Technological Leadership In Education

It requires agility, innovation, experimentation, decisiveness, commitment to bring change. The implementation of change results in an evolving and successful education system. The blueprint of a powerful reform in an education system weaves its roots from a systematic and progressive transformation across seven critical domains in education. The seven parameters of education,in my opinion, include the school environment and culture; curriculum and content; learning and assessment; human resources; finance; operations and law. The need for leading an organization to such changes include technology as a as a binding force. Technological support is vital in the age of artificial intelligence. A technology-driven school provides a stimulating and enigmatic learning environment.

Objectives

The goal of education for all learners is to indulge in engaging and empowering learning experiences. This makes them active, creative, knowledgeable and ethical participants in our globally connected society. To be successful in daily lives and in a global workforce, our students need pathways to acquire expertise and form meaningful connections with peers and mentors. Technology is a powerful tool to reimagine learning experiences.

A school with connectivity but without robust science facilities can give students virtual chemistry, biology, anatomy, and physics labs—offering students better learning experiences with limited resource. Students engaged in creative writing, music, or media production can publish their work to a broad global audience regardless of where they go to school.

Instructional aids

Inactive learning activities, students are engaged in utilizing what they have learned and can be cooperative or solitary. Some instructional tools for active learning by use of ICT are a glimpse of the prominent role of technology in educational leadership. Some ICT based instructional tools leading the way are:

Massive Open Online eLearning (MOOC) is a recent and widely researched development in distance education. It was first introduced in 2006 and emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012.MOOC is promoted by platforms such as EDX, Coursera. It is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants.

Voice Thread and Big Blue Button (BBB) supports multiple audio and video sharing presentations with extended whiteboard capabilities, such as a pointer, zooming and drawing.There are features like public and private chat, desktop sharing, integrated VoIP, and support for the presentation of PDF documents and Microsoft Office documents.

Web Conferencing: A web conference, also known as a webinar, facilitates each participant to connect to the other participants in real-time via the Internet. Most webinars also include audio communication through audio conferencing or voice over IP.This can also include text chat, slide presentations, file sharing, videos, and surveys; enhancing the learning experience across classrooms.

Virtual field trips present a variety of content for student learning in online environments. Virtual field trips tend to be highly visual and offer varying levels of interactivity. Many resources for virtual field trips already exist online.Instructors with basic audio-visual recordingequipment and editing software can create virtual field trips, providing an educational tour across the globe.

Quizlet is a free online study tool that students may use to choose from a variety of interactive study activities including flashcards, matching activities, and other learning games. Students can create their own study sets or use existing sets that have been shared and can even join a course Quizlet page if the instructor has created one. Quizlet can be used within a learning management system (LMS) or can be shared with students via email or web URL, giving learning a competitive edge over other social media distractions.

Computer Supported Brainstorming: Team members can contribute their ideas through electronic means either synchronously or asynchronously. Brainstorm, plan projects, organize, debate and vote on best ideas with anyone on any desktop with a web browser or any mobile device. Collaborate with people in the same room or around the world in real-time. This can empower a global brainstorming session where issues such as safety, sanitation and so on can be discussed from perspectives of different states as well as continents.

Concluding threads…

The number of internet users in India reached 500 million in 2018, said a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). This data strongly indicate the potential of technology to lead the way for new breakthroughs in the area of education and with a wide range of benefits. However, to realize fully the benefits of technology in our education system and provide authentic learning experiences, educators need to use technology effectively in their practice. For digital literacy, teachers and students must walk shoulder to shoulder in the times to come. Furthermore, education stakeholders should commit to working together to use technology to improve education. We must be aware of the fact that technology helps to the extent of increasing efficiency yet, not to the extent of covering the common sense. The best-programmed robots have failed to sense that water is wet or mothers are older than their daughters. Strings can pull but not push and time does not run backward. The future jobs will require these common senses and they will be still relevant in human society even after machines takeover.

Lastly, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook rightly states that,“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… in a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” If we need to be a proud institution that prepares global citizens for the new age world, we need to innovate and weave technological advancements in education with the traditional teaching methods to be a leader in education.