Chapter+6

Chapter 6: Leadership and New Tools
This chapter is about school administrators and the daunting task of leading their schools and school districts in this new, digital age. In some ways, technology makes the task easier, but in many others, it also makes it harder. It is imperative to remember that administrators are not only responsible for fostering the intellectual growth of their students, but their teachers, as well. Students today are part of a "digital generation with new expectations and approaches to learning...they expect to be engaged, even entertained, at all times" (118). Teachers have also changed in this new digital age. New teachers come into schools with no teaching experience, but vast technological experience and knowledge in many of the new tools available for teachers. Learning has also changed, becoming more about interactivity and creation than teacher based lessons. Administrators must understand that after graduation, students are entering an entirely different world with entirely different necessary skill sets. A tentative list of needed qualities in order for a school district to achieve success in the 21st century are as follows: 1. Individual excellence 2. Organizational Skills 3. Courage 4. Results (goal-oriented) 5. Strategic Skills 6. Operating Skills

This all means constantly changing the technology plans at schools to adapt to new Web 2.0 tools that become available.

Blogging in many cases, has replaced e-mail and communication forms in schools. Blogs allow the sharing of information, announcements, projects, news, photos, calendars, bulletins, events, parent and school administrator newsletters and so forth. Teachers, students, parents, and other educators can all use blogs for syndicated communication. Discussions allow open forums for parents and teachers to converse without actually having to carve time out of busy schedules. Scott McLeod, director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) suggests 12 reasons why administrators should also blog: 1. Sharing News and Events 2. Progress Monitoring 3. Status Alerts 4. Marketing 5. Public Relations 6. Community Building 7. Customer Relations 8. Branding (think real estate, buying homes in certain districts) 9. Creating "customer evangelists"- building the reputation of the school 10. Thought leadership 11. Advocacy 12. Replacing the School Web site

So do administrators have to be technology savvy in order to be effective technology leaders? (127). Scott McLeod would argue not necessarily. Administrators have to "facilitate a shared vision for technology in their school organization and mobilize staff and the local community into putting resources and effort into that vision. Although this may be harder when an administrator is not fluent with the underlying technology, it is not a big stretch, for example, to envision an administrator who knows very little about blogging and yet understands the potential power of a tool that facilitates better communication with parents and community members" (127). Scott McLeod argues that in fact, administrators need more training in the area of technology. Because they are the facilitators of the school's use of technology, they must understand what effective technology looks like, where they can get funding, what kind of staffing, how they will evaluate and facilitate it school wide, and they must also have legal and ethical training related to student and employee uses of digital tools.

Administrators must implement new technologies, as leadership starts at the top. Many districts use programs like Blackboard (a commercial application) but there are other open-source programs like Moodle that are free to any school district that wishes to download and customize it to address its needs. Applications like Moodle and Blackboard are good for students, teachers, and administrators, as teachers can manage their classes and their classes work, administrators can manage their teachers and administrative work, and students can log on and do assignments anytime and anywhere.
 * Supporting New Tools **

**Financial Issues** There are many costs beyond just purchasing the equipment and software for technology. There is the problem of support, upgrades, maintenance, and staffing that also all cost money. There is federal, state, and other funding available, especially through E-rate funds for school districts, but with all of the new Web 2.0 tools and technology, it is becoming increasingly not enough. "The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) partnered with Gartner to create a tool for school districts to evaluate how well they are managing their technology infrastructure and the total cost of technology ownership (TCO)," for info go to www.classroomtco.org/gartner_intro.html (129). Administrators also have to weigh the costs of purchasing and renewing licenses to programs like Microsoft Office. Today there are many open source programs like Google Docs and etc. that provide the same services for free. If the programs are robust enough for an entire district, then administrators should truly consider using them instead to save money and funds. One of the most important factor to accessing all of these Web 2.0 tools is access to the Web, or the Internet. Districts must have the networking infrastructure and computer availability in order to take advantage of all these tools (130). Personal computers and even laptops are extremely important for schools to have. It has been proven that classroom use is more productive when students have their own laptops to use, but this is obviously very costly (wireless Internet, laptops, security, etc.).

Measuring the value of investment: 1.Estimate costs 2. Assess risks 3. Calculate anticipated savings and revenues 4. Measure qualitative benefits 5. Evaluate results

**Infrastructure: Running on Open Source** Education leaders often economize on software, relying on open-source solutions, or programs where there are no purchasing or licensing fees. "While they are technically free, the overall costs of implementing and supporting open-source programs are not always less than with other choices" as time investment is necessary (134). Linux operating system, Apache server, and Firefox Web browser are all examples of open-source programs that schools can use instead of commercial applications. "There are open-source solutions for almost any task that network administrators may need, from monitoring the network and maintaining network security, to fighting spam and encrypting data" (134). Using these types of programs simply calls for administrative support and technical staff's time to train and help teachers.

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