By Shabbi Luthra and Paul Fochtman
Create an empowered team of tech leaders who question, analyze, and
help pave the way to a culture of technology integration at your school.
The Road to Lasting Tech Leadership
As with many schools, tech integration at the American School of Bombay (ASB) was varied and scattered.
We had enthusiastic teachers who used technology
in class, but they were the exception. As a result,
just a small percentage of students experienced
new ways of learning.
We wanted to turn the occasional
use of technology into a widespread and
sustained commitment to new forms of
learning and teaching. We believed that
stakeholder input would be the key to any
initiative that improved learning, and that
stakeholders must be involved in and take
ownership of technology planning. We also
knew that leadership would be critical to
the success of our tech integration.
Even with a clear vision, it would take at least
a couple of years to engage the staff and get them
working collectively. And with the transient nature
of an international school’s students and staff, last-
ing school change would be even more of a challenge
for us. Our tech leaders would have to deal with new
systems and practices, new guidelines and plans, and
conditions for change.
To build ownership of tech integration at the school,
we adopted a distributed leadership approach with these
essential elements:
Technology leadership team
Technology planning
Commitment to fostering change
Test-bed culture
