Leaders who empower their followers to realize their untapped potential, not only transform lives of their followers, they also transform their own lives in turn. Although a leader could be an expert in any singular area of expertise, leaders in education cannot thrive on a singular model or style of leadership, as their profession demands of them to swing from one leadership style to another, depending upon the situation at hand. Yet, a set of characteristics and traits may become more pronounced than others, assigning such leaders to a certain category. In this regard, by Northouse definition of leadership styles, I would deem myself situated in the category of Transformational Leaders. According to this definition, "Transformational leaders create something new from something old by changing the basic political and cultural systems (Tichy, Ulrich, 1984). Transformational leaders accomplish this by challenging and transforming individuals' emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals through the process of charismatic and visionary leadership (Northouse, 2007)." In addition to this, I incorporate tenets of Primal Leadership, as defined by Daniel Goleman et al., in their 2004 book, titled Primal Leadership. The authors emphasize emotional intelligence skills and empathy as prime factors for leaders who excel in the art of leading. My pursuit of this doctoral program hinges upon these very tenets in advancing new technologies in urban education.

 

In my position as a Department Chairperson, Business Ed. & Technology at School of Information Technology in Paterson, New Jersey, I have been fortunate enough to experiment with the impact of new technology on student learning. I also had the opportunity to closely monitor the impact of technology on the ways teachers teach. I established the country’s largest Cisco Network Security Academy at my school with a lot of support from the district and the school administration. Yet, our students have not been able to take full advantage of the learning resources and often fail on summative exams, not only in the subjects of technology but across other subject areas as well. In 2015, I was able to pinpoint that issue to students’ inability to retain most of the information delivered during instruction. This realization gave me a direction for research and study of memorization strategies that would help our students succeed at crucial subject exams. Since the Fall of 2015, I have devoted a vast amount of time and attention to this singular subject of memorization that is hurting our standing in education and human productivity in general. Judy Willis (2006), a neuroscientist and a teacher observed that “educators [should serve] as memory enhancers, not just information dispensers’. My goal is to empower students and teachers to use the 21st-century technology to be able to retain and produce any previously learned information for a recall upon demand. I am working on developing applications that would help people memorize vast amounts of scientific and informational text using Google Maps. This strategy is based on a centuries-old method, Journey Method or Loci (pronounced losi), in which images associated with retainable information are placed along a familiar route. While tracing back and forth along that familiar route, a learner would be able to recall any information along that route.

 

In my professional plan over the next couple of years, I intend to expand upon this strategy for use in educational and in professional settings. I have started presenting it at small conferences and workshops. The feedback so far is highly encouraging for me to continue forward with my growth plans in this focused area. Towards this end, I intend to conduct a formal research on this subject in 2017. Once validated, I intend to publish my research in academic journals and promote it among academic and professional communities across the country.

 

Service to the Profession

 

• Offer free memorization training to teachers in struggling urban school districts

• Offer free memorization workshops to elderly residents at adult daycare centers

• Offer memorization workshops at professional education conferences across the country

 

 

 

Short-term and Long-term Professional Goals

 

2015-2016 Goals

 

• Attend ISTE Conference for the 1st time--Completed

• Present at NJECC Conference--Completed

• Establish Cisco Networking Academy in Paterson--Completed

• Extensive review of research theories on memorization techniques--On-going

• Upgrade the entire School of Information Technology in Paterson, NJ to Google Classroom--Completed

• Introduce CCENT and CompTIA technology certification programs at the School of Information Technology--Completed

 

2016-2017 Goals

 

• Present Google Maps Memorization Technique at two conferences, NJECC and ISTE

• Set up a content-rich website, www.productivityalliance.org, for personal and professional productivity

• Produce community service video content for The Dialogue Today

• Learn more about ADDIE, SAM, and Bloom design models—Summer, 2016

• Learn more about prototyping with Agile and Lean models—Fall, 2016

• Set up online K-12 Tech Directors community website

• Promote Google Maps memorization strategy among professional organizations and school districts

• Publish memorization strategy in magazines and journals (non-research, purely experiential)

 

2017-2018

 

• Conduct sponsored/paid professional seminars on personal and professional productivity via ProductivityAlliance.org

• Promote Productivity  Alliance on Facebook

• Conduct sponsored Urban Teen Productivity seminars/workshops

• Complete Ed Tech dissertation in the Spring of 2018

• Graduate as an Ed. D. in the Summer of 2018

• Publish memorization research in academic journals

• Develop cross-platform applications to use memorization strategy with Google Maps

• Set up a part-time consultancy as an expert on memorization techniques

• Present Memorization research at two more conferences

• Conduct free memorization training seminars for teachers of struggling school districts in New Jersey

• Conduct seminars on memorization techniques using Journey Method with Google Maps

• Offer free memorization workshops at adult day-care centers

 

References

 

Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

Goleman, D. A Boyatzis, R.E., A McKee, A. (2004) Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business Press

Willis, J. (2006). Research-based strategies to ignite student learning: Insights from a neurologist and classroom teacher. ASCD.