Teachers, administrators can lead effective technology initiatives together
Classrooms across the nation are experiencing an infusion of technology that is meant to engage students and take learning beyond the four walls of a classroom. This infusion started as a trickle and is now a flood that is flowing into every corner of every learning space in our schools. Any attempt to hold it back is not only futile, but also a sign of a lack of understanding of the educational evolution happening before our eyes.
As a superintendent, I see this infusion and embrace it. However, I grapple with the question of who should lead the transition. By title and past practice that responsibility typically falls on those of us with an administrative title. However, as I have observed, learned from, and collaborated with educators during this transition, I now believe that the leaders of this transition need to be the teachers. The role of the administration is to guide, motivate, encourage, and assure compliance with school policy, while finding ways to make the technology that is needed possible.
(Next page: How Rocco created a way, with teachers’ input, to address these changes)
To create such an environment, I have established a district committee of teachers called the Lead Learner Committee (LLC). Its membership is voluntary, but its focus is vital to the technology evolution in my school district. Members of the LLC will meet monthly to discuss how we as a district can effectively use technology to improve learning and instruction. Our meeting space, a conference room, has been dubbed the “test kitchen” and is furnished with the equipment currently in the majority of our classrooms. In this room we will discuss, examine, assess, and recommend various hardware and software resources we feel are beneficial to our students and teachers. After every meeting the minutes will be made available to district staff with links and examples.…Read More