Program Learning Outcome Eight:
Demonstrate the ability to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of learning and leadership
Introduction
Senge, Smith, Kruswitz, Laur, & Schley (2008)
describe an animateur as a leader who brings to life a new way of
thinking. They go on to say that
leadership is inspiration; the creation of new life and energy in an
organization. In the world today and the
world of education, being a leader means bringing a new way of thinking about
the using technology in the classroom. Technological
tools offer educators so many options from enhancing lessons, collaborating
with colleagues near and far to collecting, analyzing, and storing student data
to help make today’s students the best they can be. Wagner and Ice (2012)
explain data at the educational level can also help us build better systems of
education. The author of this paper is
an animateur who is bringing a new way of thinking to the kindergarten world by
using technology to open the twenty-first century doors of communication to the
teachers, students, parents, administration, and school district. The eighth MATLT Program Learning Outcome
“demonstrate the ability to make informed decisions regarding the use of
technology in support of learning and leadership” will be discussed and
demonstrated in this paper. A prior
MATLT activity will be redesigned using instructional design principles and
theory in order to meet the eighth Program Learning Outcome. The author made an informed decision
regarding the use of technology in support of learning and leadership by
creating and redesigning a website for the kindergarten program. Design and implementation challenges come
with any new way of thinking and new activity and there were challenges with
the redesign of the MATLT activity.
These challenges will be described in this paper as well. Being a leader in the introduction of new
programs, activities, and devices along with making decisions is not always an
easy path to walk but in the end, most find it was a path well worth walking
on.
Supporting Learning and Leadership
with Technology
In order for an
organization to become more effective in helping all students learn, the adults
in the organization must also be continually learning (All Things PLC,
2006). The author of this paper has
always tried to keep up with learning new things as she has moved along in her
teaching career. However it wasn’t until she began this master’s program that
she fully realized how much learning she had been missing out on and with the
changes and growth in the technological world, how far behind most teachers
were in her district. In the school
setting, a school district needs to make sure to include job-embedded learning
as a part of their routine work practices (All Things PLC, 2006). Hord (1997) explains that districts need to develop
a more effective strategy for pursuing continuous school improvement. This will be a key factor to ensuring teacher
buy-in to change strategies for school improvement which will in turn help our
students become twenty-first century learners.
However, teachers need to take on some of the responsibility to learn
and grow professionally in order to bring about success in their students. This may mean reaching beyond the
professional development within the district to outside institutions or finding
ways of learning on their own to become the best professional they can be.
Leading requires
the leader to be informed and to have a plan to present to others. Hord (1997) discusses how teachers need to
come to an understanding of the process of change in order for implementation
to be successful and for the promises of new practices to be realized. Leaders for change need to become change
agents. Stakeholders need to be identified
before a plan can be constructed and those stakeholders need to participate in
the plan to be fully invested in it.
Hord (1997) names the principal as the root leader of change. The principal needs to be one of the
stakeholders to help the change agent bring about a successful change. Collaborative planning provides opportunities
for learning and growth among those who participate, helps them look at the change initiative from
different perspectives, gain understanding of differing viewpoints, channel
conflict, and create a network and team with the participants (Spiro,
2011). Spiro (2011) explains
participants who engage in collaborative planning grow in their expertise,
openness to diverse backgrounds, cooperation, teamwork, learning, and trust.
As the reader will
see, the activity of creating a website for the kindergarten program was the
change project. The stakeholders were
the kindergarten teachers, the principal, and the parents of the kindergarten
students. The leader as well as the other
teachers saw the need for new life and energy and the creation of the website
to open the doors of communication was that new life. The leader took what was learned from the
MATLT program course and applied it to the leader’s educational world. The website has been successful and was a
good decision made by the author regarding the use of technology in support of
learning and leadership.
Original Activity: EDU649 Web-Based Instructional Tool
A Web-based Instructional Tool
The
Internet is a fast and economical method for sharing images, writings and
content (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, Ottenbreit-Leftwich & Russell, 2011). According to Newby et al. (2011), the
interest in Web page authoring and other types of Web publishing in schools
came about after the fiery growth of the World Wide Web. Using a Web page as a powerful communication
tool gives parents and community members insight into what is happening in
their school or a their child’s classroom.
Designing a Web page for the Riverdale Kindergarten classes was the
Web-based instructional tool selected for this assignment. The audience, the purpose, which elements
were incorporated, the creation process and how this tool will be utilized in
the classroom will all be discussed.
The Audience
The audience for this
Web page will primarily be parents of kindergarten students and the students
themselves. Parents will most likely be
present when the students have any access to the Web page. Kindergarten students generally do not know
enough about computers and the Web to gain access to Web pages on their
own. Members of the community,
administrators and other teachers in the district will have access to the Web
page due to it being linked from the Riverdale District Web page. Anyone having access to the link will have
access to the Web page.
The Purpose
Communication
and information are the two key purposes for the creation of the Riverdale
Kindergarten Web page. Communication
is a vital key to a successful school year of students and their parents. Keeping parents informed of what is happening
in the classroom will no doubt help the year be successful for the teachers and
the students. In a very busy world,
having Web access to classroom information such as homework, project due dates,
daily schedules, and website links for drill and practice will help parents
stay informed and students stay on track at times that are most convenient for
their schedules.
Incorporating the Elements
Several guidelines
were followed during the creation of this Web page. Limiting the information on each page helped
it to load quickly. It also helped to
keep the user from feeling overwhelmed with too much information. Being that it is a Web page for the
kindergarten audience; graphics were included to make it more appealing for the
students and parents. The graphics
chosen loaded quickly and were not so overpowering to where it distracted the
user from the original mission of the site which was to inform. Navigational support was given to the site
with clear and consistent navigational elements such as linking text (Newby et
al., 2011). The site was tested several
times to ensure that the pages were accessible and the links worked
properly.
The Creation Process
The creation of this Web page came about because of a need
and a want by the designer. There was a
need to create some type of instructional tool for this assignment and a Web
page was a fantastic choice. It was a
fantastic choice because of the desire to create a much needed Web page for
Riverdale Kindergarten students and parents.
The Web page needed to be accessed and edited by two other teachers in
the Riverdale Kindergarten program.
Google Sites was the perfect place for this creation because the
designer already had access to a Google account through the school network and
so did the other two teachers. Using
Google Sites allows all three teachers to share access to the creating and
editing process of the Web page. Google
Sites had simple templates that were easy to edit and adapt. There were tutorials and instructions
directly on the template pages that made the addition of information
uncomplicated. Google Sites made
creating this Web page fun, exciting and less of an effort than the designer
had expected. The real proof will be in
presenting it to the Kindergarten team and to the Riverdale parents.
Utilizing This Tool in the Classroom
This instructional
tool is a powerful communication and information tool and will be utilized in
all three Riverdale Kindergarten classrooms.
Many years ago each Riverdale Kindergarten teacher designed a Web page
specifically for her classroom but the teachers had a difficult time
maintaining the information on the pages.
Having one Web page that all teachers can access and edit will be easier
for the teachers to maintain.
Maintaining the site may become one specific teacher’s assignment for
the team while others take on other daily duties. Before that decision will be made, the team
will have to view the site together to see just how much maintenance will be
needed and how much time will take. For
now, the page has been created, it is appealing, is very informative and seems
easy to maintain. The communication
power that the Web page will have should far outweigh any time it will take to
maintain it. The Riverdale Kindergarten
parents and teachers will be excited to know there is a communication and
information tool available for the upcoming school year.
Redesigned Activity
The creation of
the website meets the eighth Program Learning Outcome “demonstrate the ability
to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of
learning and leadership”. However, the
website became the sole responsibility of the author and change needs to come
enabling the other teachers try their hand at adding to the website. According to Spiro (2011), leaders need to
determine the readiness of those who will be participating in and who will be
implementing this change. Although the
author felt the maintenance of the website would essentially fall on one person
(the author), a meeting with the other teachers needs to occur to see if they
would be willing to take on some of the maintenance in order to grow and learn
professionally. Crow (2012) describes thought leaders as those who have ideas
which spawn other ideas and actions in others.
Having the shell of the website already created might encourage them to
participate and bring about new ideas from the other teachers as they are helping
to maintain the website. The author
needs to lead the other teachers in this project and help them realize they can
make additions to the website as well through Google Sites.
According
to Waters, Marzano and McNulty (2013), it is very important that leaders are
able to recognize the different ways that change might impact their organizations
and communities. The author needs to
select practices and strategies to implement change very carefully. The author’s desire is to bring about
positive change in the other teachers without them feeling frustrated and
feeling like this project will be additional work added to their daily
duties. One way might be to assign the
teachers to various pages of the website.
Each teacher could take a page and maintain it. This way they are participating and adding to
a page without having to come up with their own design directly. This strategy may give them the confidence
they would need to step beyond the page assigned to them and create a new
one. For the more confident teacher, the
author might initiate a challenge to add some audio to the website to reach the
auditory audience. Another challenge
would be to add a page which explains the data that is collected in
kindergarten and what it all means when it comes to making the best decisions
for the success of each student.
Regardless of which path each teacher takes; a challenge or just getting
their feet wet, their participation in the project will bring about change in
them as well as change for the audience of the website. Participating in this change project will also
bring professional growth in the other teachers and show them how to this use
of technology aids in learning and leadership.
Instructional Design Principles
and Theories
As the author was redesigning the website activity,
several design principles and theories were considered. This redesign aligns with the Elaboration Theory
which falls under the heading of Cognitivism/Pragmatism. According to the Elaboration Theory, Dabbagh (2006) explains
instruction should be organized in increasing order of complexity for the best
possible learning. Dabbagh (2006) goes
on to explain when teaching a procedural task, the simplest version of the task
is presented first. In the redesign, the
leader encouraged and assigned the other kindergarten teachers maintenance of a
website page that was already created. Dabbagh
(2006) further explains the theory in which subsequent lessons present
additional versions or challenges until the full range of tasks are taught. The teachers were challenged to add additions
to the website such as audio or a data page to explain how data is used to help
make decisions regarding the success of each kindergarten student.
There were three
basic principles the redesign fell under.
These principles were under the heading of Cognitivism/Pragmatism. Dabbagh
(2006) listed one principle as “Learning is a change of knowledge state”. The change of knowledge state was present in
the redesign when the teachers would become more knowledgeable of the website
and more comfortable making changes to the website. Dabbagh (2006) explained this principle; “Learner is viewed as an active participant in the
learning process” as another Cognitivism/Pragmatism principle. This principle was present in the redesign
with the teachers being active participants in the learning process of website
maintenance and page construction. The
last principle that fit with the redesign project as listed by Dabbagh (2006) was
“Emphasis on structuring, organizing and sequencing information to facilitate
optimal processing”. The change project
needed to be structured, organized, and sequenced for the leader to bring about
successful change and for the teachers to be able to follow a plan for success
in maintaining the website.
Challenges
The
biggest challenges with the redesign of the website activity will be time and
possibly resistance. Resistance is about
the feelings of those who are asked to participate rather than getting agendas
accomplished (Spiro, 2011). The feelings
of being uncomfortable with the unknown and being asked to change too many
things at the same time will bring about resistance to change (Spiro,
2011). When the team of participants
works together to redesign and add to the kindergarten website, this will prevent
resistance because they will all be invested in the project and take stock in
it according to the article, “Buying In: Saving Your Good Idea from Being Shot
Down,” (Kotter, 2011). McLeod (2007)
points out small successes in the early stages of a project can be very
important in shifting people's views.
Initially assigning the other teachers a page of the website to maintain
should being about a small win for each teacher. The hope is that the small win will help them
become comfortable with their assigned task and then move to one of the
challenges such as adding audio or creating the data page. Open communication between the team during
the change process is vital. When the
team working on the change works together and communicates all issues, positives,
or small wins, resistance will be prevented.
According to McLeod (2007) organizational change often
creates more workload. Adding anything
new to the daily routine is a huge and will require more time and work on the
part of all participants. The core
kindergarten team will be managing the website.
The team needs to know that there will be time available during school
hours and that each member’s responsibility will be shared in order for them to
have total buy in and to prevent resistance.
Conclusion
Proposed change
often leads to a person’s sense of identity and sense of self as a professional
(Schuler, 2003). Bringing about a change
using technology such as a website has helped the author as well as the other
kindergarten teachers become leaders in their school and in their grade
level. Their confidence as leaders of
technology will carry over to other areas of leadership in their profession as
well as find new ways to incorporate technology into their classrooms. The project has brought about a new way of
thinking and has helped to build a better system of communication for the
teachers and parents of the kindergarten program. The eighth MATLT Program Learning Outcome
“demonstrate the ability to make informed decisions regarding the use of
technology in support of learning and leadership” was met through the creation and
redesign of the website activity. The
challenge of time and potential resistance to change was given great thought
and will be solved by the team as they
work together to bring about the change.
In order for a change leader to bring about successful change in an
organization, the leader needs to follow a plan to gather stakeholders, present
the idea, collaboratively design a plan, invest in the plan, and have buy-in
from all participants. This change
project was initially successful when the website was created and will be even
more successful because the leader has followed the plan.
References
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(2006). About
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