Unfortunately, the rash of external mandates such as transitioning to the Common Core, delivery of PARCC testing and implementation of HIB legislation has overshadowed what an exciting time it is to be in education. The Digital Age has ushered in an ever- expanding digital infrastructure where access and the ability to connect is becoming ubiquitous. Furthermore, the democratization of the web offers individuals opportunity to not only act as critical consumers of information, but also exist as trusted producers of public content. As Chris Anderson states in Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, “Today we are spoiled by the easy pickings of the web. Any kid with an idea and a laptop can create the seeds of a world-changing company- just look at Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.” As opposed to erecting a barrier to the outside world, schools that embrace the Digital Age and more importantly, provide stakeholders equitable access to a connected world, open spaces of possibility inside classrooms.
Establishing a culture of where individuals think deeply about their work is a hallmark of a 21st Century school district. A crucial role the Director of Curriculum and Instruction is fostering an organizational climate where stakeholders are imbued with a sense of agency. The Director of Curriculum and Instruction needs to interact with educators, students and parents on a personal level to engage individuals in reflective conversation about current practice and to brainstorm
Achieving a school district’s mission and vision requires the commitment of its stakeholders. In order to involve them in the process, it is necessary for educational leaders to “motivate staff, parents, students, board and community members” (Educational Leadership Constituencies Council, 2002, p. 4). The transformational leadership theory emphasizes the importance of educational leaders acting as role-models in order to motivate and inspire the school community. This approach has the potential to involve all stakeholders, leading to increased student success (Bush, 2007). The Assistant Director of Special Education in Northwest ISD directly supervised the school district’s assessment staff. Her education, experience, and passion set an example for her subordinates, stimulating them to achieve more, leading to her promotion to Executive Director of Student Services.
Since children today have become digital natives; they will never truly know a world that is not touched with technology. This means that the educational paradigm has to shift in order to keep up with the needs of our young learners (Jo, 2016). In the last thirty years, technological advances
I’m writing to propose an initiative to reform Arizona’s high school curriculum to include digital technology as a part of the graduation requirements for students. Implementing technology courses as part of the core standards in high school provides opportunities for students to learn how to effectively communicate and share ideas with others. This is skill they will use and need in future opportunities when communicating with business peers who live in different parts of the world.
Technology connects people from all corners of the world. Inventions like the web and the internet has been heralded as the greatest inventions of man. The twenty first century is a fast paced world, with information available at a person’s fingertips. With this new drastic change in society, advocates of education reformation, like Cathy Davidson, pushes for education to be more modernized. In her essay “Project Classroom Makeover”, she points out the outdated education system, and the benefits, technology can have on the failing American education system.
Participate as an educational leader, an equal partner, and a change agent in the curriculum development process at both the campus and district levels.
The digital world can be found everywhere in today’s society including the classroom. There are multiple companies with products to assist educators in engaging and/or assessing their students’ progress. The Seventeenth Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercializing Trends 2013-2014 allows the author Alex Molnar and Faith Bominger to bring attention to students’ privacy and lack of regulation by current laws.
The learning is a lifelong process (not necessary including formal education) with ultimate purpose of expanding individual opportunity in upward mobility. Educational models have evolved over the years in order to fit the criteria of its time. In the chapter “Project Classroom makeover” Duke University provost Cathy Davidson explores the possible transformation that America's education system needs to undertake in order to meet the challenges of the working place of the digital era. The rise of the hacking culture, that technologies and opportunities of that digital revolution gave birth to, became the driver of the disruption in the learning process that will lead to the end of the
According to the article “What’s the Matter with the Kids Today”, many adults believe that new technology is consuming the minds of young people. Amy Goldwasser uses research from Common Core surveys as well as Doris Lessing’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech to create her argument. Goldwasser uses these examples to explain that if parents and teachers better understood the use of technology, students wouldn’t be punished for their overuse of technology today.
The Industrial Revolution that occurred in the late Nineteenth Century brought many new jobs that were drastically different to the jobs that previous Americans held. While agricultural jobs still existed and were vitally important to the sustainability of the American economy, the new factory jobs that opened up created many new work opportunities for Americans and immigrants who came from Europe. However, the problem with all these new industrial jobs was that they had very poor working conditions and the work hours were long and unfair. This along with the low wages made these jobs undesirable. Despite this, immigrant workers continued to work under these conditions because they had nowhere else to obtain work and quitting would make it almost impossible for them to find a job somewhere else with better working conditions and wages. The result of the low wages meant that many immigrants living on the East Coast of the United States lived below the poverty line. There was a fundamental problem with the working and living conditions the immigrants were experiencing. Two political organizations of this era sought to fix this problem with two contrasting methods. The Progressive Reformers were a political organization that sought out to set permanent fixes to these conditions and make it possible for the immigrants to be self-sustaining. On the other hand, the political machines, more specifically Tammany Hall of Manhattan, sought to make changes by directly helping the
20). Without a clear understanding of expectations, followers will have a difficult time making sense of goals, anticipated outcomes, and success criteria. As evidenced in observation data, Mr. Smith, Director of Elementary Education, provided direction for school administration, teachers, and instructional leaders at central office. He outlined professional development plans for elementary leadership for the 2016-2017 school year, developed a roll-out plan for standards-based reporting K-5, coordinated next steps for observation data related to school improvement planning, and established expectations for reporting student growth in literacy on a quarterly basis. Evident in his dialogue with teachers, administrators, and central office staff was his ability to listen to those in the trenches at the school level. While outlining expectations, goals, and success criteria, Mr. Smith understood that building a sense of community was critical; this leads to the next task of leadership – creating
Humanity has been through so many types of “ages” and each one has had some form of impact on us. Some of the impact has been on education others have impacted the quality of life. Either way, education is something that has been around since the start of time. Although, it was different during different time periods, it has always been a part of human history in one way or another. The Pre-Industrial Age, the Industrial Age, and the Information Age all had different effect on mankind’s intellectual, social, and economic development. Technology has advanced education in many ways in our current time and has improved our lives overall.
It is no secret that technology plays a critical role in our society. In fact, it has become one of the most used items in the world, starting from personal computers and ending in smartphones, thus it was only a matter of time when educational institutions would start to utilize these gadgets in order to improve the overall state of current education. According to a U.S Department of Education (UDE, n.d) report, all 48 states, including the District of Columbia are now offering online education. Additionally, the report states that these schools operate on all kinds of scales, including state scale, district scale and charter scale, thus it would safe to assume that the whole state of current education in the United States is large and the whole approach is clearly technology based. However, despite the
Bossert, P. J. (1999). Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation. National Association of Secondary School Principals.NASSP Bulletin, 83(607), 86-88. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216032026?accountid=32521
We are standing at the precipice of what some call the 4th Industrial Revolution. The 4th Industrial Revolution is being described as a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. We are rapidly moving to an era where billions of people will be connected by mobile devices with unprecedented processing power and storage capacity. Our access to knowledge will be unlimited.
The complex social and historical foundations of education are rooted in the need to create a population of citizens capable of contributing to the continuing economic and political stability of our nation. First we were an agricultural society, then industrial, and now we are educating students for futures with that are yet unknown (explainvisualthinking, 2007). The new dynamic, created by the recent and rapid expansion of technology driven globalization has created the compelling need for technology infused education in our schools (Friedman, 2005). As an educational technology leader, I collaborate with other educators and families to create technology initiatives that will support educational technology in our schools.