Managing Positive Stress for Change in the Implementation of Technology in Schools

Carol Vanvooren, Douglas Devore, Norma Ambriz-Galaviz

In the Information Age, faculty and staff in large institutions and schools make transformative changes slowly. The implementation of technology as a tool for communication and in classroom integration for instruction is also slow for many educators. However, today there is an urgency to bring the most recent technology systems, applications, and strategies into the educational organization, creating an environment that requires knowledgeable leaders to manage the rapid change. With resistance just a parking lot whisper away, leaders must orchestrate the right amount of stress to create a need in the staff to constantly evolve to a new level of technology implementation. The five positive stress inducing strategies for change, first introduced by DeVore in 1994 [4], have proven to be used by highly effective leaders from elementary schools through college. With leaders trained in these key strategies, the likelihood of faculty and staff commitment to the needed changes in technology integration is greatly increased. Leaders can’t wait for the experienced employee to consider using technology as a tool; even elementary students race past the limited and readily outdated technology skills of most teachers. Leaders must create the positive stressors to initiate change for technology in their organizations now.

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