Week 7 Leadership

Some tools that could be used to facilitate online discussions

Facebook, twitter, Google+, SecondLife, Snapchat, instagram, google docs, blogger, Trello, World War Craft in School, messenger, Whatsapp, Poll Everywhere, Disqus, Office 365, Youtube, nearpod, slack, twitch, edmodo

Why Use Twitter

• Encourages brevity
• Identifies the tweeter
• Allows replies and hashtags
• Integrates with other tools (e.g. Tweetdeck, Tagboard, Pocket, Buffer, Feedly)
• Supports weblinks
• Mobile App available
• Can be linked to from blogs etc.

Mind Lab Twitter

Handle: @NZMindLab
Hashtag: #TMLDCL

Some Twitter Tweeters and NZ education hashtags

@EducationGovtNZ @netsafeNZ

#edchatNZ (See: www.edchatnz.com/getting-started) #kidsedchatNZ #engchatNZ #mathschatNZ #scichatNZ #hackyrclass

Twitter Tips for Teachers

Education Review (2013) suggests ten ways that New Zealand teachers can get more out of the Twitterverse. We think these 6 are the most useful.

• Use TweetDeck to manage your Twitter feeds.
• Choose hashtags carefully and check for duplicates already being used
• Join the #edchatNZ club. Teachers and anyone interested can jump onto Twitter and join the discussions at #edchatNZ
• Make use of lists to group people based on any criteria you want for the purposes of reading their tweets
• Saving tweets for a rainy day. There are several tools for saving your favourite tweets, such as Diigo.com, Getpocket.com  and Evernote (using @myEN)
• Teaching with Twitter, for example microblogging for ‘summing up’, following the tweets of a famous person(s) during a significant event, such as politicians in the build-up to an election, ‘time tweeting’, where students choose a famous historical figure and create a twitter account from them, writing regular tweets in the appropriate vocabulary, or progressive collaborative writing, where students agree to take it in turns to contribute to an account or ‘story’ over a period of time.

Leading Online Discussions (MindEdge Learning Workshop, 2014).

• Set guidelines
• Make connections
• Challenge students to think critically
• Encourage participation
• Praise discussion posts
• Guide conversations back to the question at hand
• Use real world experiences
• Hesitate before interjecting

We will ask you to try to apply these suggestions during our Twitter discussion sessions.

Wicked Problems

A wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. They are highly complex, uncertain and often value laden. The use of term "wicked" here has come to denote resistance to resolution, rather than evil. (Rittel & Webber, 1973). Bolstad et al. (2012) argue that learners and teachers, families and communities need support to develop the skills needed to engage in solving the wicked problems of the 21st Century.

Is teaching a wicked problem?

The original TPACK paper argued that teaching was a wicked problem, referring to the following factors (Mishra & Koehler, 2008, p. 2).

1. Requirements that are incomplete, contradictory and changing
2. Uniqueness, in that no two wicked problems are alike
3. Occurring in complex and unique social contexts
4. Solutions that are difficult to realize and recognize because of complex interdependencies and contexts
5. Solutions that are not right or wrong, simply “better,” “worse,” “good enough,” or “not good enough”.
6. Solutions that have no stopping rule, the best we can hope for is “satisficing".

The 2017 Horizon Report (Freeman et al, 2017) explores the significant challenges impeding technology adoption in K-12 education and identifies 'The Achievement Gap' and 'Sustaining Innovation through Leadership Changes' as Wicked problems.

Mess Mapping

Mess Mapping is a process for collecting, sharing, organizing and evaluating information regarding a Wicked Problems. A Mess Map diagram or mural represents a model of the problem at hand that shows the important “chunks” of information and their relationships with other “chunks.” (Horn & Weber, 2007)

Education is complex. Wicked problems don't have a single answer, but through the use of online tools and digital media, independent people are able to work together to find ideas and concepts to explore wicked problems. Distributed leadership allows many people to work together to tackle these wicked problems. Refining traditional roles for students and teachers allows distributed leadership to occur.

Online and Distributed Leadership

Effective leadership in digital and collaborative environments requires more than a repertoire of techniques or lessons, particularly in blended learning models, where part of the learning process is online. The integration of digital tools and collaborative teaching methodologies requires an understanding of how to lead interactions online. The educator plays a key role in leading the learning environment and even when conducting activities that are largely student led and student regulated, such as online discussions, requires active direction by the teacher. 

Distributed leadership requires all educators to take responsibility for leadership, whether or not they are in a formal leadership role. It involves not only staff taking on leadership within the school but students too. It is closely linked to collaboration, in that distributed leadership builds on interdependence.

Whakataukī

Ko te pae tawhiti, whāia kia tata. Ko te pae tata, whakamaua kia tina.

Seek out distant horizons and cherish those you attain.

Standards for the Teaching Profession

Learning Focused CultureFoster trust, respect and cooperation with and among learners so that they experience an environment in which it is safe to take risks. 

He ahurea akoranga
Me whakatītina i te pono, i te whakaaro nui me te mahi tahi i te taha, i waenga o ngā ākonga kia rongo ai rātau i tētahi taiao ka taea te mahi tūpono i roto o te haumarutanga.

Diversity of Leadership Practice

Since Surowiecki (2004) argued that “diversity helps because it actually adds perspectives that would otherwise be absent”, Harris (2013) suggested that “the potential for imaginative and creative solutions to problems is more likely to occur where there is diversity of leadership practice that fits the contours or the needs of the organization or system.” 

Distributed Leadership

Distributed leadership acknowledges that the work of leading and managing schools involves multiple individuals – not just those with formally designated leadership and management positions but also individuals without such roles. It is primarily concerned with the practice of leadership rather than specific leadership roles or responsibilities. It equates with shared, collective and extended leadership practice that builds the capacity for change and improvement.

Distributed leadership means mobilising leadership in order to generate more opportunities for change and to build the capacity for improvement. It is ‘leadership by expertise’ rather than leadership by role or years of experience. Genuine distributed leadership requires high levels of trust, transparency and mutual respect.

Distributed leadership is about collective influence and is a contributor to school success and improved performance. It is not an accidental by-product of high performing organisations. Individuals are accountable and responsible for their leadership actions; collaborative teamwork is the modus operandi and inter-dependent working is a cultural norm. (Hargreaves, Boyle & Harris, 2014).

• Expertise not position
• Distributed accountability
• Distribution is non permanent
• Changing roles and responsibilities
• Leadership as practice

A strong correlation has been found between the building of leadership capacity for learning and teaching through distributed leadership and increased engagement in both learning and teaching. Because digital technology is multifaceted, it opens itself up to involvement from a variety of people and groups with different roles and responsibilities causing distributed leadership across time. Collaboration in a digital technology setting is the purposeful joining of people in an online environment that enables relevant problems to be tested and validated through constructed knowledge.

Jones (n.d.) defines distributed leadership as action by many people working collectively across the institution to build leadership capacity in learning and teaching. It differs from other, more traditional, approaches to building leadership capacity in which the traits, skills and behaviours of individual leaders are emphasised.