Digital Leadership

1364 Words3 Pages

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, SnapChat are just some of the most popular digital platforms used today. But can these programs be used for education and can they help lead teachers in professional development and promote leadership in teachers and students alike? With technology becoming a central component for education, teachers and administration need to recognize the endless opportunities digital leadership brings.
According to research done by the Pew Research Internet Project, 73% of adults belong to at least one social networking sites and 42% belong to two or more sites. Teenagers’ use is higher at 82%, with an average of 102 minutes per day on Facebook (Alquist, 2014). But digital leadership is more than just logging into Facebook …show more content…

Now a renowned author, Sheninger has written over six books, all based around digital learning and digital leadership. In his book, Digital Leadership Changing Paradigms for Changing Times, he talks about open Course Ware (OCW) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Sheninger (2014a) says, “the accessibility and quality of OCW holds the promise of providing students and educators with more personalized learning options that can cater to diverse needs” (p. 12). He addresses the difficulties this change of behavior and learning might present, especially for veteran teachers. Disconnects from these characteristics are what students are experiencing in schools:
• Digital learners prefer to access information quickly from multiple-media sources, but many educators prefer slow and controlled release of information from limited sources
• Digital learners prefer parallel processing and multitasking, but may educators prefer linear processing and single tasks or limited multitasking.
• Digital learners prefer random access to hyper-linked multimedia information, but many educators prefer to provide information linearly, logically, and sequentially.
• Digital learners prefer to learn “just in time,” but many educators prefer to teach “just in case.”
• Digital learners prefer instant gratification and immediate rewards, but many educators prefer …show more content…

He explains in his beginning chapters what it is like for him as a digital leader. He starts the day by checking his email and sending out his daily email – something that teachers can check for any new information; he does the same thing in a google document for students. Then he updates the schools twitter, Facebook and google+ accounts to keep parents and community members informed on the day’s activities and upcoming events. When the bell rings, he grabs his tablet and heads out to the hallways to work, do observations and engage in students, often stopping to take photos and live-stream student work. During the noon hour, he is present in the cafeteria, making sure to converse with students. He says he often gets tips and tricks from the students and that is just as important. By using technology himself, Sheninger models an environment that allows for collaboration, creativity, and communication to happen and for teachers to follow in

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