Leaders engage others in establishing a vision, strategic plan and ongoing evaluation cycle for transforming learning with technology.
According to ISTE standards, educational leaders engage others in establishing a vision, strategic plan, and ongoing evaluation cycle for transforming learning with technology. I understand that those leaders encourage teachers to significantly impact students’ goals and accomplishments, making organizational and institutional changes to improve student outcomes. In this way, teachers need to be innovative, creative, engaged, and design strategic lesson plans. The use of technology aligns with these goals and, well implemented, became a powerful tool.
Visionary teachers also seek stakeholders, scientists, experts, politicians, leaders, and professionals who can impact students’ learning journey. In addition, teachers need to know their community and involve parents, principals, students, and other teachers in the process. It is essential to the school community to evaluate the process, criticize and propose organizational changes continually.
George Couros says in his book, The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower learning, unleash talent, and lead a culture of creativity: “…teaching children the difference between a fixed and growth mindset empowers them. They learn that trying new things, even if they initially fail, stretches and stretches their minds” (Couros 2015). Children understand they can develop talents and abilities through their effort, good teaching-learning experience, and persistence. In my teaching experience, I could observe some students afraid to try and make a mistake. I could improve their mindset by avoiding this behaviour, keeping them trying in different ways, giving them feedback in their learning process, empowering them to be responsible for their achievements. This ability to create and innovate is the primary skill that organizations are looking for as their members. Learning to recognize and create new and better opportunities for our students is what matters. Some organizations do not care about how you learned some skill, but what you can do with what you know. Indeed, leading our students to be creative and apply new ideas of their understanding means preparing them for the future.
As an Instructional technologist, I can see how technology contributes to the innovative mindset. Students can share experiences and learn with each other to use a new tool or device. Teachers can create online assignments where students can efficiently work in a group, connect with the community, experts and leaders, learn from other experiences, and apply their understandings by creating a blog, videos or webpage.
In conclusion, for me, a successful teaching & learning approach consists of a combination of accessing previous knowledge, promoting discussion, interaction, engagement, and connection to apply new concepts. According to the curriculum designed and goals to achieve, the technology is useful in this process since well-implemented by teachers. Also, it is essential to build students understanding consciously of their values, integrating them into a better world.
References
Couros, G. (2015). The innovator’s mindset: empower learning, unleash talent, and lead a culture of creativity. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
The ISTE Standards. ISTE. (n.d.). https://www.iste.org/standards.2a2b2c2d2e