Tech Balance

Finding a balance in life is something almost everyone is striving for. Questions begin to be asked, such as "When will I be able to finish all of this work?", "When can I get a break and get away from the constant daily grind?", or "When will I be able to just think about everything that is going on around me?"

Technology adds to the challenge of finding that balance because it is so entrenched within our society, and no more than ever in the culture of our schools. As you arrive to school, email after email begins to fill up your inbox and your phone begins to buzz with reminders, texts and calls. Then it's time to prepare a presentation online, put grades or read up on the most recent news. The bell rings as you finish up your final preparation for the class you are about to teach. You set up your class as fast as you can in order to greet your students. Class begins...bell rings again. You are off your next meeting. After the meeting it's time to respond to all of the emails you have received.

The cycle continues as the week goes on and in order to get away from it all we begin to rely on our phones or computers, but that requires us to exert our mental energy even more. When do we find the time to recuperate our brains? That is what we need a focus on mindfulness in a time of constant information being thrown at us. A time to take in the information being given to us, and then a time to appreciate what is actually happening around us.

As school leaders, we need to be aware of this challenge for our teachers and students. Are we giving teachers enough time to think about what they are doing? Are we implementing technology into our classrooms without preparing teachers and students? These are questions that school leaders will need to answer, along with many others. We have to make sure our community members and our personal life is being given the opportunities to "sharpen the saw" (Stephen Covey).

Todd Samuelson, a Canadian school administrator, wrote a great blog, in which spurred my thoughts for this writing. Here is the link for it: Finding the Balance.

A Social Media Convo with the School Community

One of my colleagues recently wrote a blog discussing whether students or parents should be the focus of school led education of technology. I think this is a great question ask as we continue to integrate social media into our schools. Students are rapidly exposed to the newest social media outlets and seem to learn how to use them with ease, while parents, grandparents and guardians need more time to figure out these applications.

I am suggesting that school leaders should make sure to create a committee composed of students, teachers and parents that meet twice a semester to discuss the latest trends in social media involving education, safety/privacy issues for the school community member, and ways to make sure all community members can fully access the social media being used by the school. These meetings allow students to share their knowledge of the technology to teachers and students. This also gives parent a voice to see their concerns specifically. A committee, such as this, could be the key to creating a culture of innovation.

A Culture of Innovation

http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/12089

The link above leads to a blog titled "5 Ways to Lay the Foundation for Innovation #InnovatorsMindset". The last point that the author, George Couros, discusses schools embracing an open culture through different ways of communication, such as social media.

As school leaders, we need to continuously figure out the best way to communicate with our faculty members and how they can communicate with each other. One suggestion that Couros makes in order for faculty to communicate is for teachers to tweet with a specific # each day about something they did in their class. If teachers check this everyday and see what other teachers are doing a constant communication is being made and ideas are being shared. Collaboration is also easier, but we would need to figure out how to implement this kind of culture into the school.

As leaders, we need to continue to model what we expect of our community. If we want teachers to create a twitter and learn how to use it, then we have to do it ourselves.

Mediating Social Media

There are so many types of social media out in the world now, it is tough to make a decision on which one best fits your needs, let alone try to pick the best ones for an entire school community.

In today's schools, leaders have to make decisions on what kind of platform of social media their school will use to communicate to their community through. Each school's population and setting will dictate the best form, through factors such as accessibility to social media at home, usability for all members, and clarity of the message.

This decision will impact how a good amount of school information will be disseminated to the school's population and surrounding community. The school leader will have to determine, based off of a survey or school community meeting, which direction to go in, as well as who are going to be the administers who post and modify the social media school account.

Here are some tips for school leaders using social media around the country: http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/social-media-tips-administrators.shtml

Tech = Success?

It has become socially acceptable for people to just have the next best thing when it comes to computers or cell phones. Questions that are asked go like this: "Why haven't you updated your phone yet?" "Have you downloaded the latest iOS?" "Are you going to by the (insert newest cell phone) as soon as it comes out?" "Don't you think the next upgrade will just be even better?"

Sometimes too much credit is given to the technology product in education, and educators assume that it will solve everything for us. Some of you might say "oh no, I don't think that at all!", but I also think it is almost human nature to want the next best thing when it comes to technology. We fall into the trap to often in education and we need to have the discussion constantly in our schools to figure out what the best plan is to approach the ever-growing implementation of tech in classrooms.

How do we know that implementing technology helps with student achievement?

When technology comes out, word starts to spread that this new item is the best thing to have at your school. Many times schools will purchase these items without surveying and/or discussing with the school community. This leads to frustration from the teachers because the goals are unclear of what they are supposed to be doing with the technology and how to use it. The main problem is that there is not enough communication from school districts to school administration to teachers to students and parents/guardians.

Having the newest technology products is a great thing for the school because it continues to bring new opportunities for teachers and students. With technology students would be able to learn more than ever before with immediate access to information in the classrooms. Teachers would be able to plan lessons and activities that could have never done before.

This being said, as school leaders we need to continue to find different ways to balance technology in our schools and make sure that we do not get caught up in the social trends.


This link provides possible answers for us, as educators to continue to get better at using technology in schools: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/are-we-getting-smarter-about-ed-tech-suzie-boss