Teaching to reach every single student

Scott McLeod, of Dangerously Irrelevant, issued a challenge to edubloggers to address the topic of educational technology leadership.

Administrators’ lack of knowledge is not entirely their fault. Most of them
didn’t grow up with these technologies. Many are not using digital tools on a
regular basis. Few have received training from their employers or their
university preparation programs on how to use, think about, or be a
leader regarding digital technologies.

So… let’s help them out. Wednesday, July 4, 2007 is American Independence Day
and is as good a day as any to celebrate independent (and hopefully innovative)
thinking and leadership. I hereby invite all edubloggers to blog
about effective school technology leadership next Wednesday.

I wanted to highlight something that happened to me that I thought was an example of excellent leadership.

Before the end of the last school year (June 2006), I mentioned to my principal that I was planning on reading Will Richardson’s book, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, about which I was excited. I had no idea what I was going to do come that fall, but I knew that this stuff mattered. When I returned in September, I learned that this principal had read the book and insisted (yes, insisted) that all the administrators in our district read the book and think about how to apply the technologies. I was greeted by our Superintendent telling me about how excited she was to see what would happen.

As the year went on, I used blogs, wikis, and podcasts in my 7th and 8th grade science classroom. The students loved using them and I saw incredible results, particularly in their science literacy. At every step of the way this principal and superintendent provided support, encouragement, and interest.

While I would (and have often) recommended that people read Will’s book to get a sense of the possibilities at stake here, I believe that perhaps educational leadership in technology is not all that different from leadership in other areas. Both of these effective leaders were open and aware enough to see what would make a difference to our students and then to support implementation of their use.

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