Engage in continuous learning to deepen professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions in organizational change and leadership, project management, and adult learning to improve professional practice
ISTE Coaching Standards (2014)
Resonant Ideas: Change and project management +
leadership development
I have used the term “conduit” to refer to technology coaches in a number of posts, because I believe that best describes their role. Effective coaches work to:
- Combine best teaching practices with appropriate technology
- Model the resulting technology-enhanced practices for teachers
- Share best ed-tech practices across a school or district
- Integrate teacher and administrator goals for education technology
Being an effective conduit requires knowledge and diplomacy. In relation to indicator 6b, coaches need to have content knowledge (pedagogy and technology) and the skills to effectively manage the change that is inherent to implementing education technology.
Through my work in the Digital Education Leadership program, I learned the importance of establishing norms and protocols when working with groups focused on assessing or improving a process or practice, which I covered in my post “Protocols: Safe Havens for Discussion,” and in the summary of my Peer Coaching project. In my post A Starting Point for Effective Coaching Sessions I explored “group member capabilities” or the underlying self-monitoring skills that team members need to effectively follow established norms and protocols. These methods and skills enable coaches to carefully affect change in their organization.
Pilot programs are another mechanism that can be used to increase the acceptance and manage the roll-out of new technology practices, which I cover in my post Leveraging the Power of Teacher Innovators and Early Adopters. And an understanding of what motivates adult learners also helps coaches present new tools and instructional methods in a way that results in broader acceptance and use, as I describe in A Data-driven approach to Professional Development.
