Response to Administrator Blog

My next adventure in blogging focused on blogs published by school principal's and other administrators. I was expecting to find a "brag" page of accomplishments and mission statements, but to my suprise that was not the case. Principal Dustin Swanson's blog entitled "Muddling About" posted his reflections on exciting events taking place in the school as well as scholarly articles about education that were commented on by fellow educators and administrators. Principal Scott Briitain's blog entitled "Ram Review" posted important information for faculty regarding meetings and deadlines, as well as interesting facts about his school. Principal Greg Carroll's blog simply named "Greg's Blog" offered reflections concerning videos he posted about incorporating technology into the classroom and the affects of technology on today's system of education.
I am pleased to see that administrators are actually using the technology they want faculty and students to incorporate into the classroom. Most of these administrators blogs had a variety of topics posted and I was suprised to see how many people actually responsed. I wonder if any of them were faculty members hoping to gain favor with them, but regardless it certainly offers a tremendous opportunity for professional development. Perhaps in the future Principals will be able to have faculty and staff view their blog rather than conducting long and monotonous meetings. I know many professional staff members who would jump at the opportunity to work for such an administrator.
Under the administrator blog's section the first one that I noticed was called "The Other 85%" sponsored by Capella University. This offered articles and opinions concering various college-related topics from online courses to the rising cost of tuition. Another blog entitled "Data and Technology" focused on maximizing student achievement data to bring about meaningful change in the learning process. One case study offered featured Adams County School District #14 which is currently attempting to implement a program that features a balanced scorecard of assessments for Financial, Learning and Growth, Internal Processes, and Customer/Student Achievement. Sample PDF and Word documents were available for download which helps someone like me who otherwise would have absolutely no idea what the article was talking about.
As a result of this blogging experience I can see that our system of education has embraced technology. Today's educational leaders must not only demonstrate knowledge of how to use technology but also to provide meaningful professional development opportunities in order to ensure they have a productive teaching staff. All too often administrators proclaim that technology is the future of education and insist teachers use it in their classrooms, but when push comes to shove we find out that neither the teacher or administrator really has the proper training to successfully utilize technology for the benefit of today's learners. I think we will find that most students will be able to develop the skills necessary for learning technology simply because they are used to using it than previous generations.