Develop skills, knowledge, and values needed to provide leadership in schools. Analyze characteristics of effective leaders, focusing on staff development. Explores technology and school reform, technology integration, and current issues.

Reflection:

This was my first course back in the program after a fairly long absence. It felt good to get back into the program, and even better to experience the FastTrack implementation so that I could move through the remaining courses quickly.  I had lingered long enough. During my time away, there had been some significant changes to the program: New course numbers, the FastTrack program, and some curricular changes that affected the material for the Technology Leadership Course.  Dr. Phipps was wonderful to adjust her material so that the gaps would be filled without having to repeat work.  I was very satisfied with the outcome.

Looking back on my reflection document I am still contented with my analogy of “bridging” technology and education.  I see this as a critical process that will help us to move our school system from a failing to successful. This course helped me hone my leadership skills and knowledge so that I can have a positive effect on this effort. Specifically, building a strong staff is essential for a leader, and the work I did on this unit was inspiring as well as informative. Completing the Staff Development Plan allowed me to understand the logistical complexities of training a large non-technical staff.  Looking at staff development from this perspective was rewarding, since most of the staff development I do is teaching “techno-wizards” how to interact with the rest of society. Bridging the gap in technical knowledge is a first step in being able to integrate more technology into learning.

I also learned how to effectively assess educational technology offerings in my analysis of the Jason, Math Adventures program.  I am a huge fan of Dr. Robert Ballard, and his programs do a phenomenal job of making math and science riveting topics for young students. The assessment criterion used for this analysis, derived by Dr. Tom Reeves, was an excellent tool for uncovering the subtleties and complexities of a technical learning tool or program.

The Case Study I conducted clarified for me the significance of addressing the needs of all users. This may seem a trite phrase, but with so many new and emerging technologies available, we are irresponsible learning-leaders if we do not investigate and implement tools and features that will help more of our students learn better. Likewise, when we have gone to the effort to make changes and improvements in our environments, it is important that we disseminate that information to the community, especially to the parents in our learning community. I determined to explore web-based methods of information dissemination.

Artifacts and Standards:

Staff Development Plan | IB | IIB | VA | VB | VD | VIE
Jason: Math Adventures | IIB | IIC | IID | IIIB | IIIC | IIID | VC
Case Study | VIB | VIC
Dissemination | IID | VD