Leadership

An attorney for a high school student who brought a free speech lawsuit against her school district last year said he now plans to file a libel lawsuit against the principal.

School districts create acceptable-use policies (AUPs) to define what is--and is not--acceptable behavior when using their computer resources. But at a time when computers and internet access are seen as increasingly important tools for instruction, many school leaders are struggling with how best to enforce these policies in the event that students transgress them.

A new web site sponsored by McGraw-Hill Education's Urban Advisory Resource offers advice on improving schools from superintendents and other education leaders across the country in an easily accessible format.

What is a Data Warehouse? A data warehouse is a storage and analysis application that allows schools to collect and store student and school data from a number of sources and from multiple years. A data warehouse application allows data to be viewed in a multidimensional manner through numerous filters, slices and attributes. A data warehouse is intended to be an analytical system to view and compare current data with longitudinal data, to identify trends and to help develop educational improvements. A data warehouse does not replace a student information system or finance/HR application.  Rather, a data warehouse brings together key data elements from numerous systems, including assessment results and demographic data, to allow for in-depth analysis and data-driven decision making.

If you use business intelligence products, pivot tables or queries, you'll find Tableau a breakthrough for quickly answering deep questions. Customers are working 5 to 20 times faster using Tableau. Use Tableau Desktop as a stand-alone application. Or if you can't keep the secret to yourself, use it with Tableau Server for a complete web-based analytics and dashboard solution for your company.

Being in IT and computing I'm fundamentally in the business of change. Instigators of change are essentially trying to make things better, smarter, faster, more productive etc. However, it is more than apparent that the majority of people in the world hate change. But why is that? The instigator of change usually has all those who benefit from the old way of doing things as his enemies and he has only lukewarm supporters from those that will benefit from his new way of doing things. Seems like change is a big risk will only a small reward. So why the big imbalance?

Heading into the wild blue yonder of a new school year, we know that some things are inevitable. There will be more to do than last year, and less time to get it done. But what further developments lay ahead? Let's take a look at the predictions for the future of public education. Use the table of contents to the right to navigate your way through our 2008 predictions. Please tell us in the comments field at the end of every article, poll, and video what you think.

...it's time for a shift away from teaching to the test and a shift towards challenging kids and seriously raising the bar. In classrooms where we must accommodate a very heterogeneous group of kids, there is nothing better than a computer and some interesting science equipment to let the high-flyers, well, fly high. There aren't actually many better tools than some well-thought-out software and hands-on tools to reach the kids who are struggling. Computers should be much more than Wikipedia access points and word processors.

Remember the old Monty Hall program Let's Make a Deal? In that game show, you could win the prize behind one of three doors. If you started by choosing door 1, should you have changed your mind and selected door 2, if Monty showed you what's behind door 3 (Tierney, 2008)? What has this to do with research? Well ... people are convinced what they know is the right thing and forge ahead with decisions based on their rationalizations, no matter what research indicates. In education, such decisions--especially technology purchasing decisions--can have profound consequences.

Bachelor programs contain elaborative coverage in various fields which are industry specific and growth oriented. Courses in software engineering, Game development, Information Technology, web media, Net working, are designed for current industry standards. Courses are also in International business, Accounting, finance and HRM.

One of the differences between a happy and an unhappy organization is how well its structures and processes match its objectives. You can call this 'coherence' - a coherent organization is one which is organized and managed in a way that embraces its objectives, rather than just not getting in the way.

Some is not a reason to ignore the large-scale, widespread, policy- and practice-level decisions that need to be made to transition our schools into a digital, global society. Some is not permission to stand pat.

There is a great deal that leaders can learn from Madonna and her incredible ways, including: How to deal with innovation as fashions and customer demands shift. Effective techniques to reinvent a persona and profile. How to bring a management team along with you, even as you face controversy. How to capitalize on success for the benefit of larger causes.

Creating online communities of customers and workers has been one of the hotter topics in business and technology this year. Whether you're on the business side, in IT, or are just trying to build virtual teams around shared goals, online communities are rapidly becoming a popular way to organize people and accomplish work in a highly collaborative manner.

Last night was Family Night at my kids' elementary school. You know, that night when you visit your kid's class with the other parents, learn about the curriculum and teacher expectations for the year, sit in little tiny chairs, etc. Each parent was asked to sign the district's Digital Resources Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for the 2008-2009 school year. Not a single parent read over the AUP; everyone just signed it blindly. Except me, of course. I combed through it because, as a former attorney and technology guy, I want to know what I'm signing on behalf of my fifth-grade daughter.

People tend to over-value their assets and ignore embarrassing problems. Part of the problem with Wall Street is that corporations still can't bring themselves to admit that most of the fancy derivatives and other so-called assets they are holding are worth virtually nothing. They hang on, claiming their businesses are strong and denying the truth, until it's too late and the crisis threatens to overwhelm them, one by one. It's the same with personal strengths and capabilities: people tend to over-value their abilities and underplay their weaknesses. As a result, they become complacent about what skills and experience they have and what they can achieve with them.

How can you overcome the hurdles facing any organization struggling to change: addiction to the status quo, limited resources, demotivated employees, and opposition from powerful vested interests?

The Leadership 3.0 Symposium is a collaborative effort of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), Computer Using Educators, Inc. (CUE), Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership (TICAL). It is truly "for administrators, by administrators." 3 organizations, 1 mission - Educational Leadership for the 21st century.

Use these 4-5 minute presentations to quickly gain a better understanding of the variety of tools on the World Wide Web including blogs, social networks, and wikis.

Technology by its very nature will stop working at some point and this often creates an atmosphere of distrust. As the Director of Information and Communication Technologies I very often only hear the complaints and rarely a thank you. My staff works hard every day, which includes typical upgrades, day-to-day fixes, and emergencies. Decisions are made daily that impact how our teachers, staff, administrators, and students use the technology resources that are available in the schools. I think it is in our best interest to be proactive and share the good news and the challenges that are presented through the integration of technology throughout academic and organizational use throughout the school district.