Which field experience had the most significant positive impact on your growth as a technology leader?
By: Darryl Callens
I was tasked to complete a O-P-L-report based on the CoSN Framework for Essential Technology Leadership skills. Out of the (10) frameworks I think that the one that has the most significant positive impact on my growth as a technology leader would be the Team Building and Staffing framework. I think this was so important for me because for one, it was the only one that was under the leadership category out of the (6) that I focused on. To be a leader sometimes involves practice. Doing this activity with my staff not only assisted them but also enabled me to develop more as a technology leader.
Underneath this framework of team building and staffing lies subsections. The subsection that aligns with what I did for my activity was Building an environment that encourages team communication. Let me explain to you the activity that I did which aligned to this framework. But before I do that I just want to speak on the importance of team building and staffing.
I think that team building is a quality that a good leader should learn to own. This article, Creating a Sustainable Advantage through Team Building, discusses a team building process called TEAM Advantage in municipal government, which promotes sustainability by increasing employee morale and providing better customer service (Ray, Decker, Mitsch & Rocchetti, 2017).
That’s why to me it was a no brainer on which framework and activity enabled me to see more growth as a technology leader. A little history about me. I’m a computer science teacher and building technology coordinator. There was a time when I would defer in meetings or didn’t raise my hand to contribute to a discussion in a faculty meeting. But when I took over as building technology coordinator I added more responsibility and that title gave me confidence to try things that I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with.
The required text reading mentions how being uncomfortable can affect anyone at certain times. “Stepping out of our comfort zone requires us to step outside of ourselves. If we are going to strive for progress, whether professionally or personally, we have to get comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable. This isn’t easy for everyone (Sheninger, 2019, p.43).
When I first came into this position as building technology coordinator I wasn’t properly educated on what was expected of me nor my duties. I was given a few main tasks and at the time I thought that was all to my position. But as I’ve began to seek higher learning and discovering this path in the ed.s instructional technology program I realized the job of the technology coordinator far exceeded what I thought. When I started to learn more about my title I begin to do more.
So one of the things that becomes very repetitive at my school is loss information from the students. So many of our kids forget their username and passwords to different things. Students can’t login to schoology, or powerschool, or clever. This became a constant distraction to not just me as a computer science teacher but also to other teachers who would have to slow down or pause their instruction to deal with password issues.
I thought about a plan to do a tutorial with step by step screenshot images of what teachers can do to assist in this process so that things flow efficiently. Well, long story short. I emailed the entire staff with the email with examples of how to quickly and successfully help students retrieve their credentials.
After doing this email with the images that helped the teachers step by step. I also conducted a zoom for all of the staff members who still needed some assistance. This really gave me a boost professionally after it was over because I felt like I was really coming into my own in my position as a technology leader. I took initiative and created helpful tools for my staff to use to service our students better. This is my story. Hope you enjoyed.
References
Sheninger, E. C., & Mitra, S. (2019). Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times. Corwin.
Ray, K., Decker, S., Mitsch, B., & Rocchetti, R. (2017). Creating a Sustainable Advantage through Team Building. Employment Relations Today (WIley), 44(2), 45-50 https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.21625
As Carlin & Alberts (2021) state, "the more bridges we build, the
ReplyDeletebetter prepared we are". We are all in this education business together. It is important to connect with your team or others in a network in order to help each other. According to Sheninger (2019), "knowledge is shared and exchanged, not simply taken". Teaching is hard and having technology leaders or connecting to a PLN can lend itself to growing your capacity. Just like we seek to find answers/help, we must also share our knowledge in order to help others. It just works better that way!
Thank you for sharing!
Erica
References:
Carlin, L., & Alberts, H. (2021). Building bridges in interdisciplinary team-taught honors seminars. Honors in Practice, 17, 83–96.
Sheninger, E. C. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Corwin.