When I saw the title of my next class “Instructional Leadership” I was quite excited because I thought that the class would provide me with specific strategies for becoming a strong instructional leader for my campus. I was looking forward to learning innovative classroom best-practice approaches to improve my craft and share with others. I suppose I thought this class would be like the Instructional Leadership Development training I took last summer and learned so much from. Then, after reviewing the syllabus, I came to understood that this course was focused on technology integration in the classroom. At first, I was somewhat disappointed because I still thought of instructional leadership as something very different than technology integration. The past five weeks have changed my thinking.
My expectations had to undergo a major adjustment once I began to understand the purpose of this course. My desired outcome – as with all classes – is to come away with some knowledge and experience that will be relevant to my future role as an administrator and help me improve my practice. As a result of this class, I now understand the usefulness of the STaR Chart as a campus technology assessment tool. I am also excited about the possibilities that blogs have as both a communication tool for a faculty and as an instructional tool in the classroom. I have come to understand that for today’s ‘digital native’ students, integrated technology-based instruction IS effective instruction. As an administrator in the 21st Century, it will be vitally important to personally keep up with technology and to be an advocate for technology integration in instruction. Our students will be utilizing technology whether we are or not.
As I previously stated, I originally expected to learn more about being an instructional leader, providing my faculty with instructional strategies and guiding them in curriculum management. Instead, this course has reinforced my understanding of the importance of utilizing integrated technology to maximize our students’ learning opportunities. It is still a bit of a paradigm shift for me to go from thinking of technology as an assistive tool to understanding that it can and should be fully integrated into every curriculum.
I was frustrated with the length of the discussion board assignments and the ‘busy work’ nature of that activity. I enjoyed having more interaction with my peers and I feel the ‘final word protocol’ was an effective technique for encouraging more discussion. However, pulling quotes from each reading was tedious busy work. I would have gotten much more out of using the ‘final word’ approach in response to some thought-provoking discussion questions or experience sharing with my colleagues. I also would have liked to learn more about the different Web 2.0 tools and their uses in education.
As an administrator, I will utilize the lessons learned about the necessity of modeling and supporting technology integration in all aspects of education. I had never considered having my own blog before, but I have enjoyed the learning experience of creating a blog and I can see their usefulness. There are many ways that blogging and wikis can be used in the classroom and as a tool for professional development. I have also never used SlideShare before and I was pleased to learn about this valuable resource. I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised to discover just how much I do not know about technology tools. This course has motivated me to explore what technology resources are available at my campus and district level. I discovered that several teachers are already using blogs, Google docs, and other web-based tools regularly. I find that while I am not the most ‘tech savvy’ person, I am extremely excited about the opportunities that technology integration provide to our students and staff. As a campus instructional leader, it will be important to make technology integration a priority in order to ensure that our campus curriculum stays relevant and engaging for our students.
Through this course, I discovered that one of the easiest ways to integrate technology is through the use of blogs. Blogs can be used in so many different ways: as an alternative to a class website, to encourage written responses to class discussion, to communicate across school campuses or with people outside of the campus, to collaborate on a project, and many other uses. The 21st century learner is accustomed to communicating and collaborating through online and wireless media and educators need build on those strengths. I also find that teachers often become isolated in their classrooms and do not work together enough. Creating department blogs may help. Teachers can also use blogs to collaborate on lesson planning and design or other projects. I would like to set up a classroom blog for my 8th grade Language Arts classes. I could use the blog to inform the students of classroom policies and daily assignments. I can also imagine having students respond to literature and complete short writing assignments through the blog.
My main concern with blogging is protecting the students’ privacy and ensuring that they are safe. As with any use of technology, teachers should always review the safety guidelines and expectations around using a blog. Online ‘netiquette’ and safe use precautions cannot be assumed, but must be explicitly taught. The students should have a thorough understanding of the district’s Acceptable Use Policy. Many school districts appear to still be leery of using Web 2.0 tools because of the possibility of exposing students to harm. This possibility is very real, but I believe with proper training and supervision the benefits of educational blogging can be vast.
Blogging is simply another means of communication. When I want to learn about a product, store, or service the first place I look is on the internet. This same mindset is becoming more and more prevalent with our educational stakeholders. When a stakeholder needs more information about a school or classroom, they will frequently start with looking online. For this reason it is essential that the educational system embrace online communication and begin utilizing it effectively. A campus or classroom blog can keep stakeholders informed of upcoming events, policies, homework and class work expectations, etc. Blogs also facilitate two-way communication by allowing the stakeholders a means of responding to the teachers’ posts. One thing that I have learned in my years in education is that parents really do want to be informed about their Childs’ activities. I believe that blogging and many of the other technology resources mentioned in this course will become more and more prevalent in education and will become the norm in the future. These communication tools can provide an important connection between all the stakeholders: teachers, parents, and students.
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