I’ve been asked to consider writing another technology leadership column aimed at superintendents. Any suggestions for what I should write about? What do you think superintendents need to know about technology?
I’ve been asked to consider writing another technology leadership column aimed at superintendents. Any suggestions for what I should write about? What do you think superintendents need to know about technology?
Please, tell them to identify potential instructional technology leaders in their districts (no matter what the person’s current job title is) and give them time & tools to work with.
Be more flexible in the shape & focus of PD; consider faculty suggestions.
Try some new technology yourself so that you can model lifelong learning for your staff members.
Definitly a portion on creating professional development opportunities based on the talents of individuals within the district. Utilizing budgetary resources for involving a diverse team of teachers who seek proactive ways for incorporating technology into instruction.
Five (or even four) year replacement cycles on computers is too long. What about looking at leasing instead of buying? The days of viewing computers as “fixed assets” are behind us. Their useful life is not 8 or 10 years like some of the vehicles they purchase.
Scott:
One topic might be to address their inherent distrust of certain technologies – not of the technology itself, but how it might be used against them.
I would deinitely write about Technology, Privacy, and Trust Issues.
The superintendents that I know seem to have a collective distrust of “showing their cards.” They prefer to keep things close to the vest. One of them explained that it is a form of protection and self-preservation. Apparently the use of technology (specifically blogs) creates a situation in which they feel vulnerable. Once they have said something in public, it’s a matter of record, and they fear it can come back to bite them. They like to remain a bit enigmatic, I guess.
Supers I know who don’t hesitate to talk to a room full of people, completely clam up – prefering to fall silent rather than formulate and encourage discourse if the forum is universal (i.e Web based).
How to protect themselves and yet still utilize technology to promote causes, inform audiences, and train others is somehow missed and IMHO would make a terrific series of articles.
Not all technologies need to be seen a threats to privacy. For example, the biggest misunderstanding about blogging is that it does not have to be a Bare Your Soul to the World Confessional.
Greg
I am a very small technology vendor specializing in software development for education. Since 2000, I have probably exhibited at nearly 80 educational conferences. During this time I have not talked with a Superintendant of Schools from a district larger than half a dozen schools and I know they do come to the conferences. Seems to me that one good way for those persons to find out about technology in education is to visit the vendors exhibits?
Where to start,
Questions for a superintendent:
Why aren’t you blogging?
Why aren’t your building administrators blogging?
Why doesn’t the district web page have an rss feed for the latest news, school closings, etc.?
Does your technology director know education or just infrastructure?
If just infrastructure, then who is going to help the teachers with the use of this technology in their classrooms?
What does Web 2.0 mean to you?
Who is in your personal learning network?
What blogs are in your rss reader?
These are just a few questions that I will be trying to ask the superintendent candidates interviewing in my daughter’s district.
What I think they need to hear is to have courage.
What I mean by that is–to support your innovators, you have to have the courage to recognize their talent, to support their talent, to stand up for their risk taking, and to believe in them.
I heard the CIO of Philadelphia Schools tell us at Educon that Chris Lehman was a “first round draft pick” and that it is important that he acknowledge that.
How often do we get that message from our superintendents in a specific and personal way?
Another thing I think is that superintendents need to strongly support and scaffold the leadership and innovation of their principals. They need to give them many opportunities to attend conferences, see innovation in action, read, talk, etc. so that they can continue to grow and so they become leaders on their own campuses. And if they know they have the support and courage of the superintendent, that will make a tremendous difference.
Lastly, come to your buildings. Just talk to your teachers in your district. Visit them, see how they work, get a feel for the campuses. Not just on special occasions, but as often as you can. It helps you remember why we are all there.
Thanks for asking, Scott!
In the light of our current budget crisis looming in CA, I would like to ask Superintendents to be forward thinking and not cut technology first. I know it is an easy target because of the amount of dollars involved, but perhaps we could spend more time scrutinizing other expenditures and considering technology tools that might increase efficiency in other areas. I cringe at the thought of the amount of paper we waste everyday.
To cut technology people or budgets relegates teachers to the dark ages of paper, pencils, and (gasp) chalk, and really sets teachers up to spin their wheels trying to engage students who live in technological worlds.
I would encourage district leaders to look at their current practices processes for communication, teaching, and learning on a very granular level, and to evaluate how technology can improve current practices. That may sound simple, but I don’t know if it really is. I think a lot of uninformed or unwilling technology users see technology as “another thing I need to do” instead of “this helps me do my job better”. District leaders need to demonstrate and model what they want their teachers to do. The only way to effectively do that is to know the true power of technology themselves. Just don’t talk about it…use it.
I’d like to complement and supplement what Carolyn Foote wrote. I think that educational leaders need to know that leadership in and for ed. tech. is not about the technology; i.e. they don’t need to know the difference between a bit and a byte and they don’t have to know how to program in C++. Rather, they have to be LEADERS who are singularly focused on learning…for EVERYONE within the schooling organization (students, teachers and leaders). Where learning is best facilitated by technological means, it is the professional and moral obligation of the leader to figure out how to get those technologies integrated. Furthermore (and here’s the tricky part), they should consider that our very conceptions of learning need to change as technological progress is made; that it is necessary to have and use technology simply BECAUSE learning is changing.
To think and lead that way involves being a risk-taker (back to Carolyn’s point about courage). It also involves moving an organization forward by building relationships and establishing trust. From here, I’d just refer you all to my own writing (http://tinyurl.com/2e8aav) about Chris Dede’s writing.
They should not pass off technology decisions to the “tech guy”. Technology decisions are education decisions, first and foremost. They aren’t like buying busses or fixing plumbing.
They also should demand that IT staff make their policies easily understood. If something is too geeky to be understood, it’s their job to make it understandable. Any decision that is only backed up by geek-talk should be looked at with suspicion, the same way you would expect your business office to make accounting practices clear and transparent.
Superintendents need to use technology to connect with senior administrators (and others). Until they understand the potential of the tools available, they’ll have a difficult time supporting, promoting, or funding them.
I would discuss the topic of connecting with the community through blogs.
Also discuss how blogs could be a useful tool for the Superintendent to not only connect with parents but also with teachers and other administrators.
I would discuss the topic of connecting with the community through blogs.
Also discuss how blogs could be a useful tool for the Superintendent to not only connect with parents but also with teachers and other administrators.
Filters are detrimental to learning and teaching ethical and appropriate use.
Today’s learners have more tools that connect them. Schools should find a way to embrace the tools rather than ban them.
They need to know that the time has come to replace instruction in cursive with instruction in keyboarding in the primary grades, IMHO…
http://gregcruey.blogspot.com/2007/05/future-of-cursive_28.html
Bottom line, technology is not a content area that gets covered when children become developmentally ready for it. It is a context for learning. Especially in schools where children live in poverty or on the far side of the digital divided, long term success is a result of developing a comfort with technology very early in school. The novel nature of it needs to disappear much earlier than it does at the moment.
Congratulate and promote good classroom webpages!
Are you asking teachers:
Is your webpage up to date?
Is your class homework on your class webpage?
Are you communicating with parents via email.
Are you giving bonus to tech leaders?
Are you giving sub days for tech leaders to teach?
In your districts:
Are you bypassing the easy fixture of getting tech teachers and teaching tech skills in a vacuum?
Do you know what library Media Specialists do and what they teach? Are they prep providers or are you allow them to boost student achievement by flexible scheduling?
Are you supporting your school libraries and their media programs to boost student achievement? see the report librarypublishing.scholastic.com/content/stores/LibraryStore/pages/images/slw_04.pdf –
(You can’t use the web unless you can READ!)
To encourage a broad use of technology by teachers, students and parents any superintendent could mandate the folks in charge of technology deployment an objective analysis of software used by their district – it could then be coupled by a district-wide exposure to Open Source Software (ie, free) as a choice for providing users with software that for all practical purposes is as good as off-the-shelf software, but at a much better price. Thus, the school community could become familiar with programs like Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, DreamWeaver, etc, and would not have to spend ANY money in licensing the OSS equivalents (GIMP, Scribus and NVU respectively). Providing free tools for creative minds could be a HUGE contribution by a any forward looking top administrator. Visiting the included link or osliving.com would be a good start.
I have a few ideas:
– Do we have access to tech to meet our needs?
– Do we spend time focusing on our successes?
– Is technology making our jobs easier?
– Do my school administrators support those teachers who want to make profound differences for our students (with or without technology)?
– How can I network electronically to get the input of experts?