Many district members have established a district-wide leadership team in charge of responding to problems and exploring decisions related to their 1:1 initiative or other major digitally-rich transformational innovation. Learn from the experience of other districts about why this team is important, the roles it can play and the people that should participate in it.
Nuggets
Potential Team Members:
- Superintendent (as needed)
- Director of Technology/CIO
- Deputy Superintendent/CFO
- Assistant Superintendent for Instruction AND/OR other district-level instructional leaders
- Instructional technology specialists/ teacher leaders
- Outside consultant
Documents
- Any document describing the team’s composition and/or functions
RATIONALE FOR HAVING A DISTRICT-WIDE LEADERSHIP TEAM
Introducing 1:1 devices and related initiatives to transforming instructional practices will require a host of decisions, along with on-going trouble-shooting, that would be too much for a single person to handle. Rather, you need to assemble a diverse district-wide team that represents key decision makers, and put it in charge of the implementation.
Hear this message directly from some local pioneers:
(INSERT video thumbnail and link – see directions below)Mary Grow – Superintendent, East Irondequoit [x:xx]
(INSERT video thumbnail and link – see directions below)Parker Ormerod – Instructional Technology Support, Monroe BOCES #1 [x:xx]
(INSERT video thumbnail and link of new interview)?? [0:xx]
(PUT LINK to interview excerpt – see directions below)
??
(PUT LINK to interview excerpt – see directions below)
??
(PUT LINK to interview excerpt – see directions below)
??
KEY ROLES
Districts have used their digital leadership team to:
- Gather and share information about implementation and teachers’, students’ and families’ responses
- Address implementation problems and issues as they arose
- Take important decisions as a group
- Discuss the potential implications of important decisions (about expectations, new policies, tech selection, PD, etc.) for diverse constituencies
- Develop communication strategies and messages
(TO BE DONE – as a pdf) Selected illustrations gathered from interviews with various districts
- East Irondequoit
- Xx
- Xx
- Xx
- xx
TEAM COMPOSITION
The composition of the digital leadership team will depend on the size of the district and the team’s key functions. However, it is important to find a balance between keeping the team small enough to be functional, while ensuring at least representation from:
- Leadership (including someone with budget decision-making)
- Instruction
- Technology/IT
Check out the composition of digital leadership teams in member districts
(INSERT video thumbnail and link for existing DT001.JS16.digital.conversion.team – with titles on the video as below for the first few seconds, PLUS retitling the file “Team Composition” in YouTube – so it automatically appears on the thumbnail Joe Sutorius, Former CIO
East Irondequoit
ESTABLISH REGULAR MEETINGS
In order to be functional, the digital leadership teams need to meet regularly and frequently enough, and make those meetings a priority. The frequency of meetings, though, may vary by district, and also depend on the stage of implementation – as more frequent meetings may be called for at specific points in the process.
(TO BE DONE – as a pdf) Frequency of team meetings across districts and at different stages:
- East Irondequoit
- Xx
- Xx
- Xx
- xx
ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS WITH PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER LEADERS
Building principals, as well as teachers playing the role of instructional technology specialists, are usually not be able to commit to regular meetings outside their building – yet they need effective two-way communications with the team. Here are some practices districts have put in place to ensure this communication:
(Create list)
TO BE DONE) maybe new video with MARK