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NAMTC Newsletter
In This Issue...
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by Gary Ross, NAMTC President-Elect, gpross@lane.k12.or.us By the time this issue of the NAMTC newsletter arrives in your inbox, we will have concluded another successful Leadership Summit. It is my sincere hope that I had a chance to converse with you about the issues facing your region in the next few years, and to examine ways in which the Leadership Summit can support you in meeting those issues. As I prepare to travel to Pittsburg for our gathering, I have been giving some thought to leadership, what it means to me, and it’s importance to the future of Regional Centers.
I do not need to tell you that the last decade has been a tumultuous time for many of us in the business of providing educational support and enrichment to America’s classrooms. Many regional centers have consolidated or closed due to budget restrictions. Others have closed as physical entities, turning into virtual shells, passing an offsite signal downstream to constituents with no instructional oversight or decision making at the regional center. At NAMTC, the regional nature of this trend is evident as entire geographic areas fall below the membership level for a state representative seat on the NAMTC board. Oregon and Washington both lost board seats due to centers closing or consolidating, and California is in danger of losing its seat.
While it is easy to point the budget finger at these losses, the issue often goes much deeper. The closing of physical centers (3rd party streaming only) and elimination of entire programs with no replacement for “budget” reasons is often preceded with the departure of a media professional who guided and lead the program. It is in times such as this that your active participation in NAMTC is critical and indeed pivotal to the long term health of both regional centers and the excellent companies that provide us with engaging educational content. We must identify those individuals new to our profession and reach out to them in personal one to one contacts.... Full Article >> |
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Leadership and Delivering Bad News to a Group
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by Jerry Schnabel, AEA 267, jschnabel@aea267.k12.ia.us I began my professional career as a band director. When I was in the classroom, my daughter knew what I did. She came to concerts, had lessons herself and was able simply and completely to answer the question “what does your dad do?” When I became a media specialist and actually had my daughter in classes, she again could articulate what I did. But when I assumed a leadership role at an AEA, I quickly discovered that she lost that ability to articulate what I did. After futile attempts to explain my job, I was able to synthesize it down to its essence; I work with people.
Now this came as a surprise to me. After all, “Director of Information and Technology Services” doesn’t mention people at all. But I have decided that any leadership position has people as the critical element in common. So, as the topic of this issue is leadership, I decided to focus on the leadership challenge of people. We all deal with people and this includes groups... Full Article >> |
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Educational Leadership
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by Connie Solis, Kent ISD/REMC 8, conniesolis@kentisd.org
- Michigan Leads the Nation with Online Learning Requirement: Michigan’s new online learning experience requirement is consistent with one of the core recommendations contained in the U.S. Department of Education’s 2005 National Education Technology Plan. According to this plan, schools should “provide every student access to e-learning.” This requirement is also consistent with the Michigan Educational Technology Plan adopted by the State Board of Education in March 2006. A key recommendation states: “Every Michigan student will have meaningful technology-enabled learning opportunities based on research and best practice that include virtual learning experiences.”
- REMCs of Michigan Take the Lead: The REMCs of Michigan have created an Online Learning Companion Document to assist Michigan districts in interpreting the new online learning experience requirement. The purpose of this companion document is to give greater detail to the manners in which a student can have a successful online learning experience while meeting the new Michigan online learning requirement. This document is intended to provide guidance to the components that should be included in an online learning experience as well as concrete examples that a teacher could implement in their lessons today.
- Future Forces Affecting Education: The KnowledgeWorks Foundation map lays out multiple trends and external forces for educational leaders that might well shape the direction of public education, but it does not present any particular narrative of the future. Rather, it's a tool that allows its users to project multiple possibilities for the coming decade. What forces may affect the future of education for the next 16 years? Check out the map and join in a discussion about the predictions and examine the resources leading to those predictions.
- What are Some Future Trends? As educational leaders we need to develop readiness and resiliency and follow the trends of rapid adaptation, networking, energy management and cooperative work practices. The Futurist Magazine has identified its top ten forecasts for 2007 and beyond.
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Technology Education
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by Shelia D. Owens, TBR Media Consortium, sowens@memphis.edu Educators are dealing with the Net Generation who sees technology as a critical part of their lives and they expect to have it the classroom. Schools tend to steer away from one area of the Internet that this generation loves, specifically, that of social networking found on Web 2.0. This is a read/write medium for Web logs, video blogs, podcasts and wikis that teachers may not be familiar with. Here are some resources that may be useful in catching up with these digital tools.
- Learning.now - a weblog exploring how new technology and Internet culture affect how educators teach and children learn.
- Weblogged-ed - dedicated to discussions and reflections on use of Weblogs, wikis, RSS, audiocasts and other Read/Write Web related technologies in K-12 realm, technologies that are transforming classrooms around the world.
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity - authored by educator, Wesley Fryer, who addresses a range of topics related to education, technology integration, distance learning and twenty-first century literacy.
- Trust in Education - designed as a resource for educators interested in social technology, but concerned about how to do so appropriately and address concerns from parents and administrators.
- Education Evolving - a Minnesota-based project committed to helping K-12 evolve and meet challenges, demands and opportunities of 21st Century. The "kids differ" section provides links regarding young people as heavy users of the Internet and the Web.
- The National School Boards Association has an Advocacy and Legislation section that provides updates on federal legislation and issues relating to K-12 education.
- The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is the President's principal adviser on telecommunication and information policy issues. The NTIA has responsibility for satellite networks, information technology, communication infrastructure, public broadcasting, telecommunications trade, radio spectrum, etc. The site provides information on public hearings, Congressional testimony, RFP's, etc. related to these areas of responsibility.
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The NAMTC Newsletter is published five times annually by the
National Association of Media and Technology Centers (NAMTC)
and is available only through membership in NAMTC.
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NAMTC
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Cedar Rapids, IA 52409
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Phone: 319-654-0608
Fax: 319-654-0609
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