My technology commitment...

     My technology goal for the 14-15 school year is twofold. First, I would like to work with my staff to utilize district resources already available to them to increase parent, student, and industry communication. The primary tool for this is moodle. Currently, only one of my eleven staff use moodle. My goals is to have half of my staff consistently use moodle to accept student work, share examples, create a class dialogue, and to share practice assessments. It is also an effective means to list daily assignments. Parents and students would be able to log in and see the work of the day themselves. It is also a self-advocacy piece for students.

     My personal technology goals is to meet with my Director and see how we can use our facebook account to build our brand in a more effective way. I'm not sure what kind of angle to take to encourage more students, alumni, parents, and industry partners to "like" our page. More importantly is to set up a culture of students sharing pictures, events, and important connections they have made on our facebook page as a kind of personal narrative. There is a lot of potential here. Like a wise man once told me, "someone is going to tell your story, it might as well be you".

     November and Cuban both give advice to consider prior to implementing 1:1 and bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives in your building. They both highlight pitfalls to be aware of such as professional development for staff, clear expectations for students, and administrative support for accountability. Ultimately, the goal of any new initiative is to raise academic achievement. Without procedures in place and a systematic series of formative checks to ensure progress is being made, the dollars spent on new tech will be for naught.

Beyond 1:1 computing 

     The implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a unique opportunity as educators are faced with the same learning curve for understanding. As many districts are transitioning to 1:1 and BYOD initiatives, it feels like a logical opportunity to bring in blended learning (and the tech of choice) as a tool to integrate CCSS into the curriculum. Professional Development (PD) can be intertwined around the two and hopefully perception won't look at them as two separate things they need to start "doing" in their classes.

CCSS in a nutshell

     As a building leader it is important to start laying the ground work early on. Collaborating with my leadership team and visiting professional learning communities (PLC's) to create a vision for our incoming tech, set goals for accountability, and a means to monitor our progress. It is something that would require us as a staff to have open and honest conversations about our struggles and successes so my administrative team will know where PD is needed. I would need to anticipate who and where resistance might come from and other potential issues. The key is to keep my site council team (dept heads, parent, classified rep, counselor, open to all staff) in the loop and part of the collaboration and implementation process.

     Below is the link to a short slideshare by Jenna Linskens from 2012.

BYOD from jalinskens67

     The concept of building a "professional" brand is not a new to me. In fact, whether we are conscious of it or not, our brand is being built. The choices and decisions we make with friends, family, co-workers, and supervisors are the ingredients that make up our reputation. Ironically, when I was growing up in southern California in the late 80's/early 90's, it was your "rep" that got all the attention. Some people wanted to be the tough guy, some wanted to be the athlete, etc, etc. People acted certain ways to influence the perception their peers (and others) had of them. It was more of a local kind of thing. While I expected people in my neighborhood to know my reputation, it was uncommon for that to extent to other cities.

     Fast forward to 2014 and the idea of a personal or professional brand seems like a logical extension of the 20th century reputation. My personal and professional brand is on display via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. These (and other) forms of social media bring additional layers of extra exposure. It is a responsibility to build, promote, and protect my brand as there can be real world implications. There are several examples online (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-firing-teacher-loses-job-commenting-students-parents/story?id=11437248 is just one example) of educators being disciplined or even fired for unprofessional comments made over social media.

     Meghan Biro hits the nail on the head when she states, "Your brand is you - heart, soul, and head...Make it the foundation of all that follows your career and leadership skills. Ultimately, I want my brand to represent the passion I have for my profession and the love I have for my peers and students. That won't be done by the quantity of connections or number of followers. It will be done via collaboration, leading by example, and the personal investment of time and energy into my craft.

     Taking a look at building level, I see many similarities. The tools I will use to promote the brand name of my school are the same social media sites for personal use. The target audience will be my key stakeholders (parents, local industry, students, staff, alumni) and the goal will be transparent communication. I will use these tools to share relevant information in real time. My hope is it will contribute to a sense of community and create buy in from parents.

http://www.storiesfromschool.org/2013/12/give-it-a-chance.html

I absolutely recognize the value of utilizing social media to build our brand and connect with community/industry/parents/students/alumni. What I worry about and struggle with is the perception of every facebook page, blog, twitter feed, and wiki page that gets created has with our stakeholders. Evert word on every page of social media is a direct reflection on my campus and ultimately me (as principal) regardless of who wrote it. We are talking about staff who are representing their building with every stroke of the keyboard. I'm not quite to that level of comfort yet to allow that to happen.

I would prefer to be a technology leader by modeling the appropriate use of social media prior to opening that door to staff. There would be a professional development installation plan centered around the Pillars of Digital Leadership and NETS-A.

The NETS-A seems to be a logical and specific document to help guide administrators and instructors as they navigate the transition into utilizing social media to inform stakeholders of key information. This could be anything from field trip info to testing tips to athletic results.

When classrooms can parallel the increased responsible use of technology expected in the workplace, we better prepares our students for 21st century jobs. These are jobs that will expect a greater level of technological competence than ever before. This means more than just the ability to "google" something.

The first step to address the "generational differences" is awareness. Teachers and administrators must recognize the "old way" of doing business does not work with the tech savvy millennials that are flooding our schools. It requires educators to adjust the means by which they disseminate information to students. Rote memorization, hours of lecture, and worksheets should not be the primary instructional mode. While McKenzie does a good job of pointing out flaws in Prensky's article, I don't think it changes the fact that students are more "plugged in" than previous generations. Why not take advantage of that in the educational arena?

The key appears to be meeting them at their strength. However, it's more than just recognizing how the utilization of technology can affect positive change in student learning. There are many questions that need to be addressed at district and building levels.

• How can we afford the needed technology?
• What professional development is needed?
• How do we implement, support, and monitor blended learning?