Scott McLeod put out a call to edubloggers to use July 4th to celebrate Independent Thinking and Leadership by blogging to help educational leaders become better at leading in the area of digital technology in schools. I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with, as this is such a huge learning curve for me.
So, I'm in no position to offer any words of wisdom to other educational leaders regarding how to embrace and encourage digital technologies - still just taking baby steps, myself - but here's my own contribution to the conversation. For those who are so involved with these technologies, it may be difficult, and frustrating, to try to understand why anyone *wouldn't* be embracing these tools. So, my contribution is from the perspective of those of us well-meaning leaders who just aren't there yet.... the Top Ten Reasons Why Educational Leaders Don't Embrace Digital Technologies. I'm certainly not saying they're "good" reasons... but they're reasons. Maybe knowing them will help some of you to help us.
10. We don’t know it exists.
9. We wonder if it’s just a silly fad.
8. We haven’t got the time to figure it out.
7. We haven’t got enough knowledgeable personnel pushing, and helping, us on our learning curve.
6. We’re just overwhelmed by the scope of it all.
5. We worry how much it will cost – in both time and money.
4. We’re afraid of looking stupid or hopelessly out-of-date.
3. We don’t see how it will help test scores go up.
2. We don’t see its relevance to education.
1. We don’t see how, if we don’t get it, we’re ever going to get some of our faculty to get it.
10-4 There are so many barriers to effective use of technology in schools today. Our job is to tackle each one at a time. I think you are well on your way to being a Web 2.0 principal.
Posted by: Jose Rodriguez | July 05, 2007 at 12:12 AM
We are fortunate that you do "get it!" So, maybe there are still some questions and trepidations - we are all learning together! And it's like many other things in life...we don't have time NOT to learn it!
Soon we'll see you on Twitter and Second Life! :)
Posted by: Marie Coleman | July 08, 2007 at 03:38 PM
Excuses, excuses, excuses. I was tempted to start this response by quoting that the first step is admitting that you have a problem. But this didn't really go in the direction that I had wanted, namely because I don't think this top ten list is a problem. This is really a list of obstacles and hurdles we face every day in education when we try new things. These are especially hurdles when we are out of our comfort zone, taking risks. Teaching is a calling, and with that calling comes a certain level of caring and caring what we put in front of our kids knowing that at any given moment we could be presenting life changing information. No, not so much excuses, hurdles or obstacles, maybe, but the question remains, now what?
Posted by: Carey Gilcher | July 10, 2007 at 12:09 AM
Great list... and I agree with every single one! I'm going to add your post to my blog post today. Hopefully, I can point some of our administrators to your list and then open up a dialogue about it!
Posted by: Michelle Baldwin | July 08, 2008 at 01:45 PM