaders need help when it comes to digital technologies. A lot of help, to be honest. As I’ve noted again and again on this blog, most school administrators don’t know:
• What it means to prepare students for the 21st century
• How to recognize, evaluate, and facilitate effective technology use by students and teachers
• What appropriate technology support structures (budget,
staffing, infrastructure) look like
• How to use modern technologies to facilitate communication with internal and external stakeholders
• The ways in which learning technologies can improve
student learning outcomes
• How to use technology systems to make their organizations more efficient and effective
beatBLOGGERS
Some Advice for Education Leaders
Just keep coming back to it. There will be highs and
lows, successes and flops, because that’s the way things
are. Build capacity. Promote self-directed innovation. Recognize that systemic change takes time.
—Jeanette Johnson, From the Principal’s Desk
http://principalblogs.typepad.com/jeanettejohnson/
2009/07/ leadership-day-2009.html
McLeod’s post prompted 44 bloggers to take the challenge. Here are some excerpts:
One of the most important things that administrators
can do is ask for help. My principal and vice principal
are still learning, and I think the progress they’ve made
this year is because they were willing to say, “ I’d like
to be able to do this. Can you help?” or “Can you show
me how to ....”
It is important that new concepts are understood but
equally important is that leaders gain new skills and
demonstrate they are willing to be less than expert
while endeavouring to learn. We all need to be open
and perhaps be a little incompetent just for a while as
we model what it means to lead—and learn.
—Darcy Moore, Learning & Collaborating
http://darcymoore.net/2009/07/13/leadership-day-2009
—Janice Robertson
http://web.me.com/janicerobertson/Site/Musings/
Entries/2009/7/ 12_Leadership_Day.html
I think administrators can be effective technology
leaders without blogging, podcasting, or even having a
Twitter account. What is important is for administrators to understand the potential and power of these
tools and value their use for students and teachers.
—Judith Epcke, Edtechapalooza
http://edtechapalooza.wordpress.com
© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/CHIHHANG
Administrators must nurture and encourage teachers
as learners. They must ensure that teachers have the
proper support so that when they do learn to use a
new piece of technology, it is working consistently. If
administrators truly transformed the school into a rich
learning environment for teachers and students, the
technology use would naturally begin to fall into place.
—Kelly Tenkely, iLearn Technology
http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=997
The paranoid and alarmist responses I’ve most often heard coming from parents and administrators
seem to be the result of considering the worst-case
scenario. I would ask all of you who are in a position
to support educational technology to ask yourself
not, “What’s the worst that can happen?” but rather,
“What’s the best that can happen?” Chances are that
reality will lie somewhere in between.
—Damian Bariexca, Apace of Change
www.apace-ofchange.com/2009/07/12/leadership-day-2009
