Six Elements That Drive Change

        Sheninger’s (2014) six elements that drive change are “Connectedness Matters”, “ Vision”, “Value”, “Support”, “Professional Development”, “Embracement” (p.64-67).    My professional experience is the military, not in education.  However, I can tell you that before 2008, military networks absolutely blocked Social Media sites.  Not only was there the concern that our personnel would waste their duty time checking social media, but there was a concern that they would post details of an exercise or operation on the Internet thus violating what we call Operations Security or OPSEC.  However, in approximately 2010, the military reversed the policy.  OPSEC training encouraged personnel on what not to post, and Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram and Flickr have become important components of communicating with Airmen, and have become integrated into our day-to-day business in how we disseminate and consume information.  I have seen through this course, after creating a personal Twitter account for the first time, that I am able to have quick and easy access to emerging information on my area of interest, Higher Education.  This is especially important as I near the end of by Ed.D. coursework and begin to narrow potential topics for my dissertation.

      Next is vision.  As our team collaborated on our vision for our technology plan in this course, we all contributed to building a statement that described the end state we wanted to achieve.  Sheninger emphasizes the WHY and HOW as part of the vision.  That reminds me of key element of Blind Spot: A Leader’s Guide to IT-Enabled Business Transformation (Feld, 2010),.  He emphasizes both the WHY and the HOW as well.  We don’t change just for the change, but because there is an associated vision guiding us. 

       Educators need to see the value of educational technology.   Educators, even the staunch holdouts, must understand that technology can enhance the learning experience, and result in equivalent or possibly enhanced outcomes.  If our schools are like the Air Force, there are still folks that believe the old methods are better, but it may be that they fear embracing educational technology.  They make all of the excuses Sheninger lists in an earlier chapter.  They need to see the vision.

      To back the vision, they must experience the next two, Support and Professional Development.  My experience is that some show more aptitude toward technology than others.  And within those who adopt technology more easily, there are those who are more creative and better innovators who can adapt their teaching and lessons to technology.  This is where Professional Development comes into play.  Those who are better at it can teach the rest of us!  However, for education technology to become fully adopted and transform education, it has to be present in the classroom.  Educational leaders have to effectively outfit classrooms with technology and support that technology.  The ubiquity of technology is what will continue to fuel innovation in its use.

      The last of the six is Embracement, in contrast with buy-in.   Buy-in is the more limited stick-and-carrot approach that Shinenger emphasizes as a non-winning strategy.  Instead of the extrinsic stick-and-carrot approach, educators need “intrinsic motivation” (p. 40).  If as leaders we simply try to sell our teachers on technology or reward its use, then the innovation that is needed will not occur.  Instead, people must reach their own conclusion through evidence and experience, thus be motivated internally to embrace the technology.

References

Feld, C. (2010). Blind spot: A leader's guide to IT-enabled business transformation. United States: Olive Press.

Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.