My "view" on what it takes to be an effective ed tech leader

As my Digital Age Learning and School Technology Leadership graduate class comes to an end, I am reflective on what I learned in the class and what it takes to be an effective technology leader in education.  The first word that comes to mind is ....ACTION.  Being an effective leader takes action and lots of it.  If I learned one thing during this class is was that leaders can not just be passive consumers but rather active participants in the world around them.  This blog, that I created, helped me to see the importance of my actions and the importance of communication and collaboration in leadership.  It helped me to see I must BE ACTIVE to see positive results.

To help me remember to be active I created a poster (the graphic designer/visual learner in me coming out) that overviews the ACTIONS that will help me be the effective technology leader I know I can be.  These action verbs come from the NETS-A standards for educational administrators.

I plan to post this poster in my office as a daily reminder of my responsibilities to my administrators, fellow teachers and my students.  I need to TAKE ACTION daily to be an effective leader.  I also plan to share this poster with the faculty at my school as a simple reminder to them of the positive actions everyone can take to make technology integration successful and sustainable for the benefit of all learners.

These actions were covered in many different ways during my graduate class.  Here are some examples  of what was learned about these vital actions:

Create, promote and sustain: The importance of 21st century skills needed to prepare students for global economy, reading and discussing the Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner to understand why this gap is there and then propose methods and ideas of how to make needed changes to correct the problem

Stimulate, nurture and support: different frameworks like the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) that identifies the knowledge teachers need to teach effectively with technology, reviewed the development of American schooling and the potential components of a new system of educations such as homeschooling, distance education, and lifelong learning

Promote and model: The use of mentoring and communities of practice in technology integration, creating and maintaining personal blog about the ideas, experiences and resources of being a tech leader

Stay up-to-date: investigation of different educational technology leaders like Scott McLeod to see his thoughts on the latest innovations and tech interruptions, researched virtual schooling/e-learning and the potential this kind of schooling has for the future, reviewed the Horizon report for innovations that are taking place in schools now and predictions of innovations for the next 5 years.

Continuously improve: advocating for positive change-these changes need to take place in funding, training, support, access, regulations and content.  Understanding where we are coming from, what is not working and create ideals for the future.  Be champions for the cause of the vitalness of effective technology integration.

Lead: research and discussion on educational tech policy making, policy making analyzed for important elements such as funding, professional development, effective use and acceptable use.

Collaborate, collect and analyze:  importance of informative and accurate data when trying to promote positive change

Promote, model and facilitate:  importance of leading by example, demonstrating effective use of technology in own classroom

Ensure:  discussed the importance of finding technology that is more than just innovative and new but rather technology that will be beneficial to the needs of the students.

This masters class has helped me to see that to make my vision of being an effective educational technology leader a reality it is going to ACTION.  This action can bring positive changes that will improve the learning of all of my students through the use of effective technology integration.