Technology Tools for School Leaders

School administrators of the past have mainly been responsible for managing the resources of the school. Today’s school administrators have many more responsibilities. These include managing the organization of the school, being an instructional leader, being a curriculum leader, insuring that students receive the best learning opportunities, managing school staff, communicating with teachers, parents, and community members, and much more. In order to meet these increasing demands many school principals have turned to technology as a tool for record keeping, note taking, documentation, data collection and analysis, and communication.

One way to facilitate positive communication is through the use of a blog. Blogging can reach both the local and global community instantly, relating the wonderful things happening in a school. Using video, audio, and images to tell the community the story of what learning looks like in the school not only keeps them informed about happenings in the school, but shines a bright light on the teachers, students, parents, and administrators in the school ("Education World: Five Essential Tech Tools for Campus Administrators Part 1", 2009.). Building relationships with the school community through blogging can create a window into the classroom for the community to peek through, strengthening their understanding of the learning opportunities in which students are participating.

School principals are instructional leaders. As such, administrators need to be up to date on instructional best practices, innovative teaching strategies, and current trends in education. Utilizing a social bookmarking site like Diigo can help school administrators keep track of the many resources they find in order to share them with their staff (“The Administrators Toolkit Updated and Refreshed”, March 12, 2013). As instructional leaders, administrators should support teachers in their learning with current resources. Using a site like Diigo to collect instructional resources and inviting teachers or other administrators to join your site allows for the sharing of resources as they are found.

Just as we encourage teachers to participate in PLCs, or Professional Learning Communities, to help them develop professionally, school administrators can connect with other administrators both locally and globally through social networking sites like Twitter. School principals can seek answers to questions from other administrators, follow inspiring educational leaders, and follow trends using Twitter ("Simon Crook's eLearning Blog: Why Twitter? A Guide for School Principals", June 21, 2011).

There are countless ways that school administrators can use technology to increase their performance as a school leader. Staying abreast of innovative and creative ways to utilize technology to enhance organization, communicate with the community, lead teachers in instructional practices, and manage the school as a whole is essential in today’s society. The most effective school leaders not only use technology to their benefit, but model this technological literacy for their staff and students.

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References

Education World: Five Essential Tech Tools for Campus Administrators Part 1. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/guhlin/guhlin008.shtml

Simon Crook's eLearning Blog: Why Twitter? A Guide for School Principals. (2011). Retrieved from http://evertonpom.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-twitter-guide-for-school-principals.html Anderson, S. (2013, March 12).

The administrator's toolkit updated and refreshed. Retrieved from http://blog.web20classroom.org/2013/03/the-administrators-toolkit-updated-and.htm