Searching for "school leaders"

K12 IT leaders work with people

K-12 IT leaders need to work with people, not just tech

<https://www.educationdive.com/news/k-12-it-leaders-need-to-work-with-people-not-just-tech/555004/

My note: this is the first step toward the conclusion of my dissertation: the CIO in education must wear three hats: computer geek, educator and administrator.

District Administration reports.

Since edtech varies from district to district and state to state, it’s unlikely that an IT candidate will be up-to-speed on the current system in use. Alabama solves this problem by offering the Alabama Chief Technology Officer certification program.

It is critical for those in K-12 IT leadership to understand the unique customer service needs of the education industry. When technology doesn’t work, it throws a wrench into an entire day of learning. Educators need a fast fix and responsive service. Effective tech leaders will delegate by teaming up with tech-savvy teachers who can serve as school tech leaders. This strategy allows for an on-site tech expert to step in to put out fires before the tech expert arrives.

Former teachers can also make strong chief technology officers because they understand both tech and education. This allows them to build trust with the staff, which is a critical component to launching new technology initiatives.

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more on digital literacy for EDAD in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+literacy+edad

measure school tech infrastructure

https://events.edsurge.com/webinars/how-to-get-measurable-value-from-your-schools-tech-infrastructure

School districts are more connected than ever. The latest Infrastructure Survey report from CoSN shows that over 90% of districts have sufficient broadband. So why isn’t everyone using it to generate measurable outcomes?

How technology can be used in the classroom to help support learning and productivity
How school leaders can calculate the value of their tech investments
The importance of video when it comes to keeping students engaged (hint: video is key)
The most important metrics to consider when collecting data on your technology (it’s ok to start small)

New Leaders program

Study: Schools with principals from New Leaders program show higher student learning gains

K-8 students with the same principal, who was trained by the nonprofit, for at least three years get higher math and English language arts scores than those with other leaders.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/study-schools-with-principals-from-new-leaders-program-show-higher-student/549011/

Principals trained and supported by New Leaders — a New York City-based nonprofit — are contributing to higher student achievement and staying in their jobs longer than those hired through other preparation programs, a new RAND Corp. study shows.

Students attending K-8 schools that have had a New Leaders principal for at least three years score at least 3% higher in math and roughly 2% higher in English language arts (ELA) than students with school leaders prepared in other ways.

The RAND researchers found that specific aspects of being a leader — specifically competencies related to instruction, and adult and team leadership — were more closely associated with increases in student achievement.

What New Leaders calls “cultural capital,” which includes skills related to “cultural leadership” and “operational leadership,” was more closely linked to retention.

2017 Stanford University study showed that academic growth among CPS students in grades 3-8 was increasing at a faster rate than in most districts in the nation.

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more of EDAD in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=edad

School Safety and Student Wellbeing

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
Proposal Submission Deadline: February 12, 2019
Leveraging Technology for the Improvement of School Safety and Student Wellbeing
A book edited by Dr. Stephanie Huffman, Dr. Stacey Loyless, Dr. Shelly Allbritton, and Dr. Charlotte Green (University of Central Arkansas)

Introduction
Technology permeates all aspects of today’s school systems. An Internet search on technology in schools can generate millions of website results. The vast majority of these websites (well over 8,000,000 results for one simple search) focuses on advice, activities, and uses of technology in the classroom. Clearly teaching and learning with technology dominates the literature and conversations on how technology should or could be used in classroom settings. A search on school safety and technology can produce more than 3,000,000 results with many addressing technological tools such as video cameras, entry control devices, weapon detectors, and other such hardware. However, in recent times, cyberbullying appears to dominate the Internet conversations in references to school safety. With an increase in school violence in the past two decades, school safety is a fundamental concern in our nation’s schools. Policy makers, educators, parents, and students are seeking answers in how best to protect the physical, emotional, and social well-being of all children.

 

Objective of the Book
The proposed edited book covers the primary topic of P-12 school safety and the use of technology and technology used for fostering an environment in which all students can be academically successful and thrive as global citizens.  School safety is defined as the physical, social, and emotional well-being of children. The book will comprise empirical, conceptual and case based (practical application) research that craft an overall understanding of the issues in creating a “safe” learning environment and the role technology can and should play; where a student’s well-being is valued and protected from external and internal entities, equitable access is treasured as a means for facilitating the growth of the whole student, and policy, practices, and procedures are implemented to build a foundation to transform the culture and climate of the school into an inclusive nurturing environment.

 

Target Audience
The target audience is leadership and education scholars, leadership practitioners, and technology coordinators.  This book will be used as a collective body of work for the improvement of K-12 schools and as a tool for improving leadership and teacher preparation programs. School safety is a major concern for educators.  Technology has played a role in creating unsafe environments for children; however it also is an avenue for addressing the challenges of school safety

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Section I – Digital Leadership

  • Technology as a Climate and Cultural Transformation Tool
    • School Leadership in the Digital Age: Building a Shared Vision for all Aspects of Learning and Teaching
  • Ensuring Equity within a “One to One” Technology Framework
    • Infrastructure within Communities
    • Accessible WiFi for Low SES Students
    • Developing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
  • Professional Development for School Leaders

Section II – Well Being

  • Social Media and School Safety: Inputs and Outputs
    • Tip lines: Crime, Bullying, Threats
    • Communication and Transparency
    • Platform for Social Justice
  • Teaching Strategies to Promote Healthy Student Interactions in Cyberspace (Digital Citizenship?)
    • Building Capacity and Efficacy, Platform to lower incidence of Cyber-Bullying, Boosting Instructional Engagement
  • Literacy and Preparedness for the Influence and Consequence of Digital Media Marketing Campaigns directed toward Children, Adolescents, and Teens.
  • Pioneering Innovative Technology Program in Curriculum: Fostering “Belonging” beyond Athletics & Arts.

Section III- Infrastructure Safety

  • Campus/Facility Safety and Security
    • Rural Schools vs. Urban Schools
    • Digital A/V Systems
    • Background Check – Visitor Registration (i.e. Raptor)
  • Network Security Systems and Protocols
    • User Filtering and Monitoring
    • Firewalls
  • Policy
    • Appropriate use policies
    • Digital Citizenship
    • Web development policy
    • Privacy
    • Intellectual Property & Copyright

Section IV – Academic Success

  • Professional Development for Classroom Teachers
    • Pedagogical Integration of Technology
    • Instructional Coaching for Student Engagement
    • Increase Rigor with Technology
    • Competence in the Blended/Hybrid/Flipped Classroom
  • Technology to enhance learning for all
    • Assistive Technology
    • Accessibility issues
    • Internet access for Low SES Students in the Blended/Hybrid/Flipped Classroom
  • Personal Learning Design
    • Differentiation for Student Efficacy
    • Strategies for Increasing Depth of Knowledge
    • Design Qualities for Enhanced Engagement

Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before February 12, 2019, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the purpose, methodology, and a brief summary findings of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by March 12, 2019 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by June 12, 2019, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at http://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission. See Edited Chapter Template. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Leveraging Technology for the Improvement of School Safety and Student Wellbeing. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process.

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery®TM online submission manager. USE THE FOLLOWING LINK TO SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL.  https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/3709

Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), an international academic publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. IGI Global specializes in publishing reference books, scholarly journals, and electronic databases featuring academic research on a variety of innovative topic areas including, but not limited to, education, social science, medicine and healthcare, business and management, information science and technology, engineering, public administration, library and information science, media and communication studies, and environmental science. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit http://www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2020.

Important Dates
February 12, 2019: Proposal Submission Deadline
March 12, 2019: Notification of Acceptance
June 12, 2019: Full Chapter Submission
August 10, 2019: Review Results Returned
August 10, 2019: Final Acceptance Notification
September 7, 2019: Final Chapter Submission

Inquiries can be forwarded to
Dr. Stephanie Huffman
University of Central Arkansas
steph@uca.edu or 501-450-5430

Badgr Credly for school microcredentialing

Hello Rayan,
I am familiar with Badgr and Credly, but cannot speak to the ease (or difficulty) of implementation. Here are some resources that might be helpful.
Comparison tools and platform lists
Write-ups by other institutions or systems:

Kevin Kelly, EdD

Lecturer Faculty, Department of Equity, Leadership Studies & Instructional Technologies

San Francisco State University
Email: kkelly@sfsu.edu
Phone: 415.794.5327

We are exploring the very same topic.  We have been using Credly for the past year or so to give badges to faculty who complete courses in a 3 course series we developed for effective online teaching.

That said, we are a Canvas school and, as we explore our own pilot program, are looking at Badgr’s badging solution (which is free to use, at least for Canvas, maybe all though?) as well as their Pathway’s solution for stacking badges and providing a view of that badge path for participants.

It’s is all very early stage but those are the two platforms and vendors we have focused our time currently.

John Kinsella
Instructional Systems Consultant
ITS – STELAR: St. Thomas E-Learning and Research
(651) 962-7839
jrkinsella@stthomas.edu
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https://support.suitable.co/hc/en-us

https://support.suitable.co/hc/en-us/articles/115000780372-Achievements-Badges-

mostly working with undergrads.

the emphasis (strong side) is the streamlining of the different offices and activities on campus

levels of proficiency is very much geared toward undergrads

aspects of gamification, but no peer support credit/badge

U of Pittsburgh – OCC outside the class curriculum
Monclair U (NJ second largest):
U of Wyoming: after level 3, career coach does storytelling appointment.

pilot is $5K and institutional can vary between $10-15K

segmenting capabilities.

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more on Credly in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=credly

ISTE standards ed leaders

ISTE Releases New Standards for Education Leaders

By Team ISTE6/24/2018

https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=2227&category=Press-Releases&article=
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) today released new standards for education leaders that highlight key areas of impact.
ISTE received input and feedback on the Education Leaders Standards from over 1,300 educators and leaders from all 50 states and 36 countries.

The characteristics of effective leaders outlined in the ISTE Standards for Education Leaders are:

  1. Equity and Citizenship Advocate: Leaders use technology to increase equity, inclusion and digital citizenship practices.
  2. Visionary Planner: Leaders engage others in establishing a vision, strategic plan and ongoing evaluation cycle for transforming learning with technology.
  3. Empowering Leader: Leaders create a culture where teachers and learners are empowered to use technology in innovative ways to enrich teaching and learning.
  4. System Designer: Leaders build teams and systems to implement, sustain and continually improve the use of technology to support learning.
  5. Connected Learner: Leaders model and promote continuous professional learning for themselves and others.

The ISTE Standards are a framework for rethinking education and empowering learners. ISTE began a cycle of updating the widely used standards when it released the new ISTE Standards for Students (in 2016), followed by the ISTE Standards for Educators (in 2017), culminating with the ISTE Standards for Education Leaders this year.

“As administrators, our responsibilities cover many areas, including technology, which has become a necessary component of living and work,” said Curt Mould, director of digital media, innovation and strategy at Sun Prairie Area School District in Wisconsin. “The world our students are walking into is increasingly global and diverse – and technology is often the leverage point needed to bring global and diverse ideas together. In this regard, technology can be a game-changer in our schools. We need a new plan to help operationalize our work for the long-term benefit of our students.”

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more on ISTE standards in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=iste+standards

more on technology and ed leaders in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=technology+ed+leaders

ed leadership and edtech

Edtech playground: Helping teachers choose better tools

By Nicole Krueger Leadership

https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=2177

A virtual reality headset can take students on an immersive journey to another world. But no matter how cool it is, if that $3,000 piece of equipment enters a classroom and doesn’t provide any real instructional value, it can quickly become a very expensive paperweight.

Most schools don’t do edtech procurement really well yet. Sometimes we buy products that end up in closets because they don’t fit the instructional needs of students, and we end up not being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Located in the district’s central office, where hundreds of teachers and staff members stop by each week for professional development, the playground offers a creative space that encourages teachers to explore new tools that have been vetted and approved by the district’s tech department.

In the United States, K-12 schools spend more than $13 billion a year on edtech — often without any idea whether it will make a difference in learning outcomes.

 

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More on ISTE in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=iste

more on digital literacy for ed leaders in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+literacy+EDAD

challenges ed leaders technology

The Greatest Challenge Facing School Leaders in a Digital World

By Scott McLeod     Oct 29, 2017

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-10-29-the-greatest-challenge-facing-school-leaders-in-a-digital-world

the Center for the Advanced Study of Tech­nology Leadership in Education – CASTLE

Vision

If a school’s reputation and pride are built on decades or centuries of “this is how we’ve always done things here,” resistance from staff, parents, and alumni to significant changes may be fierce. In such institutions, heads of school may have to steer carefully between deeply ingrained habits and the need to modernize the information tools with which students and faculty work

Too often, when navigating faculty or parental resistance, school leaders and technology staff make reassurances that things will not have to change much in the classroom or that slow baby steps are OK. Unfortunately, this results in a different problem, which is that schools have now invested significant money, time, and energy into digital technologies but are using them sparingly and seeing little impact. In such schools, replicative uses of technology are quite common, but transformative uses that leverage the unique affordances of technology are quite rare.

many schools fail to proceed further because they don’t have a collective vision of what more transformative uses of technology might look like, nor do they have a shared understanding of and commitment to what it will take to get to such a place. As a result, faculty instruction and the learning experiences of students change little or not at all.

These schools have taken the time to involve all stakeholders—including students—in substantive conversations about what digital tools will allow them to do differently compared with previous analog practices. Their visions promote the potential of computing devices to facilitate all of those elements we now think of as essential 21st-century capacities: confidence, curiosity, enthusiasm, passion, critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-direction. Technology doesn’t simply support traditional teaching—it transforms it for deeper thinking and gives students more agency over their own learning.

Fear

Another prevalent issue preventing technology change in schools is fear—fear of change, of the unknown, of letting go of what we know best, of being learners again. But it’s also a fear of letting kids have wide access to the Internet with the possibility of cyberbullying, access to inappropriate material, and exposure to online predators or even excessive advertising. Fears, of course, need to be surfaced and addressed.

The fear drives some schools to ban cellphones, disallow students and faculty from using Facebook, and lock down Internet filters so tightly that useful websites are inaccessible. They prohibit the use of Twitter and YouTube, and they block blogs. Some educators see these types of responses as principled stands against the shortcomings and hassles of digital technologies. Others see them as rejections of the dehumanization of the education process by soulless machines. Often, however, it’s just schools clinging to the past and elevating what is comfortable or familiar over the potential of technology to help them better deliver on their school missions.

Heads of school don’t have to be skilled users themselves to be effective technology leaders, but they do have to exercise appropriate oversight and convey the message—repeatedly—that frequent, meaningful technology use in school is both important and expected. Nostalgia aside, there is no foreseeable future in which the primacy of printed text is not superseded by electronic text and multimedia. When nearly all information is digital or online, multi-modal and multi­media, accessed by mobile devices that fit in our pockets, the question should not be whether schools prepare students for a digital learning landscape, but rather how.

Control

Many educators aren’t necessarily afraid of technology, but they are so accustomed to heavily teacher-directed classrooms that they are leery about giving up control—and can’t see the value in doing so.

Although most of us recognize that mobile computers connected to the Internet may be the most powerful learning devices yet invented—and that youth are learning in powerful ways at home with these technologies—allowing students to have greater autonomy and ownership of the learning process can still seem daunting and questionable.

The “beyond” is particularly important. When we give students some voice in and choice about what and how they learn, we honor basic human needs for autonomy, we enhance students’ interest and engagement, and we truly actualize our missions of preparing lifelong learners.

The goal of instructional transformation is to empower students, not to disempower teachers. While instructor unfamiliarity with digital technologies, inquiry- or problem-based teaching techniques, or deeper learning strategies may result in some initial discomfort, these challenges can be overcome with robust support.

Support

A few workshops here and there rarely result in large-scale changes in implementation.

teacher-driven “unconferences” or “edcamps,” at which educators propose and facilitate discussion topics, can be powerful mechanisms for fostering professional dialogue and learning. Similarly, some schools offer voluntary “Tech Tuesdays” or “appy hours” to foster digital learning among interested faculty.

In addition to existing IT support, technology integration staff, or librarians/media specialists, some schools have student technology teams that are on call for assistance when needed.

A few middle schools and high schools go even further and assign teachers their own individual student technology mentors. These student-teacher pairings last all school year and comprise the first line of support for educators’ technology questions.

As teachers, heads of school, counselors, coaches, and librarians, we all now have the ability to participate in ongoing, virtual, global communities of practice.

Whether formal or informal, the focus of technology-related professional learning should be on student learning, not on the tools or devices. Independent school educators should always ask, “Technology for the purpose of what?” when considering the inclusion of digital technologies into learning activities. Technology never should be implemented just for technology’s sake.

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more on digital literacy for EDAD in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+literacy+edad

Twitter and ed leadership

Twitter chats can boost student voice, enhance digital citizenship

  Dec. 19, 2017

https://www.educationdive.com/news/twitter-chats-can-boost-student-voice-enhance-digital-citizenship/513340/

My note:
This is another example of blanket statements aimed to bank on buzzwords and fashionable tendencies. Indeed, use of social media is an imperative skill for any educational leader, since it provides a modern venue to communicate with the rest of the stakeholders in the educational process: parents, students etc.
However, the process of social media use in education is rather more complex as presented in this article. e.g.:

  • why Twitter? why is Twitter chosen by the author as the social media platform, considering that Snapchat is the social media app by choice of teenagers?
    https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/01/06/snapchat-leading-social-media-app/
  • why the hashtag use is the one and only altmetric consideration for deep data analysis? The author suggests taking “advantage of an analytic tool to measure effectiveness and participation,” but there is no specific recommendation and the choice of the analytical tool as well as the process of analysis is a science on its own
  • how educators, as suggested by the author, “want to guide students on comment intensity and type while keeping them on topic”? Indeed, an educator abiding by constructivism will facilitate and guide, yet there is a fine boundary between facilitating and dominating the conversation with “guidance.”

The most useless suggestion in the article:
“For administrators, Twitter chats also provide an opportunity to gain student and parent perspectives while giving them more voice in what’s going on within a school or district.”

Are administrators willing to yield that power to their constituency? What does the current research on educational leaders’s attitude reveal regarding their willingness to engage in such open (and difficult to control) discourse? How is such attitude to be changed: this is missing in this article.

What is your approach to the institutional use of social media at your school? 

 

leadership in finland

Lessons From Finland: What Educators Can Learn About Leadership

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