Monday, December 19, 2011

What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media

For the administrator who would like a general, not-too-technical overview of digital technology and social media, the book What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media, edited by Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann is the answer. It provides answers to the administrator who feels just a bit lost when someone starts talking about blogs, wikis, or Twitter, or who isn’t quite sure about all this talk about 1:1 initiatives, open source software, or using mobile phones in the classroom. What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media is an excellent, easy-to-read resource for every administrator and teacher-leader’s library.






This book is an extensive odyssey through all of the hot topics in instructional technology right now. Readers are provided with a complete overview of the field, in short-easy-to-read chapters. Various authors, most of them techno-gurus in their fields, write chapters that provide concise descriptions of digital tools like blogs, wikis, social media, RSS Feeds, online courseware, and many others. In each of these chapters are practical take-back-to-your-school tips, guidelines, and ideas for integration and implementation. There are also links to many of the most well-known digital and social media tools. At the end of every chapter, are lists of  resources for those who would like to explore further.

There are other books available that provide a survey similar to what is offered in What Every School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media, but none of them are written just for administrators and focus specifically on the technology as this one does. It is a small book that provides big answers to both administrators and teacher leaders wanting to see what possibilities digital technologies and social media offers the educator and school leader of the 21st century.




3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the kind words about the book. If you have time, a review on Amazon would be most appreciated too!

    Also, I'd love to know what other books you think are good ed tech 'survey books' for administrators. We wrote this one because we couldn't find anything out there that specifically targeted the leadership side of these technologies.

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  2. You are welcome. I appreciate you bringing us such an excellent resource. In answer to your question, I have partially updated my review to make it clearer what I meant. Your book is uniquely written. It provides an detailed overview of digital technologies and social media, and, unlike so many others, it provides some specific suggestions about how an administrator might engage in using those technologies. In addition to your book, I would suggest that administrators add four other books to the list: 1) Leading 21st Century Schools by Lynne Schrum and Barbara Levin, 2) Web 2.0: How to For Educators, 3) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson, and 4) 101 Best Websites for Principals by Susan Brooks-Young. Out of these, only the first one is written for school leaders but it takes a broader view than your book. The second book was obviously written for the classroom teacher, but it provides a valuable view of Web 2.0. The third book by Will Richardson is obviously written for the classroom, but it has so many helpful hints in engaging web tools every administrator needs to read it. The final book by Brooks-Young provides some interesting Web sites administrators might find useful. Some are not Web tools but are informational. Your contribution is invaluable.

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  3. Thank you for posting. I am sending your info to our principal.

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