How am I doing & Hardware & Software

How am I doing? Hall, Chapter 6

What a great chapter and question!   I think many managers have found themselves in Max's position at one point or another which is being the type of leader that provoked change, one tha set measurable objectives, and holding individulas responsibles for the outcome or lack there of.  The author give several suggestions like evaluating their team often and remind them of their objectives and in return the leader should be evaluated by their team.  It is natural to get offended it is a natural defense mechanism but as leaders we have to remember we are leading and we must lead by example so if they are being constantly evaluated it is only fair to give the staff the opportunity to evaluate and be scrutinized.  Hall makes a great point to read the evaluations done by the staff alone and not respond to them right away. As leaders we are not perfect people and it takes the staff that you work with to bring your short comings to light because you may not be aware. Another important recommendation was to focus on the changes that affect the masses.  I like the idea of doing the 360 evaluations but I agree it is only effective if the staff feels comfortable in your role as a leader and not threatened and in fear of backlash for evaluating you.    One way this can be avoided is by doing anonymous evaluations so the staff will have the freedom to give feedback comfortably.

MBO (Management by Objectives)

               The company in which I work for utilizes the management by objectvives which assumes that performance objectives drives action plans (Hall).   I personally like having objectives to work on throughout the year because it adds value to what I do and advises  how my job aligns with the company’s vision or goals.  I think objectives are important because it shows what you have accomplished or what you haven’t.

Application

                Every team has a culture, it is up to each leader to understand the members of the team by examinig their strengths, weaknesses, challenges and personalities.  The clashing of personalities break a team or group, just as we saw with Stan.  If the personality is too strong people feel threatened, if the personaility is week then people get ran over. It is up to the manager to balance the team as much as possible and provide trainings and evaluations to teach the team or group how to work together.  But, to ignore personality conflicts can destroy any organization, team, or group, as leaders we have to empower the weak and teach the strong how to lead.  Personality difference is one of the most  difficult things a leader must learn to manage but ignoring it is not an option.

Hardware and Software Evaluations, Anthony, Chapter 10

                I must admit this hardware and software stuff is a bit overwhelming for me.  I like technology but I don't understand a lot of the tech talk.   I don’t know about you but when I go looking for computer hardware I first look at the style and how attractive it is, I guess that’s the girl in me, then I worry about if I can work it later.  For example I ordered a HP mini laptop online it was cute but many of the features I dont know how to use or dont know what they mean.   It  came with no instructions whatsoever so I had to download it online but reading it is like reading hebrew.  Things that should matter like performance, compatibility, and expandability or features were not my top priority but, if I was ordering hardward or software for a school district those things would have to be taken into consideration.   Because hardware is a huge long-term investment it is important to research the vendor’s,  to see if they offer things like technical support, trainings, and or maintenance because these things will have an impact on how you use these components.  Cost is also a factor but we will pay top dollar if the hardware or software meets are expectations.  These books are excellant references and will help me in my journey to become an exceptional distance education instructor.

Anthony G. P. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology (5th ed.). Hunter College,

NY: Allyn & Bacon.

Hall, D. (2008). The Technology Director’s Guide to Leadership. ISTE.

Team work & Multimedia

      Look how far we have come just 22 years ago I graduated from high school and the Internet was not even thought of.  It has since allowed us to communicate, transfer and receive data from all over the world without us giving it much thought as to what's involved.  The Internet has been the most amazing digital technology to date it has given us a world of resources at our fingertips in seconds. 

     Schools not only have Internet but can establish their own slip (serial line internet protocol) or obtain service from a local service provider.  Data communication has expanded in school systems also by local (LAN) or Wide (WAN) are networks. These networks allow computers to communicate with one another regardless to where they are.

      Multimedia be a new term but it has been around for years in the form of television and radio.  Needless to say multimedia has changed not only can we text, but radio and television can be received on many devices like ipod's, zune's and via the computer.  Television is the most powerful formation of digital media so much so that the newspaper is nearly extinct.  Multimedia has taken on other forms as well like texting, still images, animation, audio and full motion video.  Who remembers VHS the world of video cassette tapes and VCR's?  I still have a VCR and my VHS tapes so don't laugh who knows they may come back in the future.

      Technology in the classroom has been a bit disappointing thus far due to the lack of utilization in education.  Technology is used in almost every aspect of a childs life now, but it has not been used in a learnin capacity as it should be.  Technology should be used for teaching and learning and not as the sole learning device.  Teachers should remain the primary source of information but technology can be used to reinforce the learning.  Teachers can create their own multimedia programs for students to work on individual or group projects can be utilized to offer other learning strategies and more hands on experiences. 

      What makes a great team?

      First impressions go along way, Professor Oracle immediately introduces himself, shakes each students hands on the first day of class and ask a couple questions of each of them.  A simple gesture that goes along way, Professor Oracle starts by getting to know the students on a more personal level, this can have a huge impact on the students.  It decreases anxieties and starts to create a sense of community in the classroom because everyone is learning about each other at the same time. 

      How do you create a great team? One of most important significant members of the team is the leader. The leader must be visibly active, recognizing and reminding each team member of their role and the importance of the contribution.   The purpose of a team is to work as a group towards a common goal. All groups go through developmental stages and going to fast and skipping through stages will have a negative effect in the end.  The are four stages: 1. forming (when everyone agrees and everyone is on their best behavior, 2. storming (things are rocky, people are not on the same page due to misconceptions) 3. norming (rules are set and people are starting to agree and accept the processes outlined), 4.  performing (now that all the kinks are worked out the team begins to produce quality results).  It does not matter the order in which the team goes through the stages but it is crucial that the team travel down some of these painful stages in order to enjoy success in the end.  When each team member feels individually responsible or accountable for the success of every team member that's when you have a great team (Hall).  Regardless of the teams success or lack there of the team should be addressed as a team and always end any meetings on a positive note. 

References

Anthony, G.P. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology (5th ed). Hunter College, NY:

       Allen & Bacon.

Hall, D. (2008). The Technology Director's Guide to Leadership. ISTE.

Week 4 Technology & Instruction - Improving Teaching & Learning

       As early as the 1980's educators realized there is value in providing instructional experience to improve computer literacy, record-keeping, and improving student performance. So much so that school districts have spent billions of dollars a year in technology and it technology is still not integrated into most curriculum's.   I find it devastating to the educational of our students that bureaucracy prevents educators from using technology to its full potential.  The author of  "Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology" Anthony Picciano's revelation reveals that schools still consider themselves in the developmental stages but my question is when does the development stage end.    Students, teacher, parents, and administrators demand more in regards to education and technology and the developmental stage is an now an excuse.
    
     Our early theorist Dewey, Piaget, Bloom, Gagne, and Vygotsky may not have agreed on the rate, manner or intellectual abilities of children but evidence has proven that students learn from doing, experiments, and by problem solving,  Instructional technology is the gateway to providing hands on instruction.   We as educators must get away from the "one teaching style fits the needs of all children" approach.  The traditional teaching practice of lecturing, memorizing, and teacher directed learning is so old school.  We should not sell student short by settling for traditional teaching methods because its what's familiar or easy we should use as many new resources as possible to ensure understanding by as many as possible.

     The text points out learning is three fold instruction, assessment and curriculum.  The question is how do we move all three components into a technology based arena and replace many of the traditional practices to technology based resources.  We realize many things are out of our control as educators but there are a lot of things within our control like: being innovative, un-afraid of change, yet flexible by using various teaching strategies while engaging students with challenging multi-media components.  Another thing we can do as teachers is acknowledge the benefits of collaboration and use technology to manage student teacher interactions, monitor performance, and assess achievement. 

     As a future leader in technology it is important to be actively engaged because if you are not apart of the team then why would anyone else.  It is just as important to listen, be a reflective thinker and make analytical inquiries but, in doing so it is critical to use appropriate vocabulary, tone, sand tyle to be an effective leader regardless if it is in the classroom, boardroom, or pulpit. 

Anthony G.P. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology (5th. ed) Hunter College, NY:

       Allyn & Bacon.

Hall, D. (2008). The Technology Director's Guide to Leadership. ISTE.

Sept.8, Replacement Blog for Online Discussion

     It is amazing to me how fast technology is growing.  Within the last 20 years technology has allowed us to collect, sort, manipulate and report with great sophistication.  Technology has become our main source of communication in our day to day lives as well.  Everything is more instant with text messages, email, instant messages and even through social networking sites society has a need to now mentality. 

     Millions of dollars are being spent evry year by schools, corporations, and by the governmet to expand and improve their computer based information systems.  The vast majority of money spent is going into data base management which, electronic spreadsheets, and office automation to manage text and communications.
The most expensive to maintain and improve is the databases because the more information to be evaluated, sorted, collected, verifed or reported the more expensive it is to maintain and manage. 

     Many times technology for me becomes confusing because of all the tech talk so i wanted to discuss the different terms to increase my own understanding and Chapter 4 was helpful in that regard.  Database is merely a collection of files that can be managed, created, updated or accessed quickly.  What I didnt realize is that these databases had a hierarchy from basic to complex.  The entire database managnment system is a package of computer programs that allow the user to create, maintain, access, or manipulate data.  The data can be a data record (a collection of data for a single person or entity), a data file (a collection of related records (a collection of records for all employees) or data element  (field of data that groups people, places, or things together).  All of these elements should be organized or documented in a data element dictionary to assist someone in decoding or understanding the data provided. 

I hope this helps you in understanding the database management system because it definitely increased by awareness. 

Have a blessed & productive week!

                                                           Reference

Picciano, A. G. (2011).  Educational leadership and planning for technology (5th ed.).   

 

              Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

Week 3 What does Success Look Like & Technology for School Leadership

I must say this book "The Technology's Director's guide to Leadership" is a must for any online instruction course the author explain the information in a cleaver but easy to read manner.  In chapter 3 we go along with Max as he takes his leadership class with professor Sensei and learn what it takes to become an effective leader.  The author states that the main responibility of any leader is development and management of a team or organization goal (Hall). This was a very profound statement because it did not say create the vision or values it said to manage the vision.  Moreover, the vision requires action, accountability and responsibility from all parties especially the leader.  If the leader is not working towards the mission and constantly reminding the team then chances are the team takes little action or responsibiliy for their role in the vision. 

  The  success of the vision comes when all stakeholders  buy into the team vision and create individual  objectives that are aligned with the vision.  That statement alone sealed it for me, I totally agree and believe witout the team working towards the big picture chances of meeting your overall goal is slim.   For example on athletic team may all have a vision to win a championship as a team but  in order to reach that vision each team member has a different goal but that goal is aligned with the teams vision.

Technology for School Leadership

What a wealth of information inluded in one chapter, many of the applications, database software and the history of office automation is something I needed  more clarity.  I have to reflect back to the knowledge is power section of the text because it is such a powerful statment.   Technology allows schools to report data, collect, manage, manipulate and even compare processes.  This is definitely a resource I plan on referring back to in the future.