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Technology Ideas for School Leaders
Here is a collection of ideas for school leaders that you can use to help you do your job. It's not anything close to a comprehensive collection -- just a selected list of tools and how you might use them to help you. There are many tools out there -- try to choose those that can really help you with your primary goals.
There are two basic ways that you can use Twitter. One is about "status" and one is about your professional learning. Using the status aspect of Twitter is a great way to reach out to parents and your educational community. You can tweet out important information about school events, send out positive comments and pictures about what is going on, and create a positive buzz about the school.
The other way to use Twitter is for your own professional development. The idea is that you follow other educational leaders. There are often links to research, best practice, and current events. Here's how to get started (or go to Twitter 101)
The first step is to "follow" others and see how they use it. There are lists of twitter users that you can check out.
Google Docs (Google Drive)
Google Docs are files that reside in the "cloud." They are good ways to share information (which are automatically archived). You control with whom they are shared (private, linked, or public).
- The "Friday Letter" and other forms of communication with staff
- Schedules, such as weather delays and other special schedules
- All messages to staff can be complied and distributed in advance of a "flipped" faculty meeting
Google docs are also collaborative places where different people can synchronously or asynchronously contribute to the same product.
- Documents can be developed and edited collaboratively
- Students can collaborate and manage projects
Google Forms
These are a great way to collect information and have it automatically organize the information in a spreadsheet. Possibilities include:
- Surveys of staff, students, and families
- Sign-ups for clubs and activities
- Collection of just about any sort of information
- Online assessment
Website
Don't forget the importance of having an up-to-date website for your school. There are two challenges to an effective website. First, it has to be designed well. This doesn't mean that it has to be super complicated or filled with fancy graphics. Second, the information has to be current. This is often the biggest challenge. There's nothing like visiting a the sites of a few nearby schools to get ideas (both good and bad). Common ingredients of website:
- Contact information (it is very important that contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses) be very easy for families to find. Wear your parent hat when thinking about easy access.
- Information about school events (clubs, sports, intramurals, music, school pictures, special days, etc.)
- Common-sense information about policies and procedures (pick-up, drop-off, sign-out, medical forms, celebration rules, bringing in food, etc.)
- Teacher webpages (but if teachers are not using them and keeping them up to date this can send the opposite message you wish to send)
- Have the daily announcements transcribed and posted to the homepage each day (easy, quick, and parents love it)
Email Blasts
Parents love a regular, periodic, and dependable message that includes important reminders about school events. There are high tech and low tech ways to do this. The lowest tech way is to simply make a group in your address book and use it. Often your website backbone might have the capability. Increasingly, student information systems have this capability. There are also commercial products designed just for this.
In any case, choose a time and day of the week and use it regularly. Families report that they appreciate a succinct reminder about important events and deadlines. You can also push out special messages but make sure you maintain a threshold of importance or you will get bombarded by requests from staff and other organizations.
For Advanced Users
There are all sorts of tools out there, but they (like those above) all take time and energy from a very busy schedule. Choose only those that can really help you with the core mission of the school. Often whether or not you do these things depends on having a person who is interested/willing/capable and having a good system of feeding (and filtering) what goes out on these social vehicles. As with many things on the web, there's all sort of tutorials and guides for using technology in education.
