Monday, February 21, 2011

Can I be a Good Leader While Promoting Ultranet?

I am a leader in a Secondary College and take my role very seriously. When I make decisions or implement new programs it comes after much research and extensive consultation. I take this course because as a leader of a group of professionals i feel it is my duty to provide my staff with the best resources, ideas and processes available. As a result I maintain the respect of my colleagues and know that I have done my utmost to provide teachers with the tools they need to provide a high quality, authentic education. Similarly, I am diligent in staying in touch with new innovations in web tools. There is little I enjoy more than showing teachers and students new web tools that will make their work easier and more effective.
The statements above make up a part of why I consider myself a leader. While my decisions and directions may not always be right, despite my thorough research, I always attempt to do my best for teachers and students.
Therefore I ask, can I consider mysellf to be a good leader if I am promoting tools that I know to be sub-standard.
This post is not to discuss whether or not the Ultranet is an adequate tool or not. It is not. Anyone who has any experience with the brilliant Web tools available knows this to be true. The question is, do Victorian teachers engage in it regardless of its many limitations.
As mentioned, I research the tools that I engage in and promote to others. This has been the case for the Ultranet. I have used it and am a lead user. I find it terribly clumsy and unintuitive. It is my strong opinion that secondary students will be highly reluctant to engage with the Ultranet. Secondary students are heavy web users. They know how tools are supposed to work and have little tolerance for things that don't work. I have researched further than my own experiences.
A major source of information on the Ultranet comes from Twitter, following the ultranet hashtag. Viewing this conversation you see that the major theme is the multitude of things that either don't work at all or don't work properly. Amongst these tweets are an equal mix of complicated fixes for the problems and suggestions to log it with the help desk. There are also the disturbing tweet series of someone sharing the work they have achieved. This work has clearly taken far longer than it should as the tweeter explains the processes. The disturbing part often comes soon after when they tweet they have lost their work or no longer have access to that section of their page. I find it disturbing because I am soon to be asking my staff to invest inordinate time working on this tool I know to be inadequate.
There are of course postive tweets. Most of which come from Ultranet coaches. If the ultranet coaches are well versed in the ways of the web, which I assume would have been a requirement for the role, they must feel terribly conflicted.
Other positive tweets come from some very admirable, hard working teachers. However, even though their achievements seem herculean due to the processes required to achieve them, I always think how the same thing could have been done using another tool in just minutes and with a better result. It also saddens me to think of what they could achieve if not lumbered with the ungainly ultranet.
Another source of feedback on the ultranet comes from speaking to others at the coalface. I have not spoken to one single secondary teacher who believes that the ultranet is a postive thing for our profession. Many agree that the idea is sound, as I do, but can not overlook the inadequacies.
So I ask again, with my opinion clearly that the ultranet is not good enough for students or teachers, can I be a good leader while promoting this tool. I do not believe so.
Already the ultranet is taking away the good will for technology that members within my school have built over many years. Each time I organise for my staff to be PD'd on the ultranet I see more credibility erode. This too will happen when we ask students to engage in the ultranet. It will reaffirm their belief that there is a huge gap between us in our use of the web.
Can I be a good leader and promote bad tools? Can I say I only want the best for my students and then ask them to use poor technology when good is at hand? Is it time teachers made a stand or do we all go along for the sake of politics at the expence of our students?

19 comments:

  1. A great but worrying post. I wonder whether the Ultranet should be scaled back to just provide confidential student reporting information. What a waste that seems ... but maybe it's best! Much of what the Ultranet offers can be done better with open web tools. The biggest challenge we face is to encourage teachers to embrace the power of Web 2.0. Is the Ultranet's success or failure a benefit or a hindrance to that? I don't know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nod, nod, nod. I agree - It's a clunky monkey, this Ultranet. And like John said, all the different functions can be better done with different Web 2.0 tools. Nevertheless, it does seem to be pushing a lot of techno-avoiding teachers into using some technology. If only that experience were somewhat less frustrating at every turn ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Enlightening reading, interesting string here too.
    http://abcreative.posterous.com/an-ultra-big-day-out-final-thoughts

    ReplyDelete
  4. John, Thanks for your comment. I agree with you, a scale back of the ultranet would be a good idea. The assessment part is still clumsy, but usable and has so many benefits. I agree also that getting some teachers to embraceWeb 2.0 is a challenge,but asking them to start with the Ultranet is like introducing a reluctant exerciser to triathlon via the Hawiian Iron Man. It's painful, hard and will ultimately lead to failure.

    ReplyDelete
  5. At last a voice of reason in the bloggoshere. I've been working mysecondary staff for five years on Moodle, the equivalent of a short course tri compared to the ultranet. It is tough for teachers with poor it skills or low motivation to use web 2.0 tools to use Moodle but we are getting the there. Ultranets complexity and awful lack of functionality compared to Moodle will destroy them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Monky, thanks for your contribution. Moodle is certainly one of the many excellent tools we should be encouraging in schools. I feel very sorry for those who have already forged the path on tools such as this, only to be told to move to an inferior tool.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Darren, thanks for the link to Adam's blog. I do follow him and he has some great stuff. I too would recommend educators check out his blog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You're really asking, "can I be a good leader while not supporting the Ultranet?" To which the answer is, of course you can't. The role of a leader is to influence others to achieve the organisation's goals, not to white ant. As a leader you need to work to make the Ultranet a success in your school, not get caught up in highlighting its faults.

    Its disappointing that as a leader you have questioned the motives of "positive tweeters" and have failed to recognise the leadership shown by them.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mysorehead, thanks for your opinion, however mine remains at the other end of the spectrum to yours. I believe a good educational leader stands up for what is right for the learning outcomes of the students. Personally, I don't think the ultranet in its current form is that. By your reasoning the ministers in Colonel Gaddafi's regime should support his slaughtering of peaceful protesters. This is of course an exteme example, however the premise remains the same. If something is not right, then a leader should do something about it. I firmly believe that I would be disadvantaging my students be engaging fully with this tool.
    I feel that perhaps you too question the motives of positive tweets as it is your stance that all news on ultranet should be positive regardless of belief. Therefore such tweets may be propaganda rather than a celebrations of a fabulous tool.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those operating under any dictatorship should support it if they want it to continue, those who don't, should leave the military and join the freedom fighters.

    I'd suggest those in school leadership who think they pick and choose, usually from their high horse, when they support initiatives and programs shouldn't be in leadership.

    ReplyDelete
  11. mysorehead, you clearly feel strongly about this, which I think is good, however my opinions still differ from yours. I feel that standing up for what is right is always right. Within my school and region I am currently supporting the ultranet and am pressing the company line. I am finding it more and more difficult however for the reasons mentioned in the blog.
    I have shared my opinion on this matter, it is a common one. I am not speaking from my high horse, I am at the coal face as a classroom teacher.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I haven't mentioned what I think about the Ultranet, nor have I discussed any of the points you raise about it. They are irrelevant to the this discussion. What I have done is answer the question you pose as the title of your post.

    What I have argued is that those in leadership need to support the initiatives of their organisation. If they can't or won't do that, then they shouldn't be in leadership and shouldn't accept the pay cheque. This is the real ethical decision.

    Our system, any school, needs ethical and capable leaders. I believe it is unethical for any leader not to support and work towards achieving the goals of their organisation. This is much more active than "supporting the company line."

    You don't have to be a leader and leadership is far more than a title.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mysorehead, I think your premise is a dangerous one. A system where no-one questions the decisions of government or people up the line, regardless of how it will impact on students. I think then it would be time for me to give it away.
    Thanks for your thoughts, I have certainly considered them.

    ReplyDelete
  14. There are plenty of appropriate ways for leaders and others to provide feedback in any democratic system.

    If you're a leader at a DEECD school, then you would have regular leadership meetings where issues can be discussed. If our system school Principals and other leaders have lots of mechanisms to provide feedback. eg Annual Implementation Plancs, School Charter, Regional Network Leaders, Regional Officers, Ultranet Coaches or directly to central office. Once a decision is made however, as it has been with the Ultranet, it is your job to make that goal a success. If this is beyond you, then leadership probably isn't for you.

    Dissenting publicly on a blog, tweeting or white anting to other teachers is never appropriate for leaders or any other ethical employees.

    I don't know you, I don't know whether it is time for you to give it away, but I think it is time you question what a "good leader is" which I believe, was the stated reason for writing this post.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Mysorehead do you have the courage to come out from your pseudonym? I very much doubt it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. i will not feed the troll, i will not feed the troll, i will not...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Interesting article on teacher training and productivity

    http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/45264.html

    ReplyDelete
  18. Great thoughts here from both sides, however I need to ask a few questions before making my mind up about who offers me more.
    Yes, the ultranet is flawed, I don't know if you could possibly ever find anyone who could disagree with this, and as a 'leader' do you promote a flawed teaching tool? Before scrapping the Ultranet though, what is its purpose? What i find frustrating is that it is only those whith a good working knowledge of web 2.0 and products such as moodle that oppose it. Where are the others? they make their minds up by listening to the supposed 'experts' and 'leaders' in their school. I have been in schools with sharepoint and moodle and it is only the minority of staff using them. Students access content from there - not really collaborative though is it?
    As a school leader, what has been done in your school to bring teaching into the 21st century? How have you been able to lead staff to explore and incorporate web 2.0 technologies into their classes? How have you connected teachers, parents and students?
    I get annoyed when people bag something but don't offer real alternatives. As a school leader, how is learning in your school different to what it would have looked like 50 years ago?
    For mysorehead, yes teachers work for the department and they have the choice to leave if they don't like the direction. The Ultranet is a major shift in how many teachers approach their work, and it can be clumsy. How do you support teachers so they can be successful in implementing it?
    i have heard the arguement that teaching is one of the few organisations where you can refuse to work within the expected job description and still remain employed. this is staggering but it is also true. What is it with teachers? do they realise they are there for their students and are given directives from the dept that they need to follow?
    I do not, and will not, follow blindly which i think was the essence of this topic.
    Can i be a good leader while promoting the ultranet? of course you can. Who says that the ultranet needs to be the exclusive tool that schools use? there are things that the ultranet does that other online tools can't - use them. make connections for teachers and students. If there is a place where moodle is the better tool then use it there.
    without the ultranet challenging teachers to change their practice, they wont. By telling them that the tool provided by the dept is garbage gives them license to stagnate in old teaching pedagogy - how does this help our students?

    Pedagogy - how can we have an argument about leadership without discussing it?

    So what is this post originally about? is it about leadership or expressing personal views about something?
    These discussions are quite thought provoking, however if they are like a school playground 'holden vs ford' argument I have to question what we expect to get out of them.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for your comments LearningJourney. I think your thoughts are an excellent summary and analysis of what has been discussed here.

    ReplyDelete