Leaders are Learners

To effectively support teachers and students integrate new technologies, you must be an effective user of technology yourself. This is stating the obvious but it is, nonetheless, an important point to make when developing a strategic plan for ICT integration. Simply put, by becoming an ICT learner along with staff and students, school leaders have a better chance of changing the culture of their school. Communicating a clear vision for ICT and collaboratively evolving that vision into action, as well as ensuring that the change process is supported by professional learning opportunities for staff are other key considerations outlined in this BECTA paper on strategic leadership of ICT in schools.

Just as teachers lead their students by demonstrating, modelling and learning, school leaders hoping to improve the integration of ICT in their school need to demonstrate, model and learn. For example, if I want students to recognise the benefits of managing and presenting data using technology then, as their teacher, I need to be proficient at using Excel. It follows, if I want the teachers to develop their skills developing online resources or virtual classrooms, then I need to become knowledgeable and proficient at doing this myself.

Leaders are learners, a critical inclusion in a school's strategic plan for ICT integration.