Leadership and management

Today when Adam Hotchkiss came he provided a lot of information and it was really interesting to hear everything he was talking about. He talked in detail about things such as policy, budget, staffing, leadership, etc. Here are some notes that I took while he was talking of aspects that I found really interesting and helpful to hear about: If you do not have the time to plan you do not have anything to instruct people on. As a leader you need To look ahead to see what technology should look like down the road. Need to make sure your instructions and goals align with the school standards. Every decision you make about technology will affect the classrooms and school as a whole. First get your strategic plan, then you can really think about the specifics. Change from leadership to management position for this process. Total cost ownership is how much money you will need to complete the whole process, everything over the lifespan of the process. Staffing is very important in this process, teachers need to be trained as well as people to work with them throughout their learning process. Make sure to set aside money for infrastructure, such as the things that most people do not see but that you need to run technology. Anytime you put in new technology it is a must to do initial training and then after they have time to work with it you can do another session where they can have questions. Technical support needs to be done fairly quickly so that they will continue to use technology most of the time. Best to have spares for cases like this so it will cut down on wait and fixing time. Policies govern the expectations of how people will use the equipment, have policies on everything.
All this information above is a lot to think about and process but it is all really helpful to those who are going to be in school or be in technology roles. I think information like this is helpful for even those of us who are going to be teachers because just knowing the process that goes into setting up the technology can make you more respectful and understanding of what you do and do not have. The is a lot that goes into the roles of technology leadership and as teachers we need to be sensitive to this issue and show patience within the schools.