Education Week - Managing the Digital District - October 2, 2013 - S9

Balancing the ‘Yin and Yang’
Of Risk-Taking and Failure
O
By Katie
Ash
ne vital characteristic of innovative, forwardthinking
districts, observers say, is a commitment
to encouraging administrators, teachers,
and students to take risks and not be afraid
to fail.
It is a characteristic that is common in inno-
vation-oriented companies like Google and Apple and one
that more school districts should embrace, says
Rowland L. Baker, the executive director of
the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Technology
Information Center for Administrative
Leadership, which supports school administrators
in the use of technology.
“[Such companies are] not afraid of
trying something and finding out it
doesn’t work, and pulling the plug,” he
said.
But the caveat, Mr. Baker said, is that par-
ents don’t want their children to be part of a series
of failed instructional experiments.
“There’s a yin and a yang,” he said. “You don’t want constant
failure going on in the school.”
Karen Cator, the CEO of Digital Promise, a Washingtonbased
technology advocacy organization, suggests the
issue might be a matter of semantics.
“The word ‘fail’ is a really problematic term in educa-
tion,” she said.
A better way to put it, said Ms. Cator, who previously
headed the office of educational technology at the U.S. Department
of Education, is “the freedom to try new things
in order to try to meet the complex needs [of today’s learners]”—one
of the essential components, she agreed, in fostering
an innovative school district.
That willingness to experiment and try new things usually
starts with the superintendent, said Jayson W. Richardson,
an associate professor of educational leadership at
the University of Kentucky.
“Now, the tech-savvy superintendents are much more
eager to take risks and let teachers take risks,” he said.
‘SPIRIT OF PLAY’
That was the case in his district, said Superintendent
David Britten, who leads the 1,800-student Godfrey-Lee
school district in Wyoming, Mich.
“Before, it was me and the tech director trying to push
the boulder up the hill to get things started because
people were hesitant [to experiment]. But they’ve seen
that they’re not going to get dinged on their evaluations
through this,” said Mr. Britten, and now teachers are more
willing to embrace risk-taking.
Superintendents also need to encourage students, teach-
ers, and staff members when they hit the inevitable snags
that come with rolling out a new initiative, said Scott
McLeod, the director of the Center for the Advanced Study
of Technology Leadership in Education, or CASTLE, at the
University of Kentucky.
“It’s going to be uncomfortable and different,” he said.
“That’s really where those adequate supports and proactive
thinking and effective communication and nurturing
[from leadership] really get through to the payoff.”
And it shouldn’t be all drudgery, said Mr. McLeod.
“Places that are really innovative have a spirit of play,”
he said. “Learning is supposed to be joyful.” n
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S9
EDUCATION WEEK | October 2, 2013
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Education Week - Managing the Digital District - October 2, 2013

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