2011-L2

= Four Strategies to Turn Leaders Into Techies = Diane Lauer Director of Curriculum & Instruction (Thompson School District)
 * Room 309**

> Schools face the risk of falling behind without strong 21st Century Leadership
 * **The Problem:** Leaders face the risk of becoming irrelevant without strong technology skills and knowledge of digital and social media - AND -
 * **Assumption**: Leaders want to be Relevant to those they Lead
 * **Theory of Action:** If Leaders can find easy entry points to using social and digital media and build their skills accordingly, they can maintain their relevance and continue to lead in the digital age

=**Today's Meet**=
 * =[]=
 * #4strats4leads
 * #colearning

= =The Four Entry Points Interactive Discussion -= This session will involve YOUR active participation as we will be building this wikispace together to capture knowledge to be used for future work.

Facebook Pages Wikis Blogs Twitter

We are //secretly// getting our school and district leaders hooked on these tools to help them stay relevant in the 21st Century. Why? Because we believe these tools catalyze relevant leadership in the digital age. It is imperative that our leaders maintain their effectiveness. Understanding the power of digital and social media is a part of 21st Century Leadership. We have noted that as we introduce leaders to these tools, their cravings for more increase at a dramatic rate.

How? Draw upon your leaders' current skill set as a Secret Facebook Fanatic, Article Pusher, Ace Reporter, and/or Documentation Whiz in order to effectively help them take one giant step towards technology leadership.

= Facebook Discussion: =
 * How many of you here have a School Facebook Page? If so, who manages it?
 * What are the links of great School Facebook Pages?
 * [|Powell Middle School] - Littleton, CO
 * [|Bethke Elementary School] - Tinmath, CO
 * [|Thompson Valley Eagle Vision] - Loveland, CO
 * [|Burlington High School] - Burlington, MA
 * [|Thompson Innovation Lab]- Loveland, CO
 * Do you know if your leader uses Facebook?
 * If he/she is a frequent Facebook flyer, we recommend helping them create a Facebook Page, either for their role as Principal, or their School.
 * If he/she doesn't, we recommend teaching them how to get online privately so they can at least read about what others are saying about their school :)

Other Facebook Page Resources:
 * [|18 Ways to Drive People to your School's Facebook Page]
 * [|Creating a Facebook Page for your School (Bethke Elementary)]
 * [|Facebook for School Districts - A Setup Guide]

= Wikis Discussion: =
 * How many of you here have school/department wiki pages? If so, who manages them?
 * What are the links of great School/Department Wiki Pages?
 * Thompson School District World Languages Wikispace - Loveland, CO
 * Loveland High School French Class Wikispaces - Loveland, CO
 * [|Barrow County Schools Private Label Wikispaces] - Winder, GA
 * Curriculum & Instruction Department Wikispace - Loveland, CO
 * Do you know if your leader uses wikis? Creates wikis?
 * If he/she doesn't use wikis, we recommend teaching them how to create one.
 * The best part about wikis is how they cut down on the sending and resending and resending of email attachments. As a leader, it is probably the most annoying thing I deal with. I hate having to scrounge around to find the document I sent someone when they can't find it. i LOVE being able to say, "It's on my wiki" As a leader, I want to build the capacity of my staff. I want them to be self-directed. Creating a wikispace can help leaders do this.
 * Show your leader how to upload his/her slides to slideshare for extra cool looking wikis
 * Show them how to embed YouTube videos when they get their feet wet.

= Blogs Discussion: =
 * How many of you here have a school/department blog? If so, who manages it?
 * What are the links of great School/Department/Personal Blogs?
 * [|Conrad Ball Middle School Buddy Press School Blog] - Loveland, CO
 * [|Lens on Learning: Curriculum & Instruction Blog] - Loveland, CO
 * [|Thompson Blogs] - Buddy Press Blogs for our District - Loveland, CO
 * [|Intercultural Responsiveness] by Tom Altepeter - Loveland, CO
 * [|Patrick Larkin's Principal Blog] (Burlington High School) - Burlington, MA
 * [|Connected Principals] - a shared blog by principals across the world
 * [|The Principal of Change] - George Couros - Red Deer, AB
 * Do you know if your leader blogs? Reads blogs? Knows what a blog is?
 * Blogs are like a road that diverges into the wood
 * One is the smooth, grated path - just reading blogs written by others
 * One is truly the road less traveled - it is the writing of one's own blog
 * We believe that leaders really need to be reading blogs to stay relevant in the digital age. Time change, information moves quickly. Leaders need to be on top of their game. Give them links to important blogs and get them hooked! Better yet, teach them how to use an RSS feed like Google Reader
 * What are some great blogs for leaders to read?
 * Now, is your leader a writer? A secret author yearning for an audience? Does she create Monday Memos or Friday Forums on a regular basis and type them herself? If so, she/he needs to blog!!!
 * Help her/him get a simple Edublog or Blogger account.
 * Teach her/him how to snag Creative Commons licensed images from Flickr
 * Help her copy and paste her updated blog post URLs into the email page of her staff.
 * Have her expect to read teacher/staff comments in the comment section of her blog - this creates an asynchronous staff conversion.

= Twitter =
 * How many of you have a school/department Twitter presence? If so, who manages it?
 * What are the links of "great" Twitter Leaders?
 * @wfryer - technology integrtion
 * @gcouros - school leadership
 * @mrslauer - curriculum and instruction (that's me - :)
 * @briankotts - teaching/learning/international perspective
 * @budtheteacher - district tech, inquiry learning, writing
 * @tomaltepeter - intercultural responsiveness
 * @monk51295 - innovation and unlearning
 * @buffyhamilton - libriaries and information literacy
 * @shellterrell - esol and international perspectives
 * @pammoran - superintendent
 * @larryferlazzo - English language acquisition
 * @mwacker - online professional development
 * @shannonmmiller - 1:1, information literacy
 * @whatedsaid - elementary IB (PYP) teacher
 * Do you know if your leader uses Twitter? Lurker?
 * If your leader uses Twitter, he/she has probably already figured out that the school/department needs a presence
 * If your leader does not use or understand Twitter --- I typically only get them involved if they:
 * are voracious readers of articles, potentially already subscribe to RSS feeds and read blogs
 * are addicted to sending people (like you) articles all the time
 * have a smart phone that where one can use a Twitter app
 * Why
 * Voracious readers LOVE Twitter when they get hooked. They can get a constant stream of information, this stream is highly addictive! All the leader needs is to be turned on to a bunch of high flying Twitterers and they can easily lurk their hearts content until they feel confident
 * Article hounds who send people articles all the time need another outlet. They know that they can only send you so many articles before you puke. So, getting them into Twitter gives them this outlet - and - through this they learn they can network with people around the globe, thereby increasing their knowledge and relevance as a leader.
 * I Tweet mostly on my phone, I also use my iPad - but that is another conversation. If your leader's hand is permanently connected to his/her phone - they will LOVE Twitter. Again, it's all about the addiction for information. They will LOVE it.

Other Resources to Help Provide Access to Others
 * Google Docs
 * Moodle
 * Google Reader
 * YouTube