Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

It’s been thoroughly enjoyable learning about coding the Edison robot with Python this semester in Pat Kelly’s Introduction to Robotics and Micro-controllers class at Dominican University! I really like the fact that any age can use Edison with block, Scratch, or Python coding. We got a good deal on the Edison robots and gave one to each tech presenter for our D90 Tech Day last Friday. How gratifying to see our STEM teacher using Edison in class today! I was thinking of offering an Edison robotics club next year, but if our STEM teacher starts using them I will find different materials to use. He is a bit concerned about battery usage. I also look forward to doing more things with students and Raspberry Pi’s, so maybe that will be the direction I go in. It’s nice to know that I have a video lesson all ready to go!

This course brought the reality of robots taking over more and more jobs front and center. The fact that robots are prevalent in industries like fashion surprised me. I feel motivated to try to give students more opportunities to create things using circuitry, boards, and motors.  Additionally I was rather unaware of the growth and prevalence of A.I. The Ted Talk about what happens when robots become smarter than humans is startling, but I’m grateful that I am aware of this issue. If you haven’t seen it, you wont want to miss it!

  What Happens When Our Computers Get Smarter Than We Are? (Ted Talk)

Bringing About Change

The most positive aspect of my pilot project has been the rich conversations our tech team has had with our administrators around the ISTE Standards for Education Leaders. Since my initial project centered on implementing an app development club, I am happy that I took the leap to choose a project that would encompass a more ambitious goal. I believe the ISTE Standards will prove to be helpful with guiding and inspiring our administrative team.

The materials that we read and viewed for this Leadership class reinforced a feeling I’ve had for a while, that the impetus to change is stunted when administrators lack the passion and belief that technology can enhance learning, or that they remain silent because they fear pressuring teachers too much. As Matt Harris, Ed.D. mentions repeatedly in his vlog, leaders need to have an EdTech vision for their school. It’s heartening that our superintendent has requested that we find a book for administrators to read over the summer that addresses the why of tech integration. We are moving in the right direction!

I’m still quite excited about working with administrators on the ISTE Standards. The fact that our superintendent is now tweeting is such a thrill!  I believe the pilot experience has enhanced my growth as a Tech Leader by making me more aware of opportunities to collaborate with others around specific proposals for change that include data collection. I would like to learn more about how to better analyze qualitative data, too. As far as next steps go, my plan is to continue as a Technology Specialist in my district. In the upcoming years I may look at opportunities to do this job at a school abroad.

Reflections on EdTech Leadership

    There are many resources out there for today’s EdTech Leader.  Someone you definitely want as part of your PLN is Matt Harris, a former ISTE board member.  Matt Harris’s vlog contains an abundance of helpful advice for both the instructional specialist and the Tech Director. He communicates thoughtfully about the need for a vision of what you want your school to look like in a few years. This sounds basic, but can you articulate your school’s EdTech vision? To take you anywhere from a cocktail party encounter to a longer conversation with a teacher or board member, he recommends that you spend time developing a 20 second, 2 minute, and 10 minute description of your EdTech philosophy within your school. He also encourages Technology Leaders to embrace dialogue and the “culture of we.” Your teachers must feel ownership of the vision or you won’t be successful. In another episode he shares helpful strategies for managing a wide variety of people in your department as well as dealing with a budget. He describes the art of vendor relationships, how there are better times of the year to buy, that everything is negotiable, and how imperative it is to get out there and talk to others who have purchased a product you are interested in and who can tell you about its limitations in a way a vendor probably will not.

    Over this past semester I have learned how much understanding the dynamics of change goes hand in hand with the Technology Leader role. In this regard, the book Shift: How to Change Things When Change is Hard will prove to be equally helpful to today’s Technology Leader or to anyone wanting more insight into the elements of change. The authors write about the limited mental energies of the “Rider” and the emotional energy of the ”Elephant.” Encouraging systemic change has to be the most challenging part of the tech leader’s job. The familiar is easier to turn to during busy, hectic periods for all of us. Appealing to the emotional elephant is necessary when achieving lasting change.

   With these ideas on leadership and change looming at the forefront right now, our instructional technology team is set to ask administrators to select one ISTE standard to focus on this semester. Last year our Technology Committee adopted the ISTE Standards for Students for our Technology Vision for Learning. We are attempting to align EdTech goals within our district to improve our chances for successful implementation and growth. Our next phase after this would be helping teachers select a goal next school year either individually or in teams. Just preparing for these goal setting sessions has generated a lot of dialogue among the tech specialists. One colleague suggested that we utilize a user friendly form and that we break the goal down into easy monthly steps that can be followed and checked off. We are wondering if it would be better to let Administrators choose their own ISTE standard to work on or if it would be better for them to have a team goal. In my next post I’ll report on how these goal setting conversations are going!