Becoming A Transformative Digital Age Leader

According to Wikipedia, transformational leadership "enhances the motivation, morale, and job performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. These include connecting the follower's sense of identity and self to the project and the collective identity of the organization; being a role model for followers that inspires them and makes them interested; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, so the leader can align followers with tasks that enhance their performance."  All of this applies to being a transformative digital age leader as well.

The ISTE Standards for Administrators outline five areas of skills needed to "support digital age learning, implement technology, and transform the education landscape".  As I read and rated myself on each skill in the five areas, I realized that although I have some strengths, I have not implemented many of the skills to a level that will affect change in my district. Also, there are many skills that our technology department has focused on, especially in the area of Digital Citizenship, that I need to involve myself in modeling to affect change. Although I rated myself a 3 on many of the skills because feel confident in the skill, I have not yet modeled or utilized the skill to a level that has transformed educational landscape in the district.

Although I feel light years ahead of where I was a year ago in becoming a digital age leader, I need to continue to model effective ways to integrate technology into my work on a daily basis, including professional development and planning, so teachers will be inspired to do the same in their classrooms with their students. Becoming a part of a larger conversation by accessing other leaders and resources through Twitter and blogging will also inspire and influence my journey. Being the change I want to see is the key to transforming the teaching and learning in the district.