This blog is designed to assist educators with questions pertaining to the introduction of educational technology in the classroom.
Sunday, May 2, 2021
Educational Technology Leaders: Every Bit Counts!
Every bit counts. Will you be the one or the zero?
What does
it mean to be a technology leader? To me, it means not waiting for someone else
to do a job you know would help others. My continuing education at the
University of Montevallo exposed me to the ISTE Standards for Education
Leaders. What is ISTE, you may ask? ISTE is the International Society for
Technology in Education. More specifically, I think of standard 3D for
educational leaders which states, "Support educators in using technology
to advance learning that meets the diverse learning, cultural, and
social-emotional needs of individual students" (ISTE, 3 Empowering Leader).
ISTE is not the only area for guidance; educational leaders look to the
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). Educational technology "leaders have the responsibility to encourage and support teachers to integrate technology in learning and to teach especially when the Internet of Things is rapidly making its way into classrooms in ways never before imagined" (Raman & Thannimalai, 2019, p. 1). I chose to embark on an idea to assist my school district's social science educators. My idea to support social science educators across the district fell into the arena of strategic planning within the CoSN Leadership
and Vision framework to "integrate technology with curriculum and instruction to provide an appropriate teaching and learning environment" (Consortium for School Networking, 2018, p. 4).
Every path leads somewhere.
How do we
decide the direction of technology in each school district? This may seem like
an easy question, but is it? Yes, we have technology plans and directives for
technology delineated through the technology ranks within each school district,
but I believe there is room for latitude. School districts need their
technology coordinators to take directives and also bridge unforeseen gaps to
help the educators they serve. Every educational technology leader realizes "technology should be utilized to innovate learning and teaching experiences in classrooms" (Raman & Thannimalai, 2019, p. 10). I decided to help the social science educators
within my district, and I took steps toward a larger role as a technology
leader. Please do not think I act as a maverick, I adhere to technology plans
and my administrator, just as anyone else does. I took the initiative to fill a
need of my fellow social science educators within my school district.
See a need, fill a need!
Like many
school districts during COVID19, the educators in my district were compiling as
many digital resources as possible for our learning management system (LMS),
Schoology. Schoology permitted educators to link their Google Drive, and this
is what caused my eureka moment. I had four years of digital resources to share
for grades nine, ten, and eleven. I also had traveled the school district
providing Google Classroom training in the years before Schoology. I chose
to create digital resources aligned by curriculum and began to reach out to
secondary schools in the district. It was not enough to just share files; I began to create resources for differentiated instruction, reading materials,
and assessments. What started as just trying to help turned into educators
calling me to thank me for what I was doing. The Google Drive files became a
repository for educators to share their information with others as well. Over
time, every social science educator of 9th, 10th, and 11th-grade was incorporated into the
larger group.
Educators Running to Technology
Again, what
is an educational leader? Educational
leaders understand "transforming schools into digital-age places of
learning requires leadership from people who can accept new challenges and
embrace opportunities, which is at the heart of digital leadership"
(Sheninger, 2019, p. 79). I want to be an educational technology leader, but I
still have far to go. Creating the shared Google Drive and digital resources
turned into a professional learning network (PLN), but I didn't know if it would work. I am very thankful educators in my district were willing to try
something new. Communication among peers and sharing resources show that PLNs
enable "leaders to harness the power inherent in innovative technologies
in order to create a professional growth tool that is accessible whenever and
wherever necessary" (Sheninger, 2019, p. 150). Did everything go smoothly
with the creation of our PLN? No, but that is a blog post for a later time.
References
Consortium for School Networking. (2018). Framework of Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO. cosn.org.https://www.cosn.org/sites/default/files/Framework%20December%202018.pdf
ISTE Standards
for Education Leaders.
ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/for-education-leaders.
LSN
Tutorials(2014, August 23). Robots see the need fill the need [Video File].
Youtube. https://youtu.be/nFVlyKRVgwg
Raman, A., &
Thannimalai, R. (2019). Importance of Technology Leadership for
Technology Integration: Gender and Professional Development Perspective. SAGE
Open, 9(4).
Sheninger, E.
(2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times (2 nd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
I am glad to see that you were able to support your coworkers with all of your resources during COVID. I was also able to develop digital resources for the teachers I serve and, I have to admit, I loved hearing the positive feedback from them! For science, we ran into the issue of how to simulate lab experiences for virtual students. While there are many platforms available for simulations, teachers wanted virtual students to be able to do similar labs to what their face-to-face students were doing. We soon realized converting our physical lab experiments would be beneficial even after pandemic teaching becomes a story you tell students years down the road. Ray and Srivastava (2020) note that these virtual resources can become useful to traditional students who want to explore more or review and we have heard that teachers will continue to use them for students who are absent during the specific lesson. As school leaders we have to understand that we have to change our teaching techniques to reflect the times and the students (Sheninger, 2019). Creating virtual resources for use even after COVID will help teachers with the transition to more online teaching activities (because we all know it isn’t going away). Thanks for helping out your teachers because I am sure those resources will continue to be used!
References
Ray, S., & Srivastava, S. (2020). Virtualization of science education: A lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of proteins and proteomics, 11, 77-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42485-020-00038-7
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Corwin.
Darren, I like to think you were a maverick! Also, you left me hanging with what happened when you created the PLN! I think teacher leaders are passionate about what they are doing that other educators can see and respect that. Sheninger (2019) said, “The ability to initiate, manage, and sustain change relies on the leader’s ability to think of it as a process as opposed to an event” (p.58). This sounds to me like what you did! It also sounds like you were an advocate for technology because you created and implemented your work, while building a network for other teachers (Velasco et al., 2021). I hope it continues to be valuable resource for you!
References
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times (2nd ed.). Corwin.
Velasco, R. C. L., Hite, R., & Milbourne, J. (2021). Exploring advocacy self-efficacy among K-12 STEM teacher leaders. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s10763-021-10176-z
Darren, I really like that you took the time to put additional resources into the hands of your fellow teachers. The fact that you took the time to include lessons and ways to differentiate instruction makes it that much better. I know that you said that you still have a ways to go, but I think you are already meeting some of the qualifications of being a digital leader. Sheninger (2019) states, “Digital leaders work to improve professional learning in their respective districts, schools, classrooms, or organizations based on what is known to actually work” (p. 143). You are clearly helping provide teachers with proven methods and resources. The only thing I would add is that sometimes teachers need further training on how to implement resources into their classrooms. According to Liao et al (2017), “Effective technology PD should be sustained, incorporate authentic experiences situated within school contexts, and offer various levels of support” (para. 7).
References
Liao, Y-C., Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A., Karlin, M., Glazewski, K., & Brush, T. (2017). Supporting change in teacher practice: Examining shifts of teachers’ professional development preferences and needs for technology integration. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 17(4). Sheninger, E. C. (2019). Digital leadership: changing paradigms for changing times (Second). A joint publication of Corwin ICLE.
I am glad to see that you were able to support your coworkers with all of your resources during COVID. I was also able to develop digital resources for the teachers I serve and, I have to admit, I loved hearing the positive feedback from them! For science, we ran into the issue of how to simulate lab experiences for virtual students. While there are many platforms available for simulations, teachers wanted virtual students to be able to do similar labs to what their face-to-face students were doing. We soon realized converting our physical lab experiments would be beneficial even after pandemic teaching becomes a story you tell students years down the road. Ray and Srivastava (2020) note that these virtual resources can become useful to traditional students who want to explore more or review and we have heard that teachers will continue to use them for students who are absent during the specific lesson. As school leaders we have to understand that we have to change our teaching techniques to reflect the times and the students (Sheninger, 2019). Creating virtual resources for use even after COVID will help teachers with the transition to more online teaching activities (because we all know it isn’t going away). Thanks for helping out your teachers because I am sure those resources will continue to be used!
ReplyDeleteReferences
Ray, S., & Srivastava, S. (2020). Virtualization of science education: A lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of proteins and proteomics, 11, 77-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42485-020-00038-7
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Corwin.
Darren,
ReplyDeleteI like to think you were a maverick! Also, you left me hanging with what happened when you created the PLN! I think teacher leaders are passionate about what they are doing that other educators can see and respect that. Sheninger (2019) said, “The ability to initiate, manage, and sustain change relies on the leader’s ability to think of it as a process as opposed to an event” (p.58). This sounds to me like what you did! It also sounds like you were an advocate for technology because you created and implemented your work, while building a network for other teachers (Velasco et al., 2021). I hope it continues to be valuable resource for you!
References
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times (2nd ed.). Corwin.
Velasco, R. C. L., Hite, R., & Milbourne, J. (2021). Exploring advocacy self-efficacy among K-12 STEM teacher leaders. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s10763-021-10176-z
Darren,
ReplyDeleteI really like that you took the time to put additional resources into the hands of your fellow teachers. The fact that you took the time to include lessons and ways to differentiate instruction makes it that much better. I know that you said that you still have a ways to go, but I think you are already meeting some of the qualifications of being a digital leader. Sheninger (2019) states, “Digital leaders work to improve professional learning in their respective districts, schools, classrooms, or organizations based on what is known to actually work” (p. 143). You are clearly helping provide teachers with proven methods and resources. The only thing I would add is that sometimes teachers need further training on how to implement resources into their classrooms. According to Liao et al (2017), “Effective technology PD should be sustained, incorporate authentic experiences situated within school contexts, and offer various levels of support” (para. 7).
References
Liao, Y-C., Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A., Karlin, M., Glazewski, K., & Brush, T. (2017). Supporting change in teacher practice: Examining shifts of teachers’ professional development preferences and needs for technology integration. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 17(4).
Sheninger, E. C. (2019). Digital leadership: changing paradigms for changing times (Second). A joint publication of Corwin ICLE.