Nadia Williams

ITEC 7500: Capstone & Portfolio

Fall 2015
Standard 1.1
Standard 1.1: Shared Vision
Candidates facilitate the development and implementation of a shared vision for the use
of technology in teaching, learning, and leadership. (PSC 1.1/ISTE 1a)
Reflection
In practice, this Shared Vision and Rationale Plan, seeks to provide a connection
between all stakeholders: students, faculty, staff, administration, parents, and
community leaders. Through the use of hashtags and offering incentives for community
involvement, this plan summarizes ways in which social media can be used as a means
for showcasing student learning within the schools. Beyond being a public relations
and interactivity tool, by keeping student learning and the maintenance of an online
digital community at the forefront, all stakeholders will be afforded easier, low-risk
avenues to have greater voice within the school learning community. As the sole
creator of this plan, my focus was to produce a plan that could serve as a pitch to my
administration and related stakeholders at the time to build a case for the importance
and usefulness of integrating the use of social media into the school environment.
This Shared Vision and Rationale Plan illustrates how social media can be used in a
manner beyond student entertainment. As a tool for learning, tools such as Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube provide a conduit through which teachers can establish
backchannels that foster student discussion and surface ideas that students who are
too shy or intimidated to voice out loud (Lederer, 2012). This relates to Standard 1.1
which discusses the development and implementation of a shared vision for the
use of technology.
Given the prevalence of social media in the lives of students and adults, its usage for
educational purposes presents the opportunity for increased relevance in content being
delivered as well as in the medium of delivery itself. By establishing a shared goal and
vision for how these digital tools can be used in teaching, modifications would also be
made to ensure that as the students are learning through the tools, they would also be
learning how to appropriately use such tools. This leadership by example presents
students with the opportunity to easily take ownership of their learning as well as they
continue to develop their digital citizenship. Herein lies the impetus for the
development of this plan.

I used existing research on the use of social media in general as well as the use of
technology to develop this plan as a proposal to my administration for the relevance of
using social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to develop a
positive online community between all stakeholders. Stemming from the sharing of this
plan, my previous two principals, one at East Cobb Middle School, and the one under
whom I directly served while at East Cobb who has since become the principal of Tapp
Middle School, have both created Twitter accounts for themselves. In the case of East
Cobb Middle School, a PTSA volunteer has since created a school Instagram and
Twitter account to broadcast positive school news to the community.
In the completion of this artifact, I learned the importance of conducting and curating
relevant and reputable research in order to present a justification for the implementation
of a new initiative within my school. Since so many often disparate personalities and
interests are presented through the various stakeholders, a sound foundation in existing
research helps illustrate the relevance of such a new proposal to school principals. In
reflecting upon this document, I observe that I could have included existing examples of
schools that had gone through a school-wide Twitter adoption as further evidence of the
validity of such an initiative at my school. I would have also loved to have taken it a
step further by interviewing several extremely active classroom educators,
administrators, and district personnel within the Cobb County School District as well as
other districts, to ask them about their observations. I would want to have an intimate
knowledge of what aspects of using social media outlets to foster school community
have worked, what aspects have not worked as anticipated, and glean any suggestions
they may have as a result of their own reflections upon the efficacy of their use of social
media for these purposes.
While the aforementioned changes took place after my departure from East Cobb
Middle School, this artifact impacted faculty development by Middle School encouraging
my administrators to move more of their communications into social media spheres
such as Twitter and Instagram, helped their transition into implementing it for
themselves and their schools. As a result, in following the East Cobb and Tapp Middle
School principal Twitter handles, I have seen that both principals have been using
Twitter to make announcements, showcase student work, and to celebrate their
teachers and staff. Furthermore, East Cobb Middle School now has a PTSA parent-run
official Twitter and Instagram handle which regularly share announcements, including
ones I have made, celebrates teachers, showcases student accomplishments, and
broadcasts news pertaining to both East Cobb and its sister high school, Wheeler High
School. In speaking with one of my former students parents, the East Cobb Middle
School official Twitter handle has been a great way for her to find out what is going on at
her daughters school in an easy-to-consume manner than the standard automated
phone calls, letters sent home, or website updates. Since this is the first year that these
schools have had these outlets in place, the impact cannot easily be seen yet, however
in upcoming years, devising surveys and keeping a record of the changes in parent
attendance at meetings should illustrate the importance of using these outlets.

References
Lederer, K. (2012, January 19). Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Classroom -Campus Technology. Retrieved June 24, 2015.