As Creighton (2003) asserts, a strong technology leader for a school or district most first focus on the instructional strategies used within the classroom and then find ways to expand upon those strategies to integrate technology in a way that is most effective. Many people in the world of education feel as though introducing more technology in a school will serve as a magical tool that will automatically increase student achievement by merely having it present. Creighton (2003) argues that unless the technology is used to enhance higher-order thinking skills or problem solving, it will be less likely that the technology will help improve student achievement in the classroom. It is crucial that proper planning and training take place so that money is not wasted and all stakeholders benefit from the many positive aspects that technology can and does bring to education.
Instructional technology is a large field that has so many facets. In this course, I have enjoyed taking a deeper look at leadership and all of the behind the scenes work that goes into making a strong instructional technology department. I hav e not only been given a chance to look through and analyze the School Improvement Plan for my school and the district Technology Plan, but also the technology plans of other districts from around the state as well as the national technology goals as outlined by the Department of Education. Aside from just reading and analyzing the work of others, I was equipped with the opportunity to analyze data from a survey I created and create my own technology plan project for my school. In this I was able to create a shared vision to direct my work, analyze the current reality of the technology situation at my school through a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats), and create an action plan to lead my school into a brighter future in terms of successful technology integration. Each of these pieces, coupled with the ability to find instructional technology grants, has led me to feel more confident in being a technology leader not only in classroom, but also in the school and district.
To increase my network and awareness to what is happening in the current educational technology world, I created and continued use with RSS feeds through Feedly. Using this Web 2.0 tool allowed me to quickly subscribe and follow many of the leading instructional technology companies and researchers in their blogs and articles posted on a daily basis. Each day I would log in and find multiple new posts or articles to read about what is happening across the country and globe in terms of instructional technology. I found this particularly helpful while the ISTE 2015 conference was taking place since I was unable to be there myself, but many users were constantly posting new information about the sessions they were hosting or attending. As an effective instructional technology leader it is crucial to stay on top of the current trends and read the research that is taking place on a regular basis. I look forward to continue reading my RSS feed and sharing new ideas with my colleagues.
Resources
Creigthon, T. (2003). The principal as technology leader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Instructional technology is a large field that has so many facets. In this course, I have enjoyed taking a deeper look at leadership and all of the behind the scenes work that goes into making a strong instructional technology department. I hav e not only been given a chance to look through and analyze the School Improvement Plan for my school and the district Technology Plan, but also the technology plans of other districts from around the state as well as the national technology goals as outlined by the Department of Education. Aside from just reading and analyzing the work of others, I was equipped with the opportunity to analyze data from a survey I created and create my own technology plan project for my school. In this I was able to create a shared vision to direct my work, analyze the current reality of the technology situation at my school through a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats), and create an action plan to lead my school into a brighter future in terms of successful technology integration. Each of these pieces, coupled with the ability to find instructional technology grants, has led me to feel more confident in being a technology leader not only in classroom, but also in the school and district.
To increase my network and awareness to what is happening in the current educational technology world, I created and continued use with RSS feeds through Feedly. Using this Web 2.0 tool allowed me to quickly subscribe and follow many of the leading instructional technology companies and researchers in their blogs and articles posted on a daily basis. Each day I would log in and find multiple new posts or articles to read about what is happening across the country and globe in terms of instructional technology. I found this particularly helpful while the ISTE 2015 conference was taking place since I was unable to be there myself, but many users were constantly posting new information about the sessions they were hosting or attending. As an effective instructional technology leader it is crucial to stay on top of the current trends and read the research that is taking place on a regular basis. I look forward to continue reading my RSS feed and sharing new ideas with my colleagues.
Resources
Creigthon, T. (2003). The principal as technology leader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.