DB 4: Option 5

Whitehead (2013) defines, “future proofing means that a facility anticipates and supports educational change without extensive remodeling. It is inherently a flexible building that can be used as appropriate today, but it also allows future interpretation and reassignment of programs and functions” (p. 200).

About a half mile down the road from my house, the local high school has been under construction for the past four years. The school system received a huge grant from the Ohio Department of Education and spent 73 million dollars on a new facility for this high school. The virtual tour is nothing short of spectacular. However, technology, integration, a digital network and 21^st century learning is not discussed. There is this beautiful building with a new gymnasium, swimming pool, theatre complete with scene shop and fabulous lighting and sound bells and whistles, but there is no WiFi access, limited amounts of devices for students to use, and some teachers that do not know how to integrate technology in their classrooms. These are just some of the barriers that Whitehead says stand in the way of effective integration of technology in schools today. The major barrier in the way is funding. In my area, we have access to fiber optic cables which allows for the best speed and most bandwidth for a network. However, we lack funding for an IT department to run and monitor the network. We also lack the expertise of individuals who are qualified to run such a massive program such as a PLN and district wide network for digital learning.  Therefore, in order to “future proof” this school, I would first seek aid from the E-Rate program. The funding for the E-Rate program is found by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), a not-for-profit corporation, in charge of securing funds from telecommunications companies to support the E-Rate program (U.S. Department of Education, 2013).  Since Akron is considered an urban school system, they could receive discounts on devices, internet services, and software of up to 90%. Another way I would “future proof” the school is to ensure that there is a district wide technology plan with an IT department that can run, support, and monitor it. This is a huge undertaking as we have all been realizing through the group project we have been working on. However, in order to be relevant in today’s society and particularly in the future, our students must be able to use and create with technology, they must be able to learn online through the internet, research, connecting with classrooms and others through video, social media, and blogs. These technological skills will help them realize their future goals, no matter what they are.  

U.S. Department of Education. (2013, August 21). E-rate program- discounted

telecommunications services. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/

list/oii/nonpublic/erate.html

Whitehead, B. M., Jensen, D. F. N., & Boschee, F. (2013). Planning for technology: A guide for

school administrators, technology coordinators and curriculum leaders (2nd ed.). Thousands Oaks, CA: Corwin.

DB 3 Communication Plan

The 21^st century has been the age of a technological explosion.  Zhao  &  Kuh (2004) state, “students  learn  better,  work  independently  and  collaboratively, and  acquire  self-discipline  through  utilization  of  social  networks  and  other  Web  2.0  technologies”.  Web 2.0 has allowed for the world to literally be a click away. Due to the prevalence and increased use of the internet and mobile devices, the ways in which people communicate have changed. Therefore, an effective communication plan is necessary for all schools and school districts. Sheninger says that “there are four key principles that lay a foundation for communicating effectively with parents: transparency, honesty, accessibility, and flexibility” (p. 86).  He also lists strategies to follow to engage stakeholders. I have taken these strategies to come up with a communication plan for my children’s elementary school. I sent my children to public school for the first time last year because I decided to go back to school to get my Master’s. I was shocked at how limited accessibility I had to my own children. I was also shocked by how little the school communicated with me about what was going on. Numerous times I found out my child was performing one day before the event and sometimes not until after the event was over. Currently this elementary school only uses an all-call service for announcements and a PTA newsletter sent home once a month. While certain teachers use other forms such as ClassDojo, the school itself does not have strong communication between school, teachers, and families.

My suggested plan is as follows:

1.       Immediately create a Resnick CLC Facebook page and have the current PTA President and Resnick’s principal and vice principal be the administrators. Research shows that more people use Facebook than any other form of social media.

2.       Create a Resnick Twitter account and link it to the Twitter page so that any Tweets will automatically post to the school’s Facebook page.  Twitter is a fantastic way to share videos, announcements, pictures, and educational articles, blogs, etc. Those that do not have Twitter will still benefit by it being linked to the school’s FB page.

3.       Create a school email list of all parents as a way to send forms, documents, and announcements which cuts down the amount of papers coming home in children’s folders.

4.       Encourage all teachers to use ClassDojo as a means to keep parents informed of their children’s behaviors. ClassDojo helps the parent understand throughout the day where the child is having successes and failures. It is much more helpful than being caught off guard at the end of the day by a frustrated teacher telling the parent how bad their child was that day.

5.       Resnick CLC will all-call major announcements, emergencies, and inclement weather as well as post it on their Twitter and Facebook pages.

6.       A school-wide newsletter will be sent home once a month.

7.       All parents will be able to access grades, syllabus, schedule, and projects online.

8.       Teachers will have face-to-face meetings with all parents of their students once per grading period.

References:

Sheninger, E. C. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Hausman, A.,  Okoro, E.,  Washington, M. (2012) Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 5(4) p295-300.

7 Essential Skills- DB2

Hello classmates! Please forgive my looks as 3 of my 6 children currently have hand, foot, and mouth and I am a little stressed out! I have really enjoyed Sheninger’s text so far. Sheninger states, “Leaders today must establish a vision and implement a strategic process that creates a teaching and learning culture that provides students with essential skill sets- creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, technological proficiency, and global awareness” (Sheninger, xviii). Again the seven essential skill sets leaders should help students achieve are: 1) Creativity, 2) Communication, 3) Collaboration, 4) Critical Thinking, 5) Problem Solving, 6) Technological Proficiency, and 7) Global Awareness. Let’s first discuss creativity. We all know that the brick and mortar school that we have today was created in order to create workers. These workers were greatly needed in the industrialized world of factories. However today in America, we find ourselves building and making less and less material goods but creating more and more digital goods and information. Sheninger says that “if schools continue to follow an outdated educational model…they run the risk of becoming irrelevant to our students and communities” (pg. xix). You can see examples of this in your most communities around the nation. With the increased access to online public schools, enrollment in regular public school is down. Our educational system must overthrow their reservations with technology and set up a system that allows student to create and truly prepare for the digital jobs that lie ahead. The second skill, communication, is vital and necessary while being one of the hardest. Communication today is vastly different than even 20 years ago. Today one can communicate through arrays of different ways. Email, Text, Blogs. Vlogs, Twitter, Facebook, Facetime, Youtube, Skype, Snapchat, Instagram, Google Hangouts, Google Classroom, etc, etc are only scratching the surface of available ways to communicate with others. One’s voice today can literally be heard by millions of people worldwide. Students must be allowed to utilize this remarkable advantage. They should be taught the dangers, advantages, and disadvantages to sending one’s voice out into the world. #3 is collaboration. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of collaboration in order for someone to be successful today. I have a friend who just started a business called “Wandering Families” via Instagram. She has collaborated with local businesses that sell outdoors equipment to sponsor her and her family’s hikes and outings. This takes a lot of collaboration on her part. It also takes collaboration with leaders, teachers, students, and the community in order to provide the schools and students with the funding, technology, and support they need to be relevant today. #4) Critical Thinking- I personally do not see much teaching of critical thinking. When I was in school, I was told to just memorize the answers for the tests and not ask questions. That simply does not and cannot work anymore. #5) Problem Solving- technology is all about problem solving. Sheninger says leaders must be willing to change and anticipate changes. They can do this by “engaging in fact finding and joint problem solving, and carefully rather than rashly, diagnosing the situation”. Stephen R. Covey says, “seek first to understand, second, to be understood.” One must be able to find the problem and help solve it effectively. #6) is technological proficiency. All I can say about that is here we are, in Master’s programs, trying to figure out this technology thing. It is forever changing and evolving and we must be willing and able to evolve too. Finally, the skill set we must teach the future generation is global awareness. As I was typing this, I got an alert on my phone about a terrorist attack in Nice, France. The world is incredibly small thanks to technology. We must be aware of how that does and can affect the entire world. On a brighter note, my church is holding a global family indexing event (found here) this weekend in order to digitize old records so that people can research their genealogy. What an amazing opportunity to bring the world together!

 Thank you and have a great week!

Reference

 Sheninger, E (2014). Digital Leadership Changing Paradigms for Changing Times.

               Corwin, SAGE publications.

Introduction

Transcript:

Hi! My name is Rebekah Griesmyer and I currently live in Akron, Ohio. My husband just graduated from the University of Akron law school in May so we are looking forward to a move to D.C. in the near future. This is my last semester of my Master’s of Education Teaching and Leadership degree program. I’m very excited!!!  In this course, I would like to learn how to use new technology so that it can be used to support and enhance learning and teaching.  My current roles are that of a stay at home Mom, a loving spouse, and a facilitator of learning to my six children. Yep, I home school them. By profession, I am a children’s theatre director and choreographer. I teach musical theater, drama, and dance. My hobbies include reading, spending time with my family, teaching/directing, and managing our finances. If my life were a movie, I’d like Julianne Hough to play me. She is a down to earth, triple threat: singer, dancer, and actor who comes from a very religious and close family. She is small, blonde, and petite like me! And gorgeous! Not like me!  If I were ever interesting enough for a movie, she would be my first pick to play me. As I said before, children are extremely important to me. I love my own kids and love teaching children in general. My favorite scriptures that best explains my role is found in Psalms 127:3-5. It reads, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate” (King James Version). This scripture expresses that children are blessings and are fruit of His womb. They are on loan to us and must be loved, protected, and taught to love and honor God in all things.

The scriptures also help me understand that family is the strongest and most important unit on the Earth. Family and children will bring us happiness and strength. And that’s Me! Thank you!