Month: February 2025

In a previous post I discussed the Open Homework System (OHS) by Lalonde. I identified the challenge of buy-in from institutions, staff, students, and technical support staff. I imagine that the most relevant data collection to clarify that scope would stem from the largest group of stakeholders: students. Prompting the inquiry of this line from the movie “Field of Dreams”: If you build it, they will come.

Prinsloo and Slade discuss the use of “harvesting and analys[ing]” (Prinsloo & Slade, 2014, p. 306) of data for determining things like enrolment and staffing. But there is caution to simply using data. A personal example of this is in the program that I am enrolled in: It is advertised as having the option to vote on five courses, with the top 3 chosen being taught. Students went into the program with this thought, and having reviewed the options, had their picks and were ready to vote. They soon found out that the school had already chosen the three courses they were going to offer. According to the program, this was based on previous years of data and previous student choices. Without the curiosity that human nature would prompt, an assumed dependence on simply data caused students to no longer have the option to have their intended vote. This may raise the moral question of false advertising and using strictly data to inform decisions that Prinsloo & Slade discuss throughout their article.

Marsh et al. share that “data-driven decision making (DDDM)” (p. 2) comes from the viewed success of industry and manufacturing. In education, the user must also consider that there are countless ways to analyze data sets (p. 3), while it can be used to add to the framework of education through the triage that Prinsloo discusses, it must be analyzed effectively and thought through with morals and ethics and psychology to determine students’ best interest.

My prime take-away is that we cannot rely strictly on data alone. This is akin to relying on AI answers alone without thought or further curiosity. Data or AI lack the human characteristics of navigating data and having informative inquiry to the results. However, data is not as scary as it may seem, and can be quite valuable (Zettelmeyer, 2015).

Prinsloo, P., & Slade, Sharon. (2014). Educational triage in open distance learning: Walking a moral tightrope. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15(4), 306–331.

Marsh, J. A., Pane, J. F., & Hamilton, L. S. (2006). Making Sense of Data-Driven Decision Making in Education. 15.

Zettelmeyer, F. (2015, May 1). A Leader’s Guide to Data Analytics. Leadership & Careers. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/a-leaders-guide-to-data-analytics/

Successful change can be implemented within an organization utilizing many strategic models. Change in a digital environment adds another layer to change. There are numerous ways in which change management has been modeled. I will share my idea on change management through the diagram in the Appendix, and compare it to the Change Model and discuss the alignment with established models.

I started creating this model based on my own thoughts on change management, and then began to look at it overlaid with other models to see which aligned more succinctly. The Change Model, as outlined by Biech (2007) was the most comparable. My thoughts and ideas were not too dissimilar from the Change Model. I also found that Luecke’s Method (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015) aligned with my own ideas on change management. Luecke’s ideas of “motivating employees” and “address[ing] the different reactions” (p. 250) resonates with me, as it puts the stakeholder first in change decisions. The step to “identifying leadership” (p. 250) also aligned, as it comes after the idea of “developing a shared vision” (p. 250) and other steps. To me this means that leadership is identified based on their strengths, and vested interest in a change.

My colleague discussion (V. Theissen, Personal communication, February 12, 2025) contributed to my thoughts on change management leadership by sharing their experience. Their biggest takeaway was that a leader must also consider the technological abilities of their stakeholders and others impacted by the change. This raises the question of viability of a change. If the lack of understanding of stakeholders is significant, does the benefit outweigh the risk of losing stakeholders in the process? This brings me back to Leucke and the step of “seeing the change as an opportunity” and to motivation (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015, p. 250). 

Where Luecke sees opportunity, Weiner provides the reminder that even though stakeholders may agree that the change is positive, that does not mean that they are ready (p. 3-4). His discussion on the importance of “change valence” (p. 3) encourages leaders to be mindful of their stakeholders through change management. Stakeholder engagement at the “Evaluates environment” in my model is not necessarily simply to gage whether there is interest and support for change, but to determine whether they are prepared.

The leadership type which successfully initiates and follows all of the steps and is successful and analyzes the change through my model and the alignment to the Change Model is Transformational Leadership. “Empathy”, “inspirational motivation”, and “emotional intelligence skills” (Castelli, 2016, p. 223) are all descriptors of Transformational Leadership. These skills are key to ensuring the steps that are outlined in my model, and alignment with the Change Model, are completed with the thought and consideration of all who are affected by the change. Stakeholders are considered for when change is presented. Change management through Transformational leadership could potentially lead to more time taken to create change, which is not always ideal, however, it can create a thorough and complete change for an organization that is successful.      

References

Biech, E. (2007). Models of Change. In Thriving Through Change: A Leader’s Practical Guide to Change Mastery (p. 8). ASTD.

Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: A model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 234–262.

Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4(67), 9.

Castelli, P. A. (2016). Reflective leadership review: A framework for improving organisational performance. Journal of Management Development, 2, 217–236.

In our discussions on the attributes list provided, our team discussed. I knew that there were more that I would consider.

From the list of attributes provided in Activity 2, part 1, within Competence, I value Balanced decision-making. I feel it is very important when it comes to digital learning environments. A leader must understand the balance, within the moments, between the need for collaboration and the need for quick thinking. An attribute of a few theories, balanced decision making can be a key factor in Situational Leadership Theory. A leader must make decisions based on the situation. “The short-term actions of the followers” (Cleveland-Innes, 2012, p. 317) and their potential outcomes is what a leader must take into consideration, at times, in an instant. A leader with balanced decision-making qualities must understand “the importance of the context or circumstances” (Voyageur et al., 2015, p. 6) of a situation in order to make an informed decision, this is in understand as many aspects as possible, or in understanding that which is required in the moment and trusting that that is enough.

Wisdom, being the ability to look forward, but keeping in mind what has come before. For example, a former boss of mine was researching a new database software to move our data into. She had been through this process before and knew that she needed to find a program that would allow for easy transfer of the data from the old system into the new system. She needed to know format, field parameters, delimiters, to name a few. In going through this process of research with her, I learned what I would need when it came time for me to do this type of work. Her understand of the needs of moving forward taught me how to use historical knowledge to push us forward within these systems. This knowledge transfer has stayed with me throughout so much of the work that I’ve done.

This characteristic is found in the Reflective leadership model, as well, Castelli shares that wisdom can be found in other leadership theories as well, such as: “authentic leadership, servant leadership, and emotional intelligence” (p. 218).

Integrity in a leader is a very large part what I value, and what I strive to reflect. To technology, integrity is crucial to running systems effectively. To leadership, “Schwartz and Castelli’s (2014) research found that followers will produce more effort if they perceive their leader as a positive role model whose actions demonstrate integrity” (Castelli, 2016, p. 221). Integrity is found to be crucial in many areas of leadership in technology, not only to system, to followers, but also to those that you answer too. Your integrity is what builds their trust in you to be an exceptional leader.

Integrity, as a part of leadership theory, can be found within the Servant leadership Theory. O’toole counts “Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., [and] Nelson Mandela” (p. 6) and others, as top leaders who modeled integrity to the greatest degree.

While not a complete list of attributes that I would consider, and I will admit, that list varies, depending on the situation that requires leadership, these three are always considerations. From a technology perspective, or analog perspective, these three attributes are the ones that I would consider the most.

It is not lost on me, as an indigenous person, that they are all a part of Transformational Leadership. Transformation is a prevalent part of our culture, and the attributes that are within Transformation Leadership are all a part of what we are taught from birth.

References

Castelli, P. A. (2016). Reflective leadership review: A framework for improving organisational performance. Journal of Management Development, 2, 217–236.

Cleveland-Innes, T. W. (2012). Leadership, personal transformation, and management. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 13(4), 313–323.

O’Toole, J. (2008). Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1), 9.

Voyageur, C., Brearley, L., & Calliou, B. (Eds.). (2015). Restorying Indigenous Leadership: Wise Practices in Community Development (Second). Banff Centre Press.