Abstract
In today’s interactive world, leadership is becoming more broad-based. Effective educational leaders know how to leverage such participation to develop a collaborative community that facilitates continuous communication and improvement. Technologies, particularly Web 2.0, can optimize such purposeful interaction, and help coordinate efforts so that leaders can focus on their important tasks of overseeing the health of the educational organization. This chapter examines the nature of current educational leadership, and details Web 2.0 technologies that support such leaders.
TopBackground
For educational institutions to succeed, they must be guided by effective leaders. A number of theories under grid leadership, and several aspects of leadership pertain to educational situations. Increasingly, leadership is seen as a collective process in which leadership is distributed in order to optimize the organization’s effectiveness.
Educational Leadership Qualities
Who is a leader? Someone who can manage, monitor, and evaluate. Someone who is committed to a vision and can communicate it. Someone who has technical competence and people smarts. Someone who is creative and innovative. Heifitz’s 1994 list of leadership qualities focuses on a “balcony perspective”:
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working as a team member within social systems
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thinking creatively and using appropriate evidence-based practices
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differentiating between technical, known solutions and developing new solutions collaboratively.
James Weber (1989) identified five main functions of educational leadership:
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defining the school mission
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promoting a positive learning climate
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observing and giving feedback to teachers
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managing curriculum and instruction
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assessing the instructional program.
The American Association of School Administrators (1983) identified seven competencies for educational leaders:
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designing, implementing and assessing a school improvement program to attain school goals
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understanding and applying political theory in building support for education
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planning and implementing instructional management systems that foster student achievement
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designing staff development and evaluation systems to facilitate staff effectiveness
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allocating human and material resources to ensure student achievement
• conducting and applying research for making decisions that improve school programs and optimize student learning.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Web 2.0: Interactive Internet technology and applications including blogs, wikis, RSS and social networking Websites
Instant Messaging: The exchange of text messages through a software application in real-time
Learning Community: A group of individuals participating in communal activity, with a shared identity and goal, who collectively contribute to the learning of their community
Podcast: Broadcast audio files
Blog: Web log; a Web diary
Virtual Reality: A computer-simulated environment, whether that environment is a simulation of the real world or an imaginary world
Collaborative Leadership: The collaborative process of developing and implementing ideas to achieve positive change in an organization
Wiki: A Web site that allows for easy creation and editing of Web pages
Knowledge Management: The process of systematically gathering organizational wisdom, organizing those ideas, archiving them, and providing for their easy retrieval and dissemination
RSS: Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; a Web-based way to disseminate information