Technology Leader/Change Agent

EDU 781 Blog Reflection 1

Technology Leader/Change Agent 

During the first four weeks of the course, we have been discussing some of the roles a technology leader will have, especially the role of change agent and manager. How has your perception of being a technology specialist changed this term based on what you have read/learned? What aspect of being a technology leader do you perceive as being most challenging? Why?
 

From working with my school’s technology coordinator over the past several years, I have observed the many roles she has in this position. Even though I have been aware of many of these responsibilities, I have not given too much thought into how I would lead if I were in a position like hers. I really enjoyed reading the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath. From this book, I learned good strategies that change agents need to do in order to be effective leaders. One of the main takeaways was the idea that change agents need to “Direct the Rider,” “Motivate the Elephant,” and “Shape the Path.” Individuals need to understand a clear plan in order to go through a change. They need to understand the purpose of the change and be inspired by it. Motivating the elephant is key, and I was really inspired by some of the examples in Switch that described how motivating people’s emotions helps to move them into action. One example from the book involved someone trying to get his manufacturing company to save money on gloves by collecting all the different gloves used by the employees and pilling them up onto a table during a meeting. This act stirred the company leaders to start making some purchasing changes (Heath & Heath, 2010). Change agents also need to provide support to the individuals involved in the change. This is especially important for technology coordinators because they need to help faculty members with using new technology to ensure they are using it appropriately and effectively. Teachers need to see examples and receive consistent professional development to help them with implementing changes in the classroom. While these are good strategies to keep in mind when leading change, I think that some of these strategies may be difficult to do depending on the change. I think it is not easy to get everyone on board with changes, so dealing with resistance is a concern of mine. I know it would be rare to get everyone motivated to change, but it definitely helps to get a good amount of support. Supporting teachers through change is important, but since it seems like technology professional development is lacking in many schools, it might be a result of the technology coordinator having too many other responsibilities that there is not enough time to provide coaching to the staff. However, coaching is very important, and it would be the part of the job that I would be very interested in doing. I hope that when I am in a technology leadership position some day, I will have the time to provide coaching to the staff.

You have begun implementing your pilot experience this week. What has your impression of the planning and implementation steps been?

After spending time writing up an implementation plan for an E-Learning Day plan at my school, I have begun to put some of the plan into action this week. An E-Learning Day is a day when students are given work to complete electronically at home in the event that the physical school building has to close. While I spent time thinking through all the steps involved in implementing a plan like this, I will only be able to really implement some of it for my pilot. While I foresee it being a challenge to get the students on board with this type of day as they would rather just have a traditional snow day, the main people that I want to focus on for now are the teachers. If the teachers understand the importance of a day like this, and if they have a structured plan to follow, then the plan will have a greater chance of being successful. This week I developed questions about my plan that I will ask several teachers at my school from different grade levels. I want to get their feedback in order to see if I will get support for the plan and if I need to modify any parts of it. I enjoyed going through the steps of implementation. When developing a plan like this, there are a lot of components to think about, but it is important to consider all these before sharing the plan with others. Developing a plan is important, but getting feedback about the plan is equally important. I feel good about the work I have already completed for this plan, and I am eager to share it and make improvements to it.

Reference:
Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to change things when change is hard. New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group.