Technologically Literate

Nothing succeeds without leadership yet the nature of the relationship between administration and staff is often strained.  I acknowledge that there are bad administrators and bad teachers that can magnify small issues, but you rarely hear of an outstanding relationship in our profession.  If you do it always seems like some neverland that is far, far, away from our reality.

I say this because I am teacher and I only ever hear the teacher side.  I should say I hear the negatives more often than the positive because those folks always seem to speak the loudest.  Yesterday I had a meeting with our district superintendent and our curriculum director.  Honestly, I prepared for war.  Occupying a new position, I wanted to know what my role was going to be and what, if anything, they planned to do to support my efforts. To my surprise, my questions were answered completely and politely. 

I went in to fight for the teachers and found out that was precisely what the administration was going to do.  In fact, the three of us spent over an hour and half brainstorming and hashing out specific, measurable goals for the express purpose of helping teachers change instructional practices.

Here is what came of our meeting: 

2007-2008Technology Integration Specialist
Goals

1.  Identify teacher proficiencies
     -Create and implement a tool to measure teacher competencies
2.  Establish a common technical language or vocabulary
     – Use meetings, web tools, and email to build awareness of staff and faculty
3.  Hold one informal discussion about technology education at each building
  -Communicate with building principals finding an opportune time to speak to staff and faculty 
4.  Implement and support teacher/parent/student communication through web presents
     -Increase teacher web pages by 30+ through face to face meetings and workshops
5.  Maintain four differentiated learning experiences throughout the year
  -Groups of below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced.  Offer professional development appropriate for each group (according to data gathered by goal #1)
6.  Establish two networked learning communities for collaboration and reflection
  -One group for elementary and one for the middle school using web tools for social networking.  Connect teachers and myself to continue discussions beyond face to face
7.  Establish community academy
  -Partner with SRO and community organizations to hold community awareness meetings about internet usage and internet safety

It’s amazing what a civil conversation was able to accomplish.  For me it was both a measurable set of goals, but also a measure of respect between professionals.  How do you define quality leadership?  

First, what’s going on with edublogs?  I have spent more time waiting for these pages to load then I do writing. (Yikes!)  I keep getting SQL errors.  Maybe it is time to just keep everything with blogger.

I had a great conversation with a professor that will remain nameless.  From this conversation came the realization of what is actually missing from online universities. How about personality?  We mow through class after class, never really getting to know the highly educated mind behind the grades.  I think that is a shame.  What good is an all-star faculty with PhDs if all they really need to do is grade papers?  I am sure there is a program that will check for APA citation. 

Online universities are slaves to their own system.  It’s their books, their curriculum, their method of learning and assessment.  There is no room for creativity on behave of the faculty or the students, just a regurgitation of their resources.   I am currently on the tail end of a technology integration degree from WaldenUniversity.  Overall I am pleased with what I have learned, but after talking with the professor I have realized how much I have missed out on.

We learned at NECC that the company or persons that embrace new technology the quickest are the ones that survive.  Here’s hoping that the online institution takes a hard look at it self and realizes how far behind they are falling.  In my opinion, if you want to change, you need look no further than the qualified professionals that already populate your ranks. 

In the words of William Wallace (okay, Mel Gibson) “FREEDOM!”    

Clarification – In the past year I have learned a great deal about how learning occurs and that is thanks to Walden University.  I think they do a wonderful job in connecting MI Theory and Learning Styles.  I am a better professional because of continuing my education with Walden.  I just wish I had more opportunity to learn from the experience of the faculty employed by Walden.   

Calling all integrators, new and experienced.  I am opening up the Tech Integrators pageflake community to anyone in the field of ed tech.  I welcome your participation and only request an email address to get you involved.

You can PM me at kpruitt@dasd.k12.pa.us.

If you are creating your own, please forward your public “pagecast.”  It would be great to see this come together.  

Check out the page:  http://www.pageflakes.com/kpruitt/11201963

Read what was behind the idea:  http://kpruitt.edublogs.org/2007/06/07/aggregators-as-communities/