William Skilling on moving from professional development to ‘professional learning’


The most important part of effective leadership “is not knowing how do to something, but knowing what to do”—and then turning it over to the people with the right expertise, said William Skilling, superintendent of the Oxford Community Schools in Michigan.

So, being “tech savvy” means “having competent people around you to implement the vision” for how technology can best be used to improve teaching and learning, said Skilling, a 2012 winner of the Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards from eSchool Media.

Skilling recently sat down with eSchool News Editor Dennis Pierce to discuss his district’s ed-tech accomplishments and the keys to its success.

One of the biggest challenges he identified was how to bring teachers along and make sure they can integrate technology effectively into their instruction. To do this in Oxford, Skilling said, the district is moving away from the traditional model of professional development in which everyone learns at the same time, in the same place, in the same way—and toward a model of “professional learning” instead, in which teachers learn to use technology “any time, any place, any way, on demand.”

Learn more by watching the interview with Skilling here:

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