Develop skills, knowledge, and values needed to provide leadership in schools. Analyze characteristics of effective leaders, focusing on staff development. Explores technology and school reform, technology integration, and current issues.

--MU Direct--

Completing this technology leadership course certainly helped me think “outside the box." So much of what we learn in education classes revolves around the teaching and learning process specifically. However, this course not only focused on the teaching and learning process with technology, but the behind the scenes technology that our leaders in our schools deal with on a regular basis.

For example, one of the assignments was an evaluation/survey of our school district’s current technology level. This included facilities, equipment, personnel, training, emergency planning and much more. I discovered how many issues our leaders face in our school districts just with technology alone. I learned exactly how many LANs, WANs, servers, and networked computers we have in our district. Understanding the importance of each technology element and making sure that the district is serving teachers and students with adequate technology is quite a feat. Also comparing evaluations with other students helped me realize where our district is on the level of technology in relation to other districts. Finally, we worked to discover different methods of technology that can help students with disabilities. Specifically I observed a hearing impaired situation; leaders in our schools are certainly faced with the challenge of making sure all students are educated equally. What better way to reach those students than the use of technology.

Another interesting area of this course that has helped me recently, is the creation of a staff development plan for technology in our district. Administrators in my building have approached me several times about workshops on technology for teachers in our building. With the practice of creating the staff development plan, I was able to evaluate our own district needs and create a plan that the administrators have now put in place. I hope to continue using this knowledge to find our areas of need and help improve our knowledge and use of technology.