Mind map
Drawing the mind map is a tough task. At first, we can't find the central point of our mind map.And we thought know a lot about IT, Leadership, Management, Education. Later on, with the learning of vital concepts and models of change, we found the relationships among these items are complex and need really deep learning. So we reread the readings and brainstormed the relationships and how it works in the perspective of teachers. During the evolution of our mind map, the most difficult thing is to cooperate with teammates on the Internet. Due to the limitation of time and distance, we can only chat on the Whatsapp or after classes. After all, we managed it . In the last version of mind map, I struggled of how to combine our thoughts together. At last, I decided to use multilevel ecology model to combine our thoughts and it works.
Concept map 1
Concept map 1
Our version 1 of the concept map was created based on our existing knowledge on the relationship of IT, Education, Management and Leadership at the beginning of the course. We have identified what we as a group agreed upon are the key properties of these elements. On the limitation of the mindmap software did not allow us to create the relationship between the elements and thus created another branch called relationship. We wanted to highlight the importance of these elements with regards to education as a whole and used a red ringto represent the idea.
Concept map 1.2:
Concept map 1.2:
Due to the limitation of our original mindmap software, we have decided to switch to bubbl.us to create our concept map. Our concept map remains the same but we have now included the relationship that links the elements and as can be seen, all the elements interact with each other.
E.g. Leadership links to Management, IT and Education
Management links to IT, leadership and Education etc.
IT links to Leadership, Management and Education
Education links to Leadership, Management and IT
We’ve also added Control under Management as we believe that it is Management who controls the quality, time and money, or basically resources to be utilized.
Concept map 2:
In this map, we removed Education branch and took education as the background of the mind map. This concept map also is the first iteration of the triangle relationship between leadership, ICT, management
After distinguished the differences between leadership and management, We realised that leadership needs to transform the organisation and change people's ideas and how they interact in the new context of ICT-based innovation.However, Management is more concentrated on problem solving and arraignment skills.
So we added "share vision" and " empower people" as important elements of leadership. When leaders share vision to managers and teachers, they will have a better understanding about the goals and work more effeciently. Teachers also need motivation and new competencies, so whether leadership empower those teachers really matters.
Concept map 3:
After distinguished the differences between leadership and management, We realised that leadership needs to transform the organisation and change people's ideas and how they interact in the new context of ICT-based innovation.However, Management is more concentrated on problem solving and arraignment skills.
So we added "share vision" and " empower people" as important elements of leadership. When leaders share vision to managers and teachers, they will have a better understanding about the goals and work more effeciently. Teachers also need motivation and new competencies, so whether leadership empower those teachers really matters.
Concept map 3:
At this point we needed to add more depth to different interactions between our key points on the mind map. With a consideration to teachers being the stakeholders we began with establishing important things to take account of:
Teachers being a large part of our concept map, we included them as a solid/visible concept point. When doing this it became evident that their relationship with managament and leadership was not as we had first invisioned. Through this discussion and adaptation we came to our final concept map, map 4. Which goes into greater detail as teacher being the keystone speciesand their interaction and relationship throughout the entire ecosystem.
Concept map 4 as a summary
- Leader determines policy
- Feedback mechanism between leadership and management is essential
- Ecological environment is not linear, and it must nurture innovation
- Multi levels of leadership (think Greene School (Stein and Colburn))
- ICT is not the driver, it's the catalyst
- Management must provide connectivity - need to know what stakeholders and others are thinking. Leadership must get this feedback.
- Vision is abstract - change is real
- Architecture for learning - think; meetings, outcomes, helping people learn and change
- It's all a symbiotic relationship - all dependent upon eachother
Teachers being a large part of our concept map, we included them as a solid/visible concept point. When doing this it became evident that their relationship with managament and leadership was not as we had first invisioned. Through this discussion and adaptation we came to our final concept map, map 4. Which goes into greater detail as teacher being the keystone speciesand their interaction and relationship throughout the entire ecosystem.
Concept map 4 as a summary
With the goal of fostering students' development of 21st century skills. Leadership has to make goals and plans aligned with educational policies created by governments and make good use of resources and support from the government and consider the new needs of students’ 21st century skills.
The red triangle describes the relationship between leadership, ICT, management:
- ICT is the catalyst for change of leadership, management and pedagogical practice. Leadership empowers the use of ICT. Management enforces the use of ICT.
- Leadership shares visions with management and design the Architecture of learning and goals. Management maintains the architecture.
(Law, Yuen, Fox, 2011) Double-loop learning occurs in the learning organisation, which is higher-level learning that leads to insights, heuristics, and collective consciousness, instead of simply making short-term responses to an emergent problem.
The green triangle describe the class ecology: teachers, students, pedagogical practices (our stakeholders are teachers)
Teachers are the key stone species (plants), who make decisions of how to implement pedagogical practice, and facilitate students’ learning activities.
Pedagogical practice (butterfly), nurture students' (flower) 21st century skills.
The relationship between ICT and class ecology:
ICT provides a scaffold to build connectedness with schools and the outside world (society) for teachers, students, and the school. ICT also provides teaching and learning tools.
From the perspective of the teachersImplications from red triangle (School ecology)
1.From leadership there is sharing of visions, and in relation to ICT; network with society and other schools.
It's important to remember, that teachers have to recognize and appreciate the impact of the innovative practises on students’ learning.
2. From management (concrete learning practices).
Teachers should perceive themselves as learners and participate actively in the learning activities. They must learn new competencies to facilitate innovative practises. The learning required of teachers differs according to the teacher-role/student-role combination of the innovation.
New competencies can be classified into seven domains: pedagogical (PK), content (CK) and technological knowledge (TK), as well as their intersections – PCK, PTK, TCK, and PTCK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).
Implications from green triangle (School ecology)
1. Teachers must change theirs and their students' roles from traditional to innovative. They should use ICT to connect classrooms to wider communities, and facilitate situations/environments that allow students to engage in self-directed, collaborative inquiry related to authentic problems.
2. Teachers should collaborate with each other and outside communities using different networks i.e. sharing curriculum design and teaching resources.
Framework of Students' 21st century skills
In the study of Partnership for 21st Century skills, the framework is established, which describes the skills, knowledge and expertise students must master to succeed in work and life; it is a blend of content knowledge, specific skills, expertise and literacies.
References:
Law, N., Yuen, A., & Fox, R. (2011). Education Innovations Beyond Technology. In Educational Innovations Beyond Technology (pp. 217-232). Springer US.
P21 Framework Definitions, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework.