STANDARD I: Visionary Leadership

1.1 Shared Vision

Candidates facilitate the development and implementation of a shared vision for the
use of technology in teaching, learning, and leadership.

1. Briefly describe the artifact and the context in which it was created. What was/were
your individual contribution(s)?

This artifact is my “Shared Vision” paper written as an assignment in an Instructional

Technology Leadership course. I wrote the paper in its entirety; however, the information
stemmed from a recent school improvement meeting with our Leadership Team, which
included a variety of stakeholders.

2. Explain how this artifact demonstrates mastery of the standard/element under which it
is placed. See the portfolio rubric and watch the videos for more details on what to
include in your reflection for this question. You must respond to each of the items on the
rubric in this question! It is VERY IMPORTANT that you address ALL of the criteria on
the rubric. This one question may need to be several paragraphs long in order to address
all of the items on the rubric.

Development of Shared Vision

To complete this vision paper, I participated in our Leadership Team as we met to discuss
school improvement. Prior to this meeting, however, I sent a survey via email to gather
insight in our faculty’s vision regarding technology’s role in education and insight into
their adoptability levels. After this data was collected, we hosted our School
Improvement meeting. In this meeting, we reviewed our current vision along with our
new survey data, and we revised it to fit more of an instructional technology approach.
Together, we chose three areas of focus for which technology can be beneficial: fostering
parent communication, enhancing student achievement, and maximizing teacher
workflow.

Once this was decided, we broke off into groups to discuss what each of these look like,
how technology can help us reach those goals, how can we get there, and who is
responsible. We all had a big piece of sticky chart paper to display our ideas as we shared
with the larger group. I facilitated the meeting when groups were sharing. I was able to
use their ideas to springboard us into discussions. From there, I developed one chart
paper for each goal (enhance student achievement, foster parent communication, and
maximize teacher workflow).

Implementation of Shared Vision

I have played a major role in the implementation of this shared vision. Since the
meeting from which this vision was born, our administration has had turnover. We
have gotten a new principal who relied heavily on me to continue the
implementation of this vision. I have led one professional learning session, “Tech
Talks”, monthly with all of our teachers regarding topics regarding parent
STANDARD I: Visionary Leadership

communication, instructional technology tools and best practices, and tools and
strategies that help teachers work more efficiently.

3. What did you learn from completing this artifact? What would you do differently to
improve the quality of the artifact or the process involved in creating the artifact?

Through the process of developing this shared vision, I learned how tricky it can be to
facilitate a meeting like this. This type of meeting, one in which members are discussing
changes or modifications that he/she would like to see, can sometimes get lost in the
small details rather than remain focused on the “big picture”. I learned that a strong
leader needs to facilitate this type of meeting in order to stick the agenda, while still
allowing the discussions to flow.

To improve this artifact, I would push to more clearly include assistive technology into
our vision. I am embarrassed to say that assistive technology was not even mentioned in
our meeting when developing our vision. Differentiation was mentioned, but not ways in
which assistive technology would be used. Since this meeting, I have grown to realize the
disconnect we have in our district between assistive technology and instructional
technology. In our vision, we included “enhancing student achievement”, which is the
umbrella under which assistive technology would fall, but I would like to see a stronger
mission that focuses on the connection between these two to create an “integrated”
technology partnership.

4. How did the work that went into creating the artifact impact school improvement,
faculty development, or student learning? How can the impact be assessed?

This artifact heavily impacted faculty development, which will eventually impact school
improvement. From this shared vision meeting, we developed a plan for monthly “Tech
Talks” which would bring in tools and strategies that support this vision. This impact can
be assessed by a post-survey about our school’s current vision (to assess how well it is
shared).