Activity 1: Leadership in the digital age

For us to be good leaders we need to model the behaviour we seek from others, collaborate and communicate with others, be creative, use intuition, motivate or encourage others, we are honest and fair, and have the ability to delegate others. In addition as leaders we need to embrace ICT in education.

Please view the video: Digital Learning: Empowering Teachers for the 21st Century by Ferdi Seri...
click on this link Digital Learners.

Activity 1: Problem-Solving
ICT saved the day by facilitating instruction

This semester the Teacher Education Department faced the challenge of lecturers who were unable to attend classes because of sickness.

This semester I was unable to physically make it to most of my classes. As a result, MOODLE was used for students to receive and submit assignments along with emails. Some classes were delivered using Skype, GOOGLE+ Hangout and a Polycom system. In addition, students were given more fieldtrip experiences to learn and were to record or capture these experiences using any ICT tools and share it with the teacher (me) and the other students.

  

Since as a Staff we had decided to incoorperate MOODLE within this Semester's Courses more than just taking attendance which was last Semester’s goal, and the students were made aware of this since the end of the last Semester and were reminded over the summer through emails. I was eager to ensure that it would work. Thus, the advantage of my absences was that, yes, whether or not, we were really ready to embark on integrating ICT mentally this semester, we had to in order for classes not to be lost.

The integration of ICT certainly saved the course from becoming a disaster for both students and our Department of Teacher Education. The Department would have had a course that was to be in session, without its full-time teacher to facilitate it if ICT did not save the day. In addition, the students would have to wait until the course would be offered again, which would not be an appropriate time for them to redo it.

I have learnt to appreciate the value of integrating ICT in teaching more now than before. My Department also realized that if I was able to do this successfully that other lecturers too could achieve it. Which in fact, after the first month of the semester did begin to happen, three other lecturers were integrating ICT in their course due to similar situations.

As a result, ICT assisted to solve one problem Facilitating Instruction, and if it could do that, it could also assist in solving other Departmental problems as they occur once we embrace its use and integration.

I will continue to guide colleagues as they ask questions in how to use MOODLE and ICT within their courses and encourage students to be more and more responsible in their learning while they embrace this change to how they will be learning, as it is also a challenge for them to become more self-learners now than before.

Activity 1: Your View

I believe that my Department will reach more students and comply more with the Ministry of Education’s Mandate to Train all Teachers in Antigua and Barbuda once its vision is on ICT integration and implementation. It will also make education in Antigua and Barbuda a producer of individuals equipped with more  21^st Century Skills.

The model of leadership that is required for successful ICT integration and implementation is with a leader who is transformational, one who seeks to develop a shared vision through collaborative relationships.

In my opinion I need to understand, use and apply ICT skillS more. Therefore in order to accomplish this I need to practice, practice, and practice.