Visionary Leadership

I believe that the visionary leadership standard is the best standard for administrators to model. As an administrator, you would want to lead your school into the 21st century and keep everyone abreast of the ever changing world of technology. While on the path of leadership, an administrator has to have a vision and that vision needs to be shared with all stakeholders in order for the vision to be obtainable. When people know what one is doing and why one is doing the things that they are doing, people are more apt to jump on the bandwagon to help that particular vision surface. Usually people are inspired by others motivation and focus from a vision that can be shared to promote a “purposeful change”. Since new ideas and inventions are ever rising, an administrator would need to be prepared to change their vision from time to time. The vision should be implemented for the success of the students. Students should be the top priority of developing and engaging in a plan that promotes technical literacy and practices through a shared vision. To me, learning culture, professional practice, systemic improvement, and digital citizenship isn’t really functioning or will remain in the beginning phases without that visionary leadership. That visionary leadership contains the processes to get the other 4 standards up and running! When I first started writing this, I had first chosen digital citizenship as the most important standard but as I was writing, I noticed that I was referring to the vision more and more. So, I made a list and came up with more reasons why visionary leadership was more of an important standard than the digital citizenship. With visionary leadership, an administrator can influence the stakeholders to garner the resources to help lead the students to common practices, improved performances, and success.

"Digital Natives"

I honestly believe that the “digital natives” are currently in the classrooms. Some are more in tune to technology than others. It is funny how, at my current school, there are teacher who have Facebook accounts, XM radios in their cars, and are often seen or asked to text students to find their whereabouts, but cannot learn how to input their grades into NCWISE! I feel that everyone has some sort of technological savvy, some way more than others. I also think that the transition from being a “digital immigrant” to a “digital native” is a pretty overwhelming thing as well. Think about. Technology is amazing. Growing up doing things the “old school” way, and then having to learn a totally new and challenging world with its own language and customs, and then having to use it in the classroom teaching students who seem to have been born already familiar the customs and language of technology. As an educational leader, I would work hard to make sure that everyone is on the same page with technology in the classroom. I would set up a council of teachers and students who are very experienced with the technology in the classrooms and have them train the others who may need extra guidance. Students most often learn by teaching others and I feel that since most of them are “technical engineers in the making”, we should give them an opportunity to lead by example. What could be more hands on than that? Students find it easier to learn when that can relate to what is being taught. Technology helps bring the relevance in the classrooms. Do you agree or disagree?