Assignment #1

I really enjoyed today’s class on several levels. First, it was a great way to start my Master’s program with great people and small numbers which allows a conversational approach and a down to earth Professor with real life experience to draw upon. Secondly, the subject area of technology and digital leadership is something that I feel I am comfortable with, but at the same time, have a lot of growth opportunity before I feel I am fluent in this “language”. In addition to this, the thing I found most fascinating about today was the fact that the first hour or so of class I kept naturally trying to approach our conversation and topics from the teacher perspective in regards to how this information can apply to my classroom and to my students simply because this has been my approach for so long.. Although, everything we went over today, and will learn about in the future, can be applied to the classroom, the focus is on how it can be applied as an administrator. This is a new realm of focus I will need to get used to. I am definitely excited for this shift of thinking, but at the same time, applying what I learn to my classroom in the short term, with the added benefit of a little bit different higher level perspective.

One takeaway from the articles is that digital immigrants (many current educators) can learn new ways of doing things in order to reach students, but a very common response to this, is with so many new standards which are changing so often, state tests, and other demands, the time that is needed to change your digital language is not provided, not available, or not willing to be used in order to grow as an educator. There is definitely a middle option between trying to learn everything all at once and refusing to learn a new approach at all, but so many are not willing to take this middle road. I feel this connects to NETS A Standard 5 b, c, d because in schools today, there is a wide range of educators and administrators at varying levels of digital understanding and application and in many cases, staff who are “fluent” in digital languages model new methods to those of us who are not in order to help us improve our digital language in a safe, legal, and ethical manner in a collaborative environment.

I also feel it is our job as leaders to balance the new way of digital thinkers and incorporate things that work well for them with the “old” ways of doing things. Just as doing everything digitally or doing everything the old school way won’t work, it is important to fuse these two methods together in a way that enhances student learning with things that are still important and valuable in our society that have been done for many years. One example of this is that in the article written by Marc Prensky it touched on how many digital age students want, prefer, and need instant feedback and results. While this is beneficial and expected in many digital platforms, there are often times in an academic and professional setting where this need is not plausible. This connects with NETSA Standard 5d by providing access and methods of doing things that are differentiated and suitable to all learning styles.