Leadership strategies technology administrator
Scenario:
You have recently been hired as the technology administrator
for a midsize school district in a rural area. You are responsible for
technology throughout the district. This includes all computers, networking
devices, telephone services, workstations, laptops, software, etc., for four
elementary schools in four different towns, one middle school, and one high
school. Prior to your arrival there was no technology administrator—only a
teacher or technology coordinator at each school with responsibility for any
local technology.
You were hired to ensure consistency in technology
throughout the schools. Your mandate includes working with teachers to help
them create a plan for ensuring students K–12 are proficient in the use of
technology as they move from grade to grade and also includes ensuring student
records can follow them as they move up in grades and from building to
building. You were also hired to streamline processes, to create a centralized
location to house all student records, to maintain current technological
equipment in each of the schools, and to plan for future growth and emerging
technology adoption. You must do all of this while remaining within tight
budget constraints.
The elementary schools use Macintosh machines in the
classrooms and Windows machines in the office. The middle school uses Linux
machines in the classrooms and Windows machines in the office. The high school
uses Windows machines in both the classrooms and the office.
Currently, students moving from one of the elementary
schools to the middle school have their academic records saved on DVD. These
DVDs are transported at the end of the year by the school janitors and
delivered to the desk of the middle school records clerk. The middle school
records clerk was hired specifically to upload individual student records from
DVDs into the middle school’s record system. The transition from the middle
school to the high school is the same. Each school has sufficiently fast Internet
that was installed as part of a massive state “get connected” initiative in the
past year.
In addition to the technology issues, you quickly discover
there are neither set expectations nor a reporting structure.
The elementary school teachers responsible for the
technology in their buildings are classroom teachers and handle the building
technology for an additional stipend each year. You discover that there are
some power conflicts between these teachers. Each disagrees with how the others
handle the technology at their schools, thus each school handles technology and
student records differently. Also, each of the elementary school teachers
report to their respective building principals, not to you.
As the technology administrator, you have to figure out how
you can get the four elementary school teachers to work together while also not
overstepping your authority with their building principals. After briefly
chatting with each of the four elementary school teachers, you discover that
they all think the mission the superintendent has given you is impossible. They
don’t believe you will be able to centralize the student record system or
create consistency in how each school manages technology, much less how each
school teaches technology to the students.
The persons responsible for technology at the middle and
high schools were hired as technology coordinators. The teachers responsible
for technology at the elementary schools resent the middle and high school
technology coordinators because they only have responsibility for technology,
not classroom teaching or management. The middle and high school technology
coordinators report directly to you (starting immediately) rather than their
building principals. The high school technology coordinator is a retiree from a
very large computing firm and likes to be known as the resident expert in
Windows machines—even though this coordinator has not remained current on
emerging systems and technology since retiring more than 10 years ago.
Prior to making any changes or proposing any plans, your
superintendent has asked that you put together a presentation about possible
solutions that you will eventually present to the school board.
Task: Questions to be answered.
A. Develop a strategic plan to be presented to the school board
that outlines how you would address the issues in the scenario by doing the
following: 1. Justify which strategies you will use for promoting innovative
solutions to the principals, teachers, and other stakeholders in the scenario.
2. Discuss strategies that could be employed within the culture of the school
district in the scenario to build commitment and buy-in for the project. 3.
Explain how you plan to integrate strategies for overcoming obstacles with
competing sources of power and influence in the scenario. 4. Justify which
conflict management strategies you will use for handling issues and maximizing
results for stakeholders in the scenario.
B. Write a personal reflection on your leadership strategies
in which you do the following: 1. Justify how the leadership style you adopt
for the scenario might influence the success of your project. 2. Discuss how
your actions might affect power, tension, and ideas in the scenario. 3. Explain
how you might overcome the communication barriers present in the scenario. 4.
Discuss how you would approach conflict resolution for different types of
conflict in the scenario (e.g., process, task, relationship, behavior). 5.
Discuss how you would apply specific techniques to gain buy-in in the scenario.
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