March 10, Chapter 6

I enjoyed reading this chapter with respect to the questions provided for comment. The chapter describes district leaders and administrators, using web 2.0 to increase effective communication with the students, faculty, and community. Upon reading this chapter I am quite discouraged by the current discourse we currently operate under and the lack of willingness to alter our path. Schrum and Lynne outline conditions for leading in the 21st century. The chapter sites examples of web 2.0 tools that principals in other schools use to post information, announcements, class projects, photos, and calendars to communicate with the entire school community (Schrem & Lynne, Location 2320). They use blogs, wikis, all for frequent transparent communication. The challenges I see of implementing these technologies are small in number but large in stature. In Calcasieu Parish every tool has to come through the District infrastructure. We use Blackboard and if blackboard doesn’t support it or create it; it is Against Policy: File Section GAMIA is the Calcasieu Parish School Board Policy regarding electronic communication from faculty to students. Myself, I have learned from history to implement with caution “Civil Disobedience” to support new technologies in my own school. Policy states “All electronic communication, including electronic mail, by an employee at a school to a student enrolled at that school relative to the educational services provided to the student shall use a means provided by or otherwise made available by the school system for this purpose and the School Board shall prohibit the use of all such system means to electronically communicate with a student for a purpose not related to such educational services, except communication with an immediate family member if such communication is specifically authorized by the School Board.” Well, this means that Twitter is definitely out of the question! Of course there is more but I will stop here because my civil disobedience only goes so far. I do not agree with our position not to support the many tools out there that our students speak, and create with. Lastly, when leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders. ~Veterans Fast for Life