The course title Instructional Leadership led me, at first, to believe I would be learning how to lead my campus in the instructional journey students and teachers take. I include in this journey guiding the creation of effective, creative, useful, productive professional development for teachers, as well as providing guidance to teachers in implementing differentiated effective instruction for students, and guiding students towards ownership of learning. When I saw the added tagline, The Technology Link, I believed this course would prepare me to be a leader in the instructional journey, as laid out above, specifically with the use of technology. I thought the topics of Web 2.0, online learning, copyright and intellectual property would be addressed, as well as shared thoughts for funding of technology, the state's expectations of technology in the classroom, and the future of technology in education.
I do not believe I achieved all of those specific envisioned outcomes; what I actually learned in this course included elements of what I expected to learn, as well as new ideas. I had not thought about addressing issues of how the 21st century student learned and how that is different than the learning styles of "digital immigrants," or finding it pertinent to know what people who are becoming teachers have been taught about integrating technology into the classroom.
I feel that some of the outcomes from this coursework are relevant to the work I currently do in my school, which is that of librarian. From my previous graduate work and my subsequent role of librarian, I am well versed on copyright and intellectual property, but a refresher on this incredibly complicated system is never a bad thing. While I believe that some of the articles I read are appropriate for what I do in my building, I'm not sure that the final project is one that will see much difference on my campus. As most of my campus technology needs are met (and decided upon) by administrators at the district level, there is little I can do to implement some of the expected outcomes for this course, so their relevance was little to the work I currently do in my school. Perhaps mine is an isolated case for this course; how many are certified librarians? To be fair, I did expect to cover material in this graduate program that I've previously studied.
I feel I did not achieve the outcomes of fully exploring ideas for funding of technology, nor do I feel the future of technology in education was addressed. Perhaps the future of technology in education is here; perhaps more recent articles would have led to the discovery of what's being examined for the future.
While I believe I was successful in carrying out the course assignments, there are certain elements of this course that I feel need attention. In my opinion, some of the articles the class had to read were a little on the old side, as far as technology is concerned. Lamar University claims to have access to world-renowned libraries; surely the reference librarians would have been able to find just as relevant (if not more so) and more recent articles dealing with the aspects of technology in education that this course stands to teach.
Aside from the articles, I feel that the action plan will not become a reality at my campus. While I believe the administration, the teachers, and the site based management team agree that the ideas included in the plan are useful and important, I do not think the district will provide the campus with the needed autonomy not only to make these decisions, but to see them carried out. I find this discouraging.
I did learn in this course. I have never taken the time to set up a blog and the assignments for this course led me to discover that it's really not that hard (now I'm a little less impressed with my colleagues who blog regularly, either for profession or personal). Setting up and following blogs led me to investigate RSS feeds, Googledocs, and other Web 2.0 items further. This past summer I declined an offer to take Web 2.0 training in order to begin my program with Lamar University. Before this summer, I had often considered myself pretty tech-savvy, but with all of these new web-based programs, I feel left behind. As with most trainings, now I am invigorated to go out and utilize more Web 2.0 features, and figure out ways to integrate them into the library program on my campus.
I also learned more about my school district and the direction the district claims it wants to take versus the direction we're actually headed. CCISD is pretty far ahead of the curve with technology integration in the classroom, but there's so much farther we could go. It seems that all are punished for the inappropriate actions of a few, that many decisions are made by people who have never taught, and sometimes the cart is put before the horse (ok, we bought it. Now what do we do with it?).
It's taken me some time to try to figure out how blogs and blogging can be of educational value to the 21st century learner. Having set up and followed blogs, I easily understand the value of this tool for learners. How easy it would be to have a "silent" discussion about a topic introduced in class? For clubs and organizations to post upcoming events as well as reviewing past events? For a communication tool from the district or campus administration to the community at large? Blogs are an interesting tool, but I hope education doesn't overtake the blog bandwagon. PowerPoint presentations used to be all the rage at one time, too. Now students are not as impressed or engaged with them due to the overuse of the software. The use of discussion boards, blogs, pods, and wikis all have huge educational potential; they all need to be used instead of relying on just one to engage the learner. Web 2.0 tools such as blogging brings other concerns to mind as well. Privacy issues, protecting our students from inappropriate content and cyber bullies, and dealing with intellectual property are all messy and detailed concerns that administrators, teachers, and parents should have with blogs and blogging. Making sure the students know they are in a "safe" environment is much more difficult in cyberspace than in a physical classroom.
Overall, a balance of the use of various methods of getting information to students, communicating with stakeholders, training teachers all needs to be taken into consideration when dealing with these issues. Relying too much upon any one way of doing anything is a recipe for problems.
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