Dangerously Irrelevant

As soon as you say 'failure is not an option,' you've just said 'innovation is not an option.'
- Seth Godin, The Flip Side

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See also my other slides and the Great Quotes About Learning and Change Flickr pool.

[cross-posted at Education Recoded]

The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) has created a new Digital Principal Award to 'honor principals who exhibit bold, creative leadership in their drive to harness the potential of new technologies to further learning goals.' NASSP also will use the award process to 'showcase models of leadership that encourage the use of technology in instruction and for principals’ own professional use.'

Every year, eSchoolNews recognizes 10 technology-savvy superintendents. Now NASSP is recognizing some technology-savvy principals. If you know of a digital principal, nominate him or her by January 17!

Steve Hargadon and I are chatting tonight about school leadership in the 21st century. I hope that you'll join us, share your thoughts, and ask some really tough questions.

If you're not subscribed to Steve's Future of Education webinar series, you should be!

In Iowa we use #iaedfuture to organize our online conversations about education in the state. In Wisconsin they use #wiedu. In the United Kingdom, they use #ukedchat to have similar conversations at the national level. What are other states, provinces, and/or countries using? (beyond the generic #edchat)

I made a publicly-editable Google spreadsheet to organize all of these geography-bound education hashtags. These are different from hashtags for conferences or for particular education topics (e.g., STEM or teaching History). Instead, they're hashtags that allow folks to talk about the present and future state of education in their area, to share ideas and resources, to propose and push back on proposed laws and policies, and to otherwise organize themselves. It's often said that the Internet destroys geography. While that's true in many instances, schooling systems still are primarily organized by geographic regions so boundary-level conversations are still relevant.

I hope you'll contribute the hashtag for your state / province / country. If you don't have a hashtag like these, perhaps it's time to get one started!

Five online resources worth checking out...

1. Shelley Wright shares what life in an inquiry-driven, technology-embedded, connected English classroom looks like (see also her post on a science classroom)
2. Ewan McIntosh talks about Guy Claxton's big question: What's the point of school?
3. Donald Clark says that 21st century skills are so last century
4. Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana note that it's critical to teach students to ask their own questions
5. Here's a resource that will help you identify apps for children with special needs

See also previous posts in this category!

All the talk of technology integration into the curriculum, blended learning environments, and the explosion of online learning has me thinking: How are universities preparing leaders for an increasingly technological world?

On July 4, 2007 on this very site, Scott wrote, “School districts, state departments, the federal government, corporations, and foundations have spent a lot of time, money, and energy on the technology needs of students and teachers. We have seen very little concurrent activity on the behalf of administrators, despite the fact that if the leaders don’t get it, it isn’t going to happen."

The die was cast at least three and a half years ago (truthfully… long before that).  Surely Ed. Leadership programs nationwide have been preparing digital age leaders to carry the torch back to their school/district and empower their staff to integrate technology. If not, why? Certainly, finance, law, organizational theory, and human resource courses are the foundation of programs across the country.  Isn’t technology as relevant in 2011 as these courses?

Leaders have limited time and increasingly limited resources. Pre-service and practicing leaders should be learning to use technology to create solutions to problems such lack of time, lack of communication, and the sense of isolation that they feel as they try to address the needs of teachers, parents, district staff, and students.

• Are leaders using mobile devices to get into classes and address e-mail on the go or are they still tucked away in their office sifting through hundreds of e-mails?
• Are leaders cheaply, quickly, and easily using the school website to inform and promote the school or is it outdated, cluttered, and otherwise useless?
• Have leaders begun building Professional Learning Networks to stay informed about effective strategies and of the changing face of education or are they isolated in their schools speaking with a few other administrators about what they read in the paper and in few professional journals?
• Are administrators conducting walkthroughs using mobile devices such as iPods/iPads and using surveys built for free on Google docs or are they paying for software (or, worse yet, still using paper and pencil)?
• Are backpacks still being loaded up with letters for parents (fundraisers, PTO reminders, monthly newsletters, etc.) or are leaders using software to create school calendars that parents and staff can sync to their own personal calendars?  Are school messages going out on Facebook and Twitter (I’ve heard those sites have a few members).

These questions just scratch the surface of the training we should be providing. Universities have been known to support, lead, innovate, and get students to think critically. In order to continue to fulfill these responsibilities for school leaders, covering technology in one class isn’t sufficient. So I revisit my original question: How are universities preparing leaders for an increasingly technological world in 2011? Which programs are the most successful at meeting this challenge? Who “came out swinging” as we were called to do so long ago?

Jason LaFrance is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Georgia Southern University. Previously he served as an Assistant Principal at an Apple Distinguished School and Positive Behavior Support Model School in Florida. His research focuses on technological innovation in leadership preparation and practice. He can be reached at www.jasonlafrance.com.

Five online resources worth checking out...

1. Mike Kaechele wonders if the 1:1 device of the future will be a flash key we plug into any screen.
2. Clayton Christensen shows us some ways that online learning is disrupting education.
3. The Khan Academy is now accepting submissions from outsiders.
4. Peter Gray believes that we need to throw out our fundamental assumptions that adults need to be in charge of children's learning.
5. Alan Levine reminds us that building is more important than badges.

See also previous posts in this category!

I was supposed to do a webinar.

Scheduled on Tuesday evening, the webinar was for school board members in Iowa and was the second of four scheduled online events for the Iowa Association of School Boards.

I was supposed to do a webinar.

But not just me alone. I also invited others to join me and a few folks took me up on the offer. The idea was to get multiple perspectives on our topic of the evening. On Tuesday, the subject was how technology tools are changing everything and creating a new information landscape for all of us.

I was supposed to do a webinar.

But there were storms in Ames, Iowa, and, minutes before we were supposed to begin, my Internet access from our local cable company went kaput. Uh oh...

I was supposed to do a webinar.

Thanks to the kindness of volunteers, including people I've never met in person, the show went on. Alison Link (in Minnesota) and Bryan Lakatos (in Ohio) and Lou Ann Gvist (in Iowa) forged on without me. The school board members and superintendents who logged in had a fantastic, wide-ranging discussion.

I was supposed to do a webinar.

I DID do a webinar. Just without me in it. It wasn't seamless. We had glitches. I was a complete nonfactor. And yet it was a needed and helpful conversation and both participants and facilitators benefited from it.

Many organizations get so caught up in the need for perfection that they forget the power of simply talking. No broadcasting, no selling, just talking. Tuesday night was an affirmation of the power of human connection, our desires for technological perfection be damned.

Thank you so much, Alison and Bryan and Lou Ann! You were amazingly adaptive and incredibly helpful. I owe you!

I'm facilitating a webinar series for members of the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB). Last week I did one of my standard "the world has changed" sessions online and now we're following up on that interaction with three topical webinars. I'm looking for 3 to 5 people who might like to join us for each session. Participants will be school board members from across the state of Iowa. They'll fire questions, concerns, and comments at us in the text chat area. We facilitators will answer questions, share resources, and engage participants via web cam and/or the text chat.

Here's a description of each session. If you're interested, sign up using the facilitator registration form (first come, first serve!). Once you're signed up, I'll send you the URL for your webinar(s).

Our new information landscape: These technology tools are changing EVERYTHING! [November 8, 6pm to 7:30pm Central]

New technologies are changing how we interact, share, and work together. Most schools and educators, however, are not yet using these powerful tools in classrooms and many are even blocking them completely from student use. Does this make sense given how wired our world is today?

Our new learning landscape: These technology tools are creating powerful new ways for students (and educators) to learn [November 29, 6pm to 7:30pm Central]

Whether we're students or adults, new technologies are changing how we learn. Teaching and learning are going to look very different over the next couple of decades, and much of it is going to occur in more informal and online settings rather than in our traditional, formal, face-to-face schools. What are the powerful possibilities and potential pitfalls? How do we tap into these tools and still ensure that we make AYP student achievement targets under NCLB?

Our new economic landscape: These technology tools are changing what it means to prepare graduates for the workforce [December 12, 6pm to 7:30pm Central]

Jobs, jobs, jobs: right now that's what's on everyone's mind. This recession is not a temporary blip. We're living through a structural change in employment that has major ramifications for how schools prepare students for the world of work. What does it really mean to be a successful employee and company in this new hyperconnected, hypercompetitive global economy?

Hope some of you can join us!

I'm pleased to announce a new resource today: CASTLE Briefs.

As our web site notes:

CASTLE briefs are intended to help practicing and preservice school administrators with various technology leadership issues. Between 500 and 2,000 words in length, CASTLE briefs attempt to answer the question, "What do school administrators need to know about this technology leadership topic?" Some CASTLE briefs are classic research or policy briefs; others may be more practice-oriented or focus on thought leadership in a particular area.

ANYONE may write a CASTLE brief. Sometimes we will extend invitations to authors but we also accept at-large submissions. We are open to your ideas about content, format, and style but please note that we frown upon commercial advertisements disguised as briefs. Images, audio, video, and other multimedia are welcome inclusions in a brief. We would prefer APA citation style for your references section. All CASTLE briefs will be made available under a Creative Commons attribution-share alike copyright license.

Our first brief is titled  for consideration.