This course allowed me to review foundational theories of leadership and change, and investigate how they may apply in the context of a digital learning environment. Although the majority of the readings did not apply to my environment, Biech (2007) provided useful models of change management. Performing an external scan I realized that most leaders proceed to change without using a set framework. Most initiate change thinking that they have not missed a step but unfortunately, this is rarely the case. It was interesting to see which model I might be able to use (ADKAR and CHANGE) due to their applicability in corporate learning settings. Building on these theoretical foundations I reviewed how successful projects are initiated, although the course did not provide any specific project management knowledge. I found the team project most interesting as it allowed for joint reflection, further reading of most useful resources and build a toolkit to plan change. I was impressed by other Teams’ work and toolkits developed which may well inform the building of my own final toolkit to use. How leaders can incorporate data and learning analytics in their decision-making was not as clear to me as I would have hoped but I was happy to be provided with the Aguilar (2018) article which was very pertinent in my field. I don’t believe that developing an accurate project plan for the implementation of educational technology was possible at this time because the learning implementation I have in mind is at very early stages, requires more research and I’m currently trying to assess the readiness of my organization. By far, although not as simple as it seemed in the first place, the most beneficial takeaway from this course was the toolkit.
References
Aguilar, S. J. (n.d.). Learning Analytics: at the Nexus of Big Data, Digital Innovation, and Social Justice in Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-017-0226-9
Biech, E. (2007). Models for Change. In Thriving Through Change: A Leader’s Practical Guide to Change Mastery. Alexandria, VA: ASTD [Books24x7 database]
April 1, 2019 at 5:47 pm
Hi Dino,
Interesting observations. I’m not in the field of education either, but rather in web development. I’m interesting in technologies for learning, more so than how technology can be adapted or evolved for traditional education, as this program is more aligned to. Specifically, I’m more interested in stand-alone technologies that provide opportunities for self-directed education. So I’ve also found that the reading tended to be rather high-level and theoretical, and not dealing with the kind of technical specificity that I would be curious to learn about. And you mentioned that the article that interested was in Learning Analytics. What’s your area of interest, and what areas were you hoping to explore further in this program?