TF+TL+Standard+VIII+Reflection



Standard VIII Reflection  Jones and Crochet (2007) emphasized the importance of building a vision for a school and how leaders must make all who are impacted stakeholders in the vision and the process to move towards it. This is important in all areas of school culture and holds true within technology integration and leadership as well. Standard VIII as discussed by Williamson and Redish (2009), addresses the need for educational technology leaders to create and perpetrate a vision and allow that to guide the long-range plan for technology integration at the school.  Leaders must be able to balance out the desires of where the school is heading while keeping in mind there are some battles that are not worth fighting and should be considered within developing the vision of how to move forward. Reeves (2007) set forth the notion that a leader first determines what will not change, before deciding what will. By being respectful of traditions and values, you gain a deeper buy-in from the stakeholders affected by the proposed changes. I will continue to apply this concept as I move forward as a leader within my school.  As I completed the field-based internship project, I was able to watch this process unfold and became part of the leadership to incorporate the vision of the school to advance the presence of our district on the web through an improved web site and personalized teacher web pages. I worked with my campus technologist in communicating the vision of my project as well as the vision for the teacher training and implementation of their web pages. This incorporated the standards of management and leadership into the experience, in turn accomplishing both Standard VII and VIII.  It was important to build the foundation of where our campus was and where it was going. This was accomplished early on in the program through the Concepts in Educational Technology course. Technology leaders have to have an unbiased view on the strengths and weaknesses of their campuses when it comes to technology integration. Utilizing the data available can help shape the vision and long-range plan for the campus. Jones, L. & Crochet, F. (2007). The importance of visions for schools and school improvement. //Connexions.// Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/m15634/1.1/ Reeves, D. (2007). How do you change school culture? //Educational Leadership, 64//(4), 92-94. Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). //ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every K- 12 leader should know and be able to do//. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.