EDLD 5397 Week One Part five Reflection

Reflecting upon the knowledge I have gained from the technology self-assessment I would have to say that overall, my strength is I understand the importance of each of the technology standards for administrators. My weakness is in having experience applying this knowledge in the school environment. I lack employment in a school district, but I interact frequently with those that do. When opportunity arises for me to participate in classroom technology, I welcome it. I have one elementary teacher that allowed me access to her classroom and one instructional associate that has helped to find opportunities for training events.

Under the visionary leadership standard, I do believe I can inspire others to use technology and advocate for the funding for technology. I do communicate with my state legislator and for example, spoke with him about the importance of online learning as a cost saving measure for the state. I do believe I am capable of promoting a digital-age learning culture in a school, even just as a parent. Keeping up with the excellence in professional practice standard may be quite difficult. Administrators only have twenty-four hours in one day as well, and keeping up with the latest research is a daunting task. The two most important standards are the need for systemic improvement using technology and the responsible use of technology by school leaders.

I do not believe I have considered myself as a possible administrator candidate. However, running my family with seven children does require management skills. Before in surveys, the assessments have run along the line of knowledge acquired concerning different types of technology. This assessment is different in that it focuses on leading others to come to understand the efficiency, culture, and systemic improvement needed within technology in schools.

Schools leaders must remember the importance of creating a culture that inspires, promotes, models and improves the learning environment for each student. Technology is a great tool for differentiating classroom teaching and expanding the world of students. My success as a school leader would be diminished if I chose to ignore the necessity of any of these standards for administrators.

To promote excellence in professional practice, administrators must attempt to keep up the new hardware and software constantly presented by educational companies. Making sure all these programs are interchangeable is a difficult task. Many times software programs are marketed to be compatible with all systems - save a few hidden glitches. These glitches of incompatibility often become huge political problems for administrators when the purchase involves large sums of taxpayer money. This is a problem because administrators will only get burned once by this problem and then will later be reluctant to make large technology purchases. Technology leaders in school districts must be very wise in the advice for purchases they propose to schools. I would be interested to know how tenured administrators feel toward their technology director’s request for purchases. Often the strategic plan needs will dictate the administrator’s view of a proposed purchase.

As far as my internship plan goes, I have identified several changes I need to make. Recently, a school board outside of Houston named my husband as their sole finalist candidate. This creates a new situation for me here. I will be here with the children until the house sells, but politically, my role is different – actually much better. I will need to delete two activities from my internship plan. One activity is to redo my husband’s website. This is no longer necessary. A second activity that I will drop is to survey the employees on the technology services. Both of these activities are no longer available to me and if I pursued doing them would be awkward, therefore, by dropping them, I believe I will preserve a positive school culture.

Thirdly, I would add the task of reading the book, A New Breed of Leader: 8 Leadership Qualities That Matter Most in the Real World by Sheila Bethel. I will review the book and write a blog posting. Fourth, I will find and attend a seminar/webinar on the program Skyward. This is the student information system used at our new district and I would like to learn about it. Fifth, I plan to read the book Drive by Daniel Pink on motivation. I will publish a blog on the findings in this book. Sixth, using the information in the book Drive, I will create a slide show for the web to teach others the new insights given by the book. Seventh and eighth will both involve the use of the product Moodle. I would like to attend seminars/webinars available that will teach me both how teachers use this product and how students can benefit in using Moodle.

Each of these activities will help me understand and utilize concepts related to motivating others, creating a positive school culture and improving my knowledge of the systemic improvement expected at the new school district.