Educational Independence Day...

Scott McCleod recently posted on his Dangerously Irrelevant blog that:

Many of our school leaders (principals, superintendents, central office administrators) need help when it comes to digital technologies. A lot of help, to be honest. As I’ve noted again and again on this blog, most school administrators don’t know

• what it means to prepare students for the 21st century;
• how to recognize, evaluate, and facilitate effective technology usage by students and teachers;
• what appropriate technology support structures (budget, staffing, infrastructure) look like or how to implement them;
• how to utilize modern technologies to facilitate communication with internal and external stakeholders;
• the ways in which learning technologies can improve student learning outcomes;
• how to utilize technology systems to make their organizations more efficient and effective;
• and so on…

I made the same point at Edubloggercon --in order to change a system, you MUST have support from the leaders. I am fortunate in my district to have leaders who understand what it means to prepare students, and are starting to work towards creating a vision. I think (as does Scott) that this message would be much louder, and much clearer if many voices were shouting...
He urges edubloggers to blog about effective leadership Wednesday, July 4th.
Use the tag schooltechleadership--Scott has a whole list of prompts to spark your thinking.... It takes more than just a FEW DROPS to fill a bucket, just like it will take more than a few educators to change the face of education. Yes Dave, we are still in the minority as edubloggers, but as shown by your statistics (and the amount of twittering since NECC) I do believe that our voices are being heard. If you don't blog, comment on someone else's blog, track the conversations, pass them on to your district administrators. I urge you if you have a blog to take this opportunity on July 4th to reflect on the importance of leadership.