Just read the article Adding Student Leadership to Your Technology Plan by Dennis Harper which was very insightful in describing ways to try to get schools and teachers to move forward in the use of technology and 21st Century Skills in our classrooms. Involving the students in the development and execution of the Technology Plan allows for better insight for the adults into the ways students use the technology and would motivate greater acceptance and embracing of the tools by the students. Our kids today are Digital Natives, a term coined by G. Alex Ambrose in his video Googlios: A 21st – Century Approach to Teaching, Learning, & Assessment. In that sense, then, who better to aid in the professional training of these tools than our students themselves? The article talks about the GenYES initiative wherein students and faculty together claim ownership and responsibility for collaborating and teaching each other the myriad tools available, and together they develop a Technology Plan, which includes students serving as full participants in all aspects of development and execution. Harper starts his article with the statement that 92% of people in the schools are students, and most technology plans focus on the role of the other 8%, being the faculty. He goes on to say that “this is especially unbalanced given the fact that today’s students are increasingly savvy about the role technology plays in modern life.”
As a case in point, I had students after school today and I was struggling in trying to find and capture a video segment online. A student came up to me, suggested I do a few things, and he had fixed the problem. I know for a fact that our kids are much more tech savvy than most teachers, and use the technology daily in the ordinary facets of their lives. What a better resource for teachers and school administrators than our kids to help develop a technology plan that works for them!!
GenYES is a technology initiative that reaches out to students to involve them as full members of a team to develop a school-wide technology approach. The article states six ‘time-tested’ ways to involve students in the writing of such plans, including having students serve on committees, using students as trainers and support systems, as tech support agents, resource developers and communicators, as well as peer-mentors, peer-reviewers and peer-leaders. All these help to foster and create ownership by students of the approaches taken, and also ensure that the needs and tools that students use are incorporated into any executed plan. The article then discusses strategies that help schools migrate from the ‘talk’ to the ‘action’.
This article hit home in the sense that our school district is beginning a search for both a Superintendent and an Assistant Superintendent. I suggested to school committee members and peers that our search criteria should include the investigation into an administrator who can be a visionary when it comes to technology and 21st Century skills. The installment of a new superintendent is certainly a perfect opportunity to help set direction, leadership and a clear strategy for taking our schools into the future. If this administrator can set aside traditional approaches, and encourage the embracing of our students and inviting them to participate in the development of a modern technology strategy, then we will have certainly turned a new page for our schools and 21st Century skills.
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