Michael C. Warren

Technology and Education

EDLD 5370 Reading Reflection for Technology Facilitator Standard VIII

without comments

Standard VIII of ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards is that of leadership and vision.  I feel this standard went along with EDLD 5301 Research course because we have to have vision, followed by research, combined with leadership in order to produce quality results.  If you take away any of those 3 components you will not receive desired results. A technologists can be a good leader and have a good vision, but without the research or a team of researchers the results will not be as one desired.  Leadership is often a trait that comes natural to people. They are defined as charismatic  they desire to show people a better way.  Some individual that is often seen as a leader is Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. They had both vision and leadership, they saw what could be and could produce an energy of those around them that they wanted to help make that vision come true.

Technologist leaders in school districts in many ways have to fight harder.  They are pushing the budgets and trying to show what can be done in a field that has been slower to adopt to technology change than many others.  Even still education technologist must keep research with the cutting edge of technology in order to implement it before it become out of date.  They must have a passion about what they believe in and a passion to educate others in how this can be achieved.  They must be able to get others to follow them in making the desired goal become a reality, and to continue to try until they succeed or at least know when to make changes to other goals.

In my field based activities I can’t say I was the best leader. I personally have a hard time presenting ideas to others, not to say that I am not excited about them or believe that they not important, but I feel as if when I present them, I can tell others don’t think they are that important.  Where I feel I exceed is doing research and developing a test product or example and then presenting it. Thus allowing the work itself to do much of the talking for me.  It may waste a bit of time, but I like presenting a working demonstration.

If I were to be a technologist at a school, I would propose such items as dedicated laptops for each student, digital books, open source software when possible, and web based course management system.  Not only would this be a reduction in paper, but a reduction in cost of books, no need for lockers thus allowing continuous movement in hallways, mobility in classes, and more open learning environments.

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