Group items tagged

The class began with all seats facing forward. The teacher points to a chart on the white board showing fastest times for 8 different furniture arrangements in this class (list). She holds up a stopwatch.

While there is now software available to allow such monitoring from the teacher's computer, most teachers must rely upon a technique we will call eyeballing.

ROI is calculated by measuring benefits in dollars. But schools are not in business to make money, and should not measure success in terms of dollars. The business of schools is learning. Of course, if technology projects save money or improve efficiency, then a business-focused ROI is useful, but in general it is important to define the "value" of learning in education. School system leaders need to understand their educational goals and how technology will support those goals. In other words, they should focus not on demonstrating ROI, but what we at CoSN call the value of investment or VOI. So how do you measure investments in technology that are focused on educational rather than financial benefits? A good place to start may be at your district's long-range strategic plan, which may contain goals similar to the following: Increasing student achievement Increasing student engagement Improving attendance and behavior Attracting and retaining staff Developing 21st century skills for students Decreasing dropout rates for at-risk students Engaging parents and communities

To succeed in our volatile, complex, ambiguous world, we have no choice but to master our ability to adapt and learn.

At the same time, we need to have the confidence to make decisions on the spot, even in the absence of compelling, complete data.  The qualities needed at the top—openness, authentic listening, adaptability—also indicate that leaders need to be comfortable with and able to embrace the “grayness” that comes from other people’s ideas or situations that arise.

Learning Agility is a reliable indicator of leadership potential because learning agile people “excel at absorbing information from their experience and then extrapolating from those to navigate unfamiliar situations.

Principals must effectively and consistently model the use of the same technology tools they expect teachers to use in their classrooms with the students. Principals must be consistent in their decisions and expectations about integrating learning technology in the school. The principal's communication about the pace and process of integrating learning technology needs to be clear and reasonable. The principal must provide appropriate professional development time and resources to support effective classroom implementation of technology. The principal must support early adopters and risk takers. The principal must do whatever it takes to ensure that all staff has early access to the very same digital tools that students will be using in their classrooms. As the educational leader, the principal must make it clear to the technology leader that all decisions relating to learning technology will be made by the educational leaders with input from the technology leaders, not the other way around. The principal must set and support the expectation that student work will be done and stored using technology. Principals must ensure that families and the public are kept informed about the school's goals and progress relating to its use of technology as a learning resource. The principal must be an active and public champion for all students, staff members, and the school in moving the vision of fully integrating learning technology for the second decade of the 21st century.