This is my first year participating in Leadership Day. The idea is to share “whatever you like related to effective school technology leadership: successes, challenges, reflections, needs, wants, etc.”
So I thought it might be helpful to share what principals in my service area do to support curriculum videoconferencing. I don’t think any of them actually do ALL of these, but it provides a nice menu of ways to support videoconferencing in the school.
Learning About VC
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Kamloops, BC Superintendent visits the Jazz workshop Watch a videoconference or two each year to see how students and teachers are using this tool
- Subscribe to my email list with the “ads” of what curriculum opportunities are available
- Attend Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with VC
Promoting Professional Development About VC
- Scheduling every year or so a staff meeting overview of videoconferencing in the curriculum, how to sign up, mini-grants, etc. They schedule this with me.
- Send the VC coordinator to initial full day training and to follow-up training as needed.
- When the VC coordinator leaves or retires or isn’t working well, send another person to get the coordinator training. This full day training I offer in the fall every year.
Promoting VC
- Find funding to assist in paying for programs
- A few elementary principals each year encourage EVERY teacher to participate in a VC that year
- One principal encourages teachers who aren’t using VC to include VC in their personal professional development plan
- Have teachers share success stories during staff meetings.
Your Turn
How does your principal support videoconferencing in your school? Please comment!
I think video conferencing could by one of the most powerful tools out there for collaboration and learning. My post for Leadership Day 2009 talks about how “the convergence of video, voice and data over Internet Protocol (IP) and other collaborative technology platforms.” such as video conferencing are driving changes in education, and will be key to changing how teachers can collaborate together.
You have much to share and we have much to learn. Keep it up.
Rob, thanks so much for your comment. I found your post very interesting and thought provoking. I linked it here so others can read it too.