Loose Threads

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This will mark the third year that I am teaching EDU 6270 - Leadership in Technology at Madonna University.

Even though the course has moved completely online, I still maintain class discussion assignments  through an online discussion board. This actually features my favorite content of the class as it allows me to bring up a rich variety of topics that I find interesting.

Needless to say, I actively participate in the discussion threads.

*This year, three of the forums are based on important sections from Eric Sheninger's book, Digital Leadership. One of the better ones ties into a Twitter assignment that I give my students. I teach practicing teachers, and it surprises me how few use Twitter for professional development and networking.

*A fourth discussion is based on the students' review of the Horizon Report by the New Media Consortium.

*Since it conveniently occurs during our semester, I also require students to register for the 4T Virtual Conference. They are required to share their take-aways.

*My favorite assignment is a bit more academic. Students are required to read a rare piece of scholarly research on the correlation between technology usage by school principals and the level of technology integration in their schools. Unfortunately School Technology Leadership: An Empirical Investigation was written in 2003 so the "indicators" for determining whether or not a principal models the use of technology are quite dated. For example, if a principal used email in 2003 it was considered evidence that he or she was in the vanguard of technology adoption. But still it's a great study and I ask my students to imagine that they were going to replicate it in 2015.  My question, to the students is what kinds of technology usage would distinguish a current school leader as modeling tech use? Interesting to consider.

I look forward to engaging with my students on these topics!