"Leadership in Song: Developing Collaboration, Community, and Leadership Practices through Music in an Online Course," is an introductory exercise in an online synchronous educational leadership class that outlines how music can be used as a pedagogical tool to create a cognitive collaborative community of inquiry that fosters a) reflection, b) collaboration, c) value of different leadership practices and d) affective connections to the assignment. Additionally, this assignment provides a transferable activity that school leaders can modify for use with various stakeholders in their schools. Significantly, this assignment underscores how music, an oftenunderutilized pedagogical tool in academia, creates a reflective, collaborative, engaging, relevant, interactive virtual experience for educational leadership students in an online environment. I applied a series of steps traditional to qualitative analysis such as open and axial coding, noting patterns, and maintaining a chain of evidence; students reported what they valued and learned from the assignment and emphasized how this assignment can be used to enhance collaboration and self-reflection, revise initial ideas, and understand different leadership perspectives. This lesson can be used in online settings as a team-building exercise in a classroom or with a leadership team at the beginning of the school year to help faculty and staff form a community around the school's goal and mission.
The willingness of educators to introduce opportunities for Distance Education (DE) remains uncertain despite the substantial use of such approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study is to identify which factors may influence DE acceptance in a sample of Italian pre-service teachers from different subjects. Following the General Extended Technology Acceptance Model for E-learning (GETAMEL), we hypothesized that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness may predict intention of future use of DE, which is an indicator of DE acceptance. We also hypothesized that a social factor (such as subjective norm) and a contextual factor (such as facilitating conditions) could influence perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. One hundred and fifty pre-service teachers (F = 139; average age 37.11 years) completed the Teacher's Acceptance of Distance Education Scale (TADES) and its factor structure was verified by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Results emerging from a Path Analysis confirmed our hypotheses in part. Implications to promote future use of DE in higher education are discussed.
Shifting student demographics, evolving economic conditions, and the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence are prompting institutions to reconsider established pedagogical models and professional development. This study is the first phase of a two-year explanatory sequential mixed-methods project. A total of 303 individuals completed the survey, including instructors, instructional designers, and professional development administrators, representing primarily four-year and two-year institutions and other institutions such as health sciences centers, medical institutions, and online management programs. This study reports on participants' level of awareness of neuromyths, general knowledge about the brain, knowledge about the brain and learning, and evidence-based practices among instructors, instructional designers, and professional development administrators who worked across online, hybrid, HyFlex, and onsite modalities. The study compares mean percentages of accurate responses between groups and factors associated with awareness using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc statistical tests. The study reports on strategies, principles, and practices used by participants to support learning. Additionally, the study reports on participants' perceived value and interest in learning more about scientific knowledge about the brain. Although participants demonstrated high levels of awareness regarding the brain, knowledge about the brain and learning, and evidence-based practices, the results also revealed opportunities to increase awareness about neuromyths and scientific knowledge about the brain to support learning. This study provides critical insights into opportunities for enhanced awareness and transformative educational practices through professional development.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been evolving since the middle of the 20th century. During the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st century, most AI programs remained within the realm of computer science and psychology. However, when OpenAI launched its generative AI program, ChatGPT, using large language modelling (LLM) software, the world took notice and AI expanded beyond the computer science and psychology fields of study. ChatGPT and other generative programs such as Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude AI exploded on the scene and brought AIto the masses. Without a doubt, the emergence of AI has had repercussions in all walks of life, including education. The purpose of this study is to report on the opinions and use of AI by K-12 teachers enrolled in a graduate education leadership program over the course of two years. Beginning in Spring 2023, when ChatGPT first attracted public attention, qualitative data was collected from the teachers enrolled in courses taught by the author. The main purpose of this data collection was to determine if opinions of AI changed during the two years that data were collected. All those enrolled in this program have master's degrees in education and experience as teachers in New York City schools.
Transitioning from high school to college is challenging for many students. The inability to make successful transitions can affect students' abilities to integrate into and graduate from college, especially for marginalized students. New student orientations were created to help students navigate their new academic environments. However, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, all in-person orientation activities defaulted to online formats. As institutions emerged from the pandemic, various blended new student orientation modalities were implemented. This case study focuses on how a university's new student orientation blended modality (consisting of both online and in-person activities) affected social connectedness as perceived by first-year students. Twenty students were interviewed, leading to three main findings regarding the impact of blended modalities: (a) they motivated these students to transition to college, (b) they helped these students develop a sense of connection to the institution before even stepping foot on campus, and (c) they showed that the combination of online and in-person orientation activities provided a holistic experience for these students. We discuss how blended modalities help build and strengthen connections and a sense of belonging between students and institutions. We conclude with suggestions on how current technology trends in education might be used to adapt blended modalities from their current state to one that could result in more engaging and personalized orientation experiences for first-year students.
