Observer - Participant - Leader

O-P-L Record

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) developed the Framework of Essential Skills for K-12 Technology Leaders. According to the Consortium's website, the framework is divided into three professional category areas (Leadership & Vision, Understanding the Educational Environment, and Managing Technology & Support Resources) containing a total of ten essential skill areas (Consortium for School Networking, 2015). 

Ten Essential Skill Areas

1. Leadership & Vision
2. Strategic Planning
3. Ethics & Policies
4. Instructional Focus & Professional Development
5. Team Building & Staffing
6. Stakeholder Focus
7. Information Technology Management
8. Communication Systems Management
9. Business Management
10. Data Management

In order to be an effective educational technology leader, one must exhibit and demonstrate skills and knowledge in each area of the Framework. As a student in the Ed.S. Instructional Technology Program, as well as technology coordinator (TC) at my current placement, I have experience in various areas of the Framework, as shown in my O-P-L Record. Alternatively, there are also some areas that I have yet to perform. 

For the purposes of this post, I will outline three areas of the Framework with documentation of my experience in each area. 

• 2. Strategic Planning: "Have a high-level view across the school system and work with instructional and technical teams to identify steps needed to transform the technology vision into a long-range plan, complete with specific goals, objectives, and action plans" (Consortium for School Networking, 2015). 
• 2C. Align technology team activities with the school district goals.

As TC I work closely with the county technology department to oversee and implement district goals at a local level. This year and last, I coordinated the system-wide special events. Figure 1 is a snapshot from our technology plan detailing how our school planned to participate in the required technology initiatives this year. As TC, I work with the department chairs to make sure that these technology initiatives are put into place. 

Figure 1

Additionally, as the social media/PR team adviser, I planned and coordinated the Social Networking and Cyber-bullying Education for Digital Citizenship Week this year and last. Below are resources used in our program. Our social media/PR team members (comprised of students in 10th-12th grades) conducted the lesson in history classes. 

Figure 2

Brief History of the Internet

Cyberbullying Commerical

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• 4. Instructional Focus and Professional Development: "Budget, plan and coordinate ongoing, purposeful professional development for all staff using technologies; ensure a sufficient budget through the implementation and assessment process of emerging technologies" (Consortium for School Networking, 2015).
• 4A. Plan for and coordinate ongoing, purposeful professional development. 

As the school TC, I plan and oversee various professional development opportunities throughout the year. At the start of the school year, I coordinated a Google workshop for our faculty (Figure 3) as well as went over important technology reminders in regards to communication and technology requests. As an on-going "tech tip" resource, I reinvented our faculty meeting "Monthly Share Dare" to Monthly Share Dare 2.0 (technology edition). Each month I created a newsletter with one digital tool, tech tip, etc. for our faculty members to try. All Monthly Share Dates were shared in our Faculty\Technology folder as well as emailed once released. 

Figure 3

Perhaps my most enjoyable professional development venture this year was the opportunity to coach four of my colleagues. I coached two other history teachers in the fall and we focused on the use of Nearpod in the history classroom. In the spring, I coached an English teacher and biology teacher and our focus was on digital assessments, specifically Google Forms. Figure 4 is a survey response from research conducted on instructional coaching this spring. 

Figure 4

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• 7. Information Technology: "Direct, coordinate, and ensure implementation of all tasks related to technical, infrastructure, standards, and integration of technology into every facet of district operations" (Consortium for School Networking, 2015).
• 7F. Direct, coordinate, and ensure implementation of all tasks related to the integration of technology into every facet of operations. 

As TC, I am not only in charge of coordinating district required initiatives and planning local technology professional development, but also overseeing the technology in the building. This includes keeping the inventory up-to-date when new technology comes into the building and when old technology goes out. Additionally, I am the first point of contact for technical issues within the building. I designed a Tech Coordinator Request form to document all technical requests throughout the school year. The accompanying spreadsheet provides me with a checklist to visit classrooms in the order I am requested, as well as give me an overall view of what our school technical needs are. There are some things that must be redirected to the county technology help desk, but many things can be handled locally during my technology period or before or after the school day.

References:

Consortium for School Networking. (2015). Framework of Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO. Consortium for School Networking: Washington, DC.