Larry Jacobs -Fri July 10

Blog of Larry Jacobs presentation on IT leadership Friday July 10

Larry Jacobs is the Superintendent of Wolf Creek Public schools. His presentation started with questions where he identified he was not an honors student in high school. This would underscore that he does not have all the answers, and needs to collaborate. His model of leadership is based on the vision led model. This model is contrasted to a hierarchal ( top down) and a flattened ( decentralized) models
.
The hard work is done in developing the vision. Once the vision is identified, after collaborative process. Departments can make independent decisions as long division vision is upheld. The concept of a “living vision” was discussed as it allows for the realities of the stakeholders needing to change course. The focus of the division is student learning.

I found it interesting that all staff were involved in identifying the central purpose( vision) and where do we need to be in 5 years (goals)and then what are staff going to do to get there , which would be the performance measures.

Salience (From your perspective, why is IT in education important?)
IT was intertwined in the 2 pillars to support student learning through Instructional Design and Assessment for Learning.


Outcomes (What are the specific IT in education outcomes sought through your organization?)
IT outcomes must align with division vision of student learning The It department would work with the goal of collaboration between teachers and skill development of teachers to help students learn.

Processes (What processes are used to achieve these outcomes?)The process to meet these outcomes are indentified in the Wolf Creek visual. They include understanding change, understanding and implementing the technologies such as Videoconference, Ex files server and Voip. Throughout Larry identified collaboration, and taking the time to meet with groups. He identified a group of teachers with membership from all schools. His principal council set the admin meeting agenda. The grassroots were heard and were involved with the process of the division.

Characteristics (What are some of the characteristics of IT Leaders that make them effective in achieving their goals?)The It leader must be a team player, understand the goals of the organization, and be willing to collaborate. The It leader would have to understand Assessment for Learning and Instructional design, as IT plans would have to fit this structure. The IT leader would be meeting the goals of the 7 C’s , creating the 7 requirements for success, as in every other department in the division.
These 7 atr create .....
1) a culture of assessment
2) an environment of live collaboration
3) a knowledge caputre and knowledge share culture
4) strong professiponal learning teams
5) appropriate roles for all stakehlders
6) capacity for leadership
7) appropriate measures of student success and involving students in our learning environments.


What was interesting was that the collaboration discussed by Larry was not just lip service. His enthusiasm and obvious interpersonal skills , would be a great motivator to have the whole staff working together. I found that it was excellent fot the superintendent to be working with the 3 yr teachers as a mentor. This would show to all that the vision is important to have the superintendent working directly with teacher , who are the prime interface education with the students.