Week 1: Educational Leaders

 The ISTE Standard for Education Leaders focus on empowering teachers and coaches and on boosting student learning. Educators who have elevated to the level of education leaders and technology experts seem to fully inhabit the characteristics described in the ISTE standards, including empowering educators, modeling use, communicating widely, and inspiring innovation (ISTE, 2025). Most are curious and passionate about teaching and learning and consistently center the student. Elizabeth Thomas, for example, said teaching is her passion, and she was instantly enamored the first time she implemented iPads in her classroom. Her enthusiasm for students and technology drove her career path (Stachowiak & McClay, 2018). Similarly, Erin English, an early adopter of technology in the classroom, shared her knowledge of tech with fellow teachers and eventually became a teacher trainer. Because she is passionate about students, though, she found herself back in a school setting as a principal. As she continued into higher levels of leadership, transforming culture became central to her mission, and she worked on visionary planning and changing mindset on the incorporation of technology. Both Thomas and English shared a “vision for using technology” (3.2.a) with their staffs (ISTE, 2025). 

Each leader was committed to responsive professional learning for their teachers. Dr. John Albert spoke about the importance of professional development focused on critical learning strategies first and on the incorporation of potential technology supports for the strategy second (Stachowiak & McClay, 2018). The tech was never the centerpiece. The structure established in his school established a “culture of innovation” (3.3.c) that inspired creative use of technology by the teachers in his school (ISTE, 2025). Thomas discussed a more just-in-time, social approach, placing value on networking among colleagues as well as among broader groups via social media (Stachowiak & McClay, 2018). This approach allowed teachers to share best practices and lessons learned, hallmarks for ISTE standard 3.2.e (2025).

The educators all mentioned equity of access as a concern for their students. ISTE standard 3.1.b focuses on the system building necessary to ensure digital access for all students. English discussed the move from 25 to 24,000 Chromebooks in her school and the importance of stakeholder buy-in to that process. In her districts, parents received training on security, device use policies, and insurance options (Stachowiak & McClay, 2018). She found that even parents who had little financial means were interested in purchasing the insurance for the computers, recognizing that their digital technology skills were essential for their children's futures.

All digital learning experiences are not created equally, though. Bartholomew, et. al., postulate that allowing students to use mobile devices can transform their self-directed learning 2017). The study, though, found that self-directed learning was not significantly impacted by mobile devices. Instead, greater positive correlations were found with classroom culture and teacher efficacy. This finding correlates with Dr. Albert’s assertion that teaching and learning strategies should be the focus for professional development with the introduction of technology as a support to these best practices (Stachowiak & McClay, 2018).

Additionally, digital technology use in the classroom needs to focus on authentic learning tasks in which students collaboratively solve problems in real world contexts (Rule, 2006). This is a place where each of the education leaders could continue to grow and to grow their staff. In a culture of high-stakes testing, authentic learning tasks are often dismissed as too labor-intensive. It takes creativity and innovation to commit to authentic tasks and then to recognize their value. Ultimately, the educators with a passion for students and for technology found a way to inspire their staff and provide rich learning environments for their students. I find this inspiring.

References

Bartholomew, S. R., Reeve, E., Veon, R., Goodridge, W., Lee, V., & Nadelson, L. (2017). Relationships between access to mobile devices, student self-directed learning, and achievement. Journal of Technology Education, 29(1), 2–30. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/5573

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2025). ISTE Standards for students. ISTE. https://iste.org/standards/students

Rule, A. C. (2006). Editorial: The components of authentic learning. Journal of Authentic Learning, 3(1), 1–10.

Stachowiak, B., & McClay, J. (Eds.). (2018). Leading technological changes with an iterative mindset. In Igniting your leadership with technology. Innovate Learning. https://pressbooks.pub/edd7032018f/chapter/leading-technological-changes-with-an-iterative-mindset/