I am the principal of a small k-9 independent school. Both teaching and learning at the school look much different than they did a few short years ago. With the affordable availability of technology and a shift in educational direction we have been able to pivot quickly in a new educational landscape. We have seen learners who were once passive, following, consumers become students who are engaged, creating, leaders. Technology has played a major role in this shift.
Platforms such as Google Classroom have allowed for students to interact in a closed social media like environment where they can practice digital citizenship skills. In much the same way many people contribute to professional conversations in Twitter, student have learned to use their Google Classroom stream like a forum to post questions, share digital resources, and create an ongoing conversation which exists beyond the confines of the school timetable.
Parents, teachers and students interact through an app based social media platform designed for education. Teachers and students are able to share learning activities, presentations and pictures directly with class parents. These stories are a way to include parents in the learning experiences of their children. Instead of asking the age old questions, “what did you learn at school today?” parents are able to say, “tell me about the activity that I saw on the class story today.” The success of this app developed as a single teacher successfully used it in her classroom and others saw the benefit of it and incorporated it into their own rooms. As a leader, I now require all teachers to use it in the elementary grades.
Teachers and support staff are learning to work through Microsoft 365 and/or Google docs to share resources they are developing or to co-create learning resources. Staff have focused on teaching students rather than teaching lessons, this requires flexible thinking and the necessity to collaborate and problem solve, this process is often supported by technology.
We have seen the positive hybrid organization that has benefited from the union of technology and people ( Kandampully et al., 2016). There are many examples where staff, parents or students speak positively about the school or demonstrate citizenship behaviour (Kandampully et al., 2016) in conversations with others or through social media.
In many ways combining technology and people together has grown rapidly but organically in our organization. The effect has made a significant impact in the value both employees and customers bring to the organization. We have successful mechanisms for teacher/student, teacher/parent, and student/parent interaction. The relationship which could benefit from a formal technology platform is the teacher/teacher (principal) relationship.
An employee development plan for the school would require the further enhancement of an open, trusting, collaborative culture which already exists. I believe that this could be accomplished by shifting how we already use an internal social media app within the school. Redesignating this digital platform for administration and staff could be used to recognize excellent work being done by co-workers, be a place of encouragement and celebration. It could also be a forum to host conversations for problem solving, linking co-created learning material and developing collaborative idea sharing.
As an administrator, it would not be successful if the redesignation of this app was simply mandated. Leading conversation and asking key questions for the staff to answer in teams could lead to problem solving in this direction. If I am able to lead this process successfully they could either come to this solution themselves or perhaps present something even better.
Kandampully, J., Bilgihan, A., & Zhang, T. C. (2016). Developing a people-technology hybrids model to unleash innovation and creativity: The new hospitality frontier. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 29, 154-164.
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