Breakthroughs in Educational Technology – From the Humble Blackboard to the Indispensable Smartboard
If you enjoy wandering around the Internet in search of insights into the explosion in the use of technology in traditional classrooms and industrial settings, YouTube should make you feel like the “kid in the candy store.” On a recent visit, we stumbled across something interesting in a video entitled A Vision of Students Today. A graphic towards the end of the video displayed the following comment about a revolutionary breakthrough in educational technology in the classroom. Here is the quote: The inventor of the system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not the greatest benefactors of mankind. The author of the statement was an American educator named Josiah Bumstead. The year was 1841. And what was the “system” of which he spoke? The humble blackboard/chalkboard! One could speculate that as far back as the time of the Ancient Egyptians, a few people … Read More..
Leadership Styles in the Classroom
Leadership style is a broad term without a commonly accepted definition. In a sense, an individual’s leadership style is the sum total of the way in which the leader interacts with his or her followers. This includes the manner by which the leader provides overall direction as well as specific instruction. It involves the way leaders communicate with the followers and how they involve them in the work environment, the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people Leadership styles are often used interchangeably with management styles, although there are significant differences between true leaders and managers. In one sense, all leaders are managers but not all managers are leaders. One key difference is seen in the followers. They respond to real leaders because they want to, not because they have to. The question of whether or not teachers have leadership styles or management styles has not … Read More..
What Classroom Leaders Do
Managers in every corner of the world have essentially the same job – getting something done through other people. Yet they use a variety of approaches, or management styles, in performing their jobs. Similarly, teachers everywhere have essentially the same job – educating their students. Two teachers using similar or identical educational approaches can use different styles in implementation. To this day, the debate over which management styles are most effective rages on. However, if you search the literature, you can find some commonality in many of the things effective managers do, regardless of style. The same could be said of effective teachers. So let us forget about theory for the moment and look at some practical things teachers can do in a classroom to get better results: 1. Communicate a vision of the future. 2. Act with honesty, integrity, and fairness. 3. Dedicate themselves to the task at hand … Read More..
Leadership in the Classroom – A New Role for Teachers
If you ask a group of adults to describe the qualities of the great teachers they have experienced in their lives, the word “leader” is not likely to appear on their list. Instead, you will find phrases such as they inspired me, they cared about me, they listened to me, and they valued what I had to say. However, if you search for qualities exhibited by great leaders, you will find the same attributes – the ability to inspire and communicate, a sense of being valued by the leader, and a connection that makes the leader seem not like a distant mystical figure, but like one of them, the followers. If some of these attributes are similar, why have we failed to associate leadership with teaching? Part of the problem is that leadership itself has for years been an elusive quality to define. Leadership is one of those things of … Read More..
How Leaders Attract Followers
Inspirational words and deeds of great accomplishment matter little to a potential leader if they do not attract others to follow him or her. One obvious but often overlooked quality of leaders is their followers. Regardless of title or position, those who have no willing followers are not leaders. Throughout history, troops followed some military leaders into battle because of something inherent in the leader. Some call it magnetism – the ability to attract followers to a vision and do everything in their power to achieve it. This magnetic quality shared by some leaders is relevant to modern teachers. We now know learners do better when they engage in the learning process because they want to, not because they have to. So what can aspiring great teachers learn form great leaders? Generals throughout the ages who “led” their troops safely encamped far from the field of battle did little to … Read More..
