I really enjoyed Emily and Trevor’s video and article about leadership in education relating to technology. It really struck home with me because eventually down the road I would like to enter administration and give it a shot. I believe being current and versed in technology is going to be a key aspect of becoming an effective leader as more and more technology will be entering the education world.

 

In the video, Emily highlighted the importance of bringing up new conversations about the role of technology and how it impacts our schools. Not only from a classroom level but also on a school culture level. As a leader, it is essential to be able to form a positive culture in a school. There are so many variants that are at play and there is no one equation for creating a positive school environment. How does one create a positive outlook on technology in a school?

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In the write up and  video, they mention that leadership should always be taking the temperature of the teachers’ values and beliefs about technology in their classrooms. Speaking from my personal experience, this can vary, especially in the world that has teachers who are cemented in their ways and find it hard to deviate. In high school, technology is generally a way of life but I have found that in an elementary setting, this is not always the case. It is an interesting time in elementary schools because there are many teachers (mostly older teachers) who have not grown up with technology and have not learned how technology can effectively be integrated in the classroom. As a result, they steer away from it. They can still be very skilled and masterful teachers but are lacking the know-how or attitude to allow the change to happen. This can leave the leadership of the school in a tricky situation. Administration carries the role of changing and forming school culture to resemble a school community that reflects the changing times. 

 

Another point that stuck out for me,  is the decisions that leadership have to make, that shapes the physical landscape of technology in a school. For instance, what new technology to buy, programs to subscribe to or the new gadgets to test. Leadership also has to determine whether a certain form of technology or program aligns with their school and student goals, and what the long term advantages or disadvantages of the decision to bring that technology into the school might be. Although, I am sure that there are many conversations and policies that surround these decisions, ultimately the administration has to make the final decision on a school to school basis.   

 

One circumstance that jumps out at me during my time in school was the integration of SMART boards into the classroom. At one point they were the latest and greatest new thing that would change how the classroom functioned. In some circumstances, teachers used them effectively but many SMART boards quickly became inanimate objects in the everyday classroom. I know this is a generalization but it just provides an example of how upper leadership did not necessarily implement and address the policy needed to create a positive and effective culture toward SMART boards. 

 

In the video, they recount that it takes time to explore and vet programs to fully understand and appreciate them. This goes for students as well. Effectively integrating technology into the classroom takes a team. It relies around people sharing their experiences, successes and failures. It requires colleagues helping each other and taking the time to show each other the nuances of the new technology. It also just takes time to explore and find out how the technology can benefit you personally in your classroom because every classroom is a living organism and one classroom might need one thing to thrive and another might need something completely different.  These ideas fall under the positive and constructive principle of this paper. 

 

I also appreciated the model on how to implement technology into a school. I already touched on the importance of focusing on the positives and how sharing people’s experiences is essential to building a positive culture around technology in a school. The question that stuck out to me was the question of ”imagine…what if”?

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The implementation of technology requires a long term lens of a problem instead of short sighted one, and this is a necessary quality of leadership and should be a large part of educational policy. I can see this in my district as they are pushing hard for 1:1 technology ratios in elementary classrooms and trying to utilize all the tools (talk to text, predictive spelling, etc.) to help students become adept with technology. I hope it continues but there is always obstacles such as money and overall acceptance of the ideas in everyone’s personal teaching practice. 

 

The last part is just trying to innovate and take action. In the video they outline that taking small steps and trying things out is how change is made. It can’t happen all at once but has to be made steadily and effectively. By teachers taking risks and trying new things in their classrooms instead of just reverting back to what they know, this gives an opportunity to change the school culture and best practices in the learning environment. I also know that most of the time the students can teach us along the way and surprisingly show us that they already are more adept than the teacher and become the expert and show the class their point of view. Many paths extend outwards, it just depends on how we want to approach them!  

Cover Page

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Voogt, G. Knezak, R. Christensen, & K-W, Lai (Eds.) Second Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education, pp. 3-12. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71054-9]