The Real Meaning of Technology

I am very involved in the education and training of educational leaders. Recently I taught a doctoral level class, Educational Leadership, Technology, and the Future. At the beginning of the class, students were asked what they hoped to take away from the class. Not surprisingly, most suggested that they were looking forward to learning about new software or hardware. When I dis-informed them of that potential outcome they were curious what my focus would be.
I explained to them that the real meaning of technology in leadership is that of a lens through which we look into the future. 19th Century technology was a blackboards, pencils, and pens; 20th Century technology was TV's, overheads, whiteboards, pencils and pens, et.al. And, we can see the ongoing development of 21st Century technology hardware and software as well. But it is not the technology that is the point - it is what the technology allows us to do. Actually the real value of 21st Century technology is what it allows our students to do. So, looking through the lens of technology, what are some of the things that we and/or our students can do with these tools to increase their learning and academic success?
Leaders that are not asking that question are stuck in the past. Our current K-6th grade students will be attending college (or looking for jobs) in the years 2014 to 2020. Are we preparing them for their future?
All educational leaders must be considering these issues. If not, does "troglodyte" ring a bell?

Fascination with the past....

It appears to me that the leadership of our country and to a degree our profession (education) has a fascination with the past. We still believe that there is a specific batch of core knowledge that every child must "learn." Why is that? Who determines what that core knowledge is? Does it include data other than that of white euro-centric history, or does it include multicultural awareness? Does it include memorization, or is it OK for students to use hard drives, calculators, computers and other tools to solve problems? I guess I can say those are rhetorical questions since we all know the answers.
I just read a recent study that suggested that up to 20% of our high school drop-outs could be identified as 'gifted' students. These students say school is so boring they don't want to stay. Human motivation theory says that when a human is truly engaged in learning they get what into might be called a "flow" - not aware of time or distractions. Where is the real learning and engagement happening then, if not in schools?
The bigger question for me is why is this OK? Few students truly engaged in learning, huge numbers of drop-outs, obvious lack of competitive academic performance with much of the rest of the industrialized world. It isn't the competition that concerns me - it is the lack of true global understanding in an increasingly global community.
We have a very difficult time looking past our immediate personal and family needs - but if we don't address this soon, our grandchildren will be paying a very heavy price for our denial.

The Future.....

I think part of the problem within education is our fear of the future. As long as we were able to "teach" the past, things were fine. Now that it is becoming very obvious that we need to prepare our students for their future, it is not so easy. Nonetheless, change we must. The world is not what it used to be and most businesses and industries are coming to grips with the difference. Education must also deal with this rapid change in the reality of the world. No longer can we teach about the past. We must prepare our students for their future.
It will be an interesting journey for us - to identify what we can use from the past to help us in the future. There are lessons, functions, and processes to be learned. Yet we must look into the future to help us identify what we need from the past to be successful in assisting our students to be capable in their future. These are difficult times, these are difficult decisions, yet our ability to address these issues is fundamental to our future success. Our children will inherit our world - will they be ready for the world they find?

Leadership

We are in the throws of a remarkable time.... leadership in education today is about vision. How do we prepare the students of today for the world that they will face? We MUST attempt to consider their world, we MUST attempt to wonder what they need. Leadership today is about the future - what will the students NEED to be successful in their world? This should be the conversation all educators have - looking at the world our children will inherit and providing the education for them to be successful in that world.

Leadership

I'm taken aback....leadership is a very specific set of skills. I guess that leadership, currently, is seen as a condition of position - 'I am the principal or the superintendent'.... but it is NOT. Leadership is the ability to inspire and influence the movement toward student improvement. Position does not automatically make that happen. From the faculty/teachers, "I will ONLY listen to you if it makes sense to ME'. Student improvement is about making a difference. Does what I (as the leader) do help students make a difference or not? We are in a trying time, we must make a difference. This is a good thing. Can I get students to the next level? As so we should.....

The Power of Reframing

"How do you match the right idea to the right problem, at the right time, and in the right way" is an opening line in the book by Lee Bolman and Terry Deal on the art of "Reframing Organizations." In our quest to consider the possibilities of the future in education through the lens of technology, we can use their concept of "reframing" to help us. Bolman and Deal go on to say, "An artist reframes the world to help us see new possibilities. Modern organizations rely too much on engineering and too little on art.... Art is not a replacement for engineering, but an enhancement. Artistic leaders are essential in helping us see beyond today's organizational forms that will release untapped individual energies and improve collective performance. The leader as artist will rely on images as well as memos, poetry as well as policy, reflection as well as command, and reframing as well as refitting." Within this text, the authors point out Burns' (1978) work, or the concept of transformational leaders that bring out the best in their followers, moving the organization to pursue more universal needs and higher purpose. Transforming leaders are visionary leaders and visionary leadership is invariably symbolic. More specifically, they state, "Transforming leaders use symbols to capture attention; Symbolic leaders frame experience; Symbolic leaders discover and communicate a vision; Symbolic leaders tell stories." How will we become transformational leaders in education, how will we develop the artistic ability to reframe, to see new possibilities, to create new opportunities, and to provide a new vision for the the future of our students?
We deal with people, not machines; we deal with opportunity not control; and, we deal with the future, not the past. How will we paint this canvas? How will we provide a future that truly makes a difference for our students, our society and our world?

Preparing for the Future

I am convinced that it is critically important for educational leadership at all levels, P-20, to lead the dialogue about institutional growth, instructional development, and the use of technology to help. I'm also convinced that the concept of "change" can be released as the issue. We should no longer call for institutional change. If you wake up every morning, the world has already changed, just read the New York Times or LA Times to try to keep up with innovation, global warming, or other scientific and technological advances taking place daily. At the same time we all must acknowledge this daily development. Education cannot stay static at any level. Every day, in every way, we must rethink, re-invent, or re-envision our roles to make a difference for our students. The students' world is changing daily, we must take professsional responsibility for their success. We must be the leaders in the dialogue.