Tech Standards for Educational Leaders

This week we take a look at the International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) five Standards for Educational Leaders, and I reflect on how I can now - and in the future - use these in my school leadership practice. 

1: Equity and Citizenship Advocate- Leaders use technology to increase equity, inclusion, and digital citizenship practices.

Within the team that I lead, students in my school have skilled teachers who actively use technology to meet student learning needs. In particular, this applies to the delivery of an online, interactive social-emotional learning programme. Via informal observation I see that all teachers use technology to deliver this. Some barriers are confronted at times, often involving hardware or software problems. This practice can be enhanced by the implementation of a more formal evaluation system for the delivery of the programme, structured around the “Goldilocks zone” of the intersection of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK).

All students have access to the technology and connectivity required to engage in learning activities. This is school policy, as we are a one-to-one school-provided device school. This area can be strengthened, though, via providing more explicit instruction on self-management and tech skills for identified students. We should also endeavour to collaborate with subject departments to ensure that a range of modification and redefinition tech tasks are planned for and implemented in the classroom, to provide for deeper and more profound learning experiences.

As a staff, we model digital citizenship by actively promoting, and responding to, our academic honesty policy, and (as time permits) explicitly teaching students how to respond to cyber-bullying and reference works appropriately. Teachers demonstrate appropriate digital citizenship through their use of official school email and platforms like Google Classroom when contacting students. This area could be developed by creative use of timetabling to provide more room for digital citizenship and skills lessons. This would be, in particular, useful in terms of guiding students on aspects of appropriate mobile phone conduct and efficient use of Google Drive.

2: Visionary Planner- Leaders engage others in establishing a vision, strategic plan and ongoing evaluation cycle for transforming learning with technology.

I would love to invite stakeholders to volunteer for a planning committee who would, after completing research on the topic, build an evidence-based plan with a shared vision. This plan will, of course, be structured robustly with provision for evaluation but also for flexibility. The job wouldn’t stop there, as using tech to network our success and reach out to exemplar schools for feedback would form an integral part of our process.

The vision of the plan would need to align with the school’s vision and mission, and that of the school’s chosen curriculum. For example, an IB school should consider building aspects of international-mindedness and service learning into its tech implementation strategic plan. Here, we would engage in some missional sifting to ensure that we’re remaining true to the ideals of our institution.

3: Empowering Leader- Leaders create a culture where teachers and learners are empowered to use technology in innovative ways to enrich teaching and learning.

I’m passionate about empowering educators. It would be fantastic to design an evaluation and professional improvement system for all teachers, utilising these standards as its framework. It would be augmented by professional learning communities who explore research on the practice, along with texts such as Couros’ Innovator’s Mindset, which will help to develop the culture of innovation required to encourage staff to use tech in creative ways for teaching and learning. This system would incorporate aspects of personalised and adaptive learning as appropriate. The former could be amazingly beneficial for gifted learners, while the latter could enable students with severe needs to experience success.

4: Systems Designer- Leaders build teams and systems to implement, sustain and continually improve the use of technology to support learning. Education leaders:

Here, we would work on our operational systems and infrastructure. The district must be approached to provide resources and the budget required. The tech team in school and at the district office are the key players here, with their knowhow and access to resources.

Complementing this are the data and privacy policies that will keep the students, staff, and school safe and secure. As part of an innovator’s mindset, as a leader I would endeavour to work with the team to build strong networks outside of the school with tech providers, particularly those focused on hardware and infrastructure in an educational context.

This standard must also be considered in terms of its potential, through the design of systems, to tackle the scourge of cyberbullying in schools.

5: Connected Learner- Leaders model and promote continuous professional learning for themselves and others.

Whether it’s in the realm of tech, or any other educational interest, modelling the desire to continuously learn is a key aspect of leadership (“leader as learner”). However, this needs to be intentional, involving carefully selected goals, with identified areas for improvement and the use of professional learning networks so that leaders and educators can engage in deep, virtual, collaboration with like-minded professionals from around the globe.

Rather than passively consume online learning content, it would be worthwhile to endeavour to design my own self-chosen online learning content.

Leading and navigating change, particularly where tech is involved, is an inexact science at the best of times. We know that we will never please everyone, but by starting small, encouraging stakeholder involvement from the outset, providing the right level of pressure and support, starting with “why?”, and listening with empathy, meaningful school-wide implementation of tech initiatives to inspire and augment learning can be successful.