Unit 12 - Course Eval.

 I enjoyed the blended/flipped learning environment that this class used. Listening to and collaborating with colleagues dealing with similar challenges was very helpful. This course also exposed many of us to online resources that we were not aware of.  I shared many of these with my staff and I use them for professional development ideas for our staff.  We dealt with many of the current educational technology issues that schools are dealing with and provided us with a better framework for understanding and making decisions for our schools.


I liked the way the course was designed and the variety of topics discussed, so it is difficult to provide suggestions for improvement.  I thought the number of class meetings was appropriate. The online portion of the class, the quizzes, and the project were well designed.

Inevitable

The role of the superintendent in making the vision of Inevitable come to life is multifaceted.  The superintendent needs to educate themselves about the technology needed in order to implement vision, the infrastructure needed within the school, and the costs associated with implementation.  The superintendent also needs to communicate that vision to the school board, teachers and other administrators.  Hiring practices need to be modified in order to ensure that new employees are aware of able to implement the vision.  Appropriate training must be planned for staff and students.  This plan must also be rolled out for the community to understand and be a part of.

Making such a dramatic change cannot happen overnight.  It must be rolled out in stages.  There are many options but my long-term implementation plan would look something like the following:

1.  Pilot the learning experience the students and teachers will be a part of in one class. 1 semester
2.  Extend the pilot program to teachers that volunteer to be a part of it. 1 semester
3.  Implement the plan for one entire grade level (freshman) 1 year
4.  Extend the plan to upcoming grades each year - full implementation by year 4

Throughout and leading up to these steps, staff will will be involved in education/training and site visits to schools.  Staff and Administration will need to be in a constant state of reflection/review, improving the reality of the vision as needed.

Technology and the Superintendent

The Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) is an organization focused solely on the needs of technology leaders. Their School Tech Leadership website (http://www.aasa.org/AASATechResources.aspx) has a wide variety of resources for administrators ranging from one-to-one initiatives, Education law, online schools, use of gaming as an educational tool, school finance and other selected educational blogs.

 The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) website (http://schooltechleadership.org/) has a variety of resources for all areas of administration, including technology. This is a more comprehensive site for all the needs of an administrator.  The technology resources section has wide ranging information from cyberbullying, social media, national contact information,

One of the duties of a Superintendent is to stay informed on the wide variety of educational issues. Limited time is a major factor that District officials must contend with on a daily basis.  When they need answers to questions or information regarding trends in education and technology, they will want a reliable information source.  These websites will serve as good resource for administrators. 

WikiSpaces

Here is the link to my Wiki page:   http://marionbears.wikispaces.com/
I created this page to keep my staff up to date on our Tech Tuesday schedule.  In the future I hope to make it more interactive and include all of our professional development activities.

I like the Wiki pages for its simplicity, however, I am used to working on our school's webpage and prefer the control that html allows.  This is a very easy way for teachers to create and manage a webpage for their class.  The option to use it as a collaborative tool opens up many opportunities to engage their students.