Leadership Day 2009 -- Some Prep

I just came across an interesting challenge on Scott McLeod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant, in which he is calling on edubloggers across the globe to share their thoughts "related to effective school technology leadership: successes, challenges, reflections, needs, wants, etc." As this is is a big part of my job as an educational technology consultant -- I owe it to myself to participate in this conversation.

Mr. McLeod speaks from his heart when he expresses that many administrators just don't get it. I believe the 'it' he is speaking of refers to driving systemic change with a focus on 21st century teaching and learning. This is not about pointing fingers, and Mr. McLeod clearly states that many of these administrators simply do not have the time, background or support to move forward in this direction. In his experience he sees that:

"most school administrators don’t know

• what it means to prepare students for the 21st century;
• how to recognize, evaluate, and facilitate effective technology usage by students and teachers;
• what appropriate technology support structures (budget, staffing, infrastructure) look like or how to implement them;
• how to utilize modern technologies to facilitate communication with internal and external stakeholders;
• the ways in which learning technologies can improve student learning outcomes;
• how to utilize technology systems to make their organizations more efficient and effective;
• and so on…"

Tomorrow, I am facilitating a workshop for NYC administrators entitled "Building 21st Century Learning Communities". The workshop is a 3-hour session that attempts to hit on many of the bullet points that Mr. McLeod so eloquently articulated. I'm going to attempt to raise awareness about how the effective use of technology can transform teaching and learning. I'm going to point out that there are national standards and frameworks that are all ready in place that can help schools rethink their notion of technology integration. I'm going to say: "It's all about the learning and not the technology."

I am also going to try and get the participants excited about going back to their schools to rethink their vision for technology integration. I want to inspire them to put together an "Innovation" team that will write a vision for technology usage that will be embraced by their entire learning community (students, teachers, parents, etc.). The Innovation Team will work throughout the year to assess where their school is at in terms of technology usage. The team will use the data from their assessments to create long-term goals, and each goal will require an action plan. All of this work has to be timely, measurable, and collaborative.

I plan to use tomorrow's workshop as a starting point for my Leadership Day blog. As we review the new National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators I'm going to ask the participants what they see as the key skills or abilities they need to be effective technology leaders? I'm going to collect their ideas as best I can, while trying to manage a room of 40 teachers and administrators, and then I'm going to write about the experience with the hope of pushing some boundaries and stimulating some conversation for Leadership Day 2009. Plain and simple.