Scott McLeod has sent out a clarion call for bloggers to post about leadership:
He says, “many of our school leaders (principals, superintendents, central office administrators) need help when it comes to digital technologies” and in our NSW context, with the DER in full swing, this is particularly pertinent.
I have always assumed that Scott’s blog is titled ‘Dangerously Irrelevant’ as this is what school has become to many of our students. The DER is an opportunity and as Mark Pesce says, a Trojan Horse, that can assist us to revitalise our institutions and approaches to learning and teaching.
Leaders need to learn and gain new skills. It is important that new concepts are understood but equally important is that leaders gain new skills and demonstrate they are willing to be less than expert while endeavouring to learn.
Seth Godin helped me understand educators and their reluctance to change when I read the following quote:
It doesn’t take a lot of time to change … to reinvent … or to redesign. No, it doesn’t take time; it takes will. The will to change. The will to take a risk. The will to become incompetent – at least for a while.
Educators are used to being competent, in charge and the people to go to when one needs assistance and advice. Teacher leaders are even more like this and we need to change. We all need to be open and perhaps, be a little incompetent, just for a while, as we model what it means to lead – and learn.