31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader -- Day 2: Delegate a Unit of Work
A task a day for 31 daysDesigning units of work is quite a labour-intensive task. Even if you’re using a set of ready-made units, you will probably still want to customise them for your school or class. One way of reducing the burden on yourself, and at the same time injecting fresh ideas into your lessons, is to ask others to take responsibility for one or more units.
This is much easier to do, of course, if you lead a team of people than if you’re co-ordinating the efforts of people who are not answerable to you. Even there, however, you can often find a colleague who is mad keen on one particular aspect of educational technology, and who would not require too much persuasion to take on such a task.
For example, is there a teacher who enjoys making videos? Is there one who enjoys geocaching? Does another colleague love graphic design?
It’s crucial to delegate the responsibility, not merely the task. Nobody would thank you for being asked to be a glorified work experience assistant! It entails setting the main objectives, to ensure that overall the curriculum or scheme of work is being fully covered, and then leaving everything to them. And I mean everything:
- The lessons
- The lesson materials
- Preparing resources on the school’s VLE
- Booking computer equipment as required
- Organising permission slips if a school visit will be involved
- Running training sessions with the rest of the team.
You may find, as I did when I tried this out, that some colleagues are a little under-confident. In that case, by all means provide them with the lifeline of being able to have meetings with you to discuss their ideas and any practical matters arising.
The result, as I can testify, is a set of teaching units which contain ideas you’d never have thought of, devised by colleagues who feel a great deal of ownership of, and pride in, the scheme of work. Crucially, engaged and enthusiastic teachers generate engagement and enthusiasm in their students, making it more likely that they will make progress.
31 Days, ICT leadership, leadership, leading ICT in 31 Days, Leading & Managing ICT 
Reader Comments (2)
Basically, you are asking someone else to use their skills, time and knowledge to do work on your behalf. It may be true that you cannot do everything yourself but equally, your colleagues may be in a similar situation.
I like the idea presented here that as well as delegating the task, you delegate the responsibility. In that way you are giving some 'ownership' to the other person and acknowledging their skills, expertise or interest in the area.
If you are to delegate, then as well as the task and the responsibility I feel you should also delegate time and resources to the other person. Otherwise you could be just lumbering an already overburdened colleague with more work and more stress.
Delegation shouldn't be used as a way of easing your workload, it should be used to produce the best outcome. So don't delegate on a Friday as a means of 'clearing your own desk', give it some thought and choose carefully to whom you delegate.
Delegating can be a very positive tool, not only can it ease your workload but you can use it to empower a colleague, particularly a young, new or enthusiastic colleague who is eager to make their mark by contributing. It may be worth remembering that many of us like to contribute to our work and not merely perform a role, and this could be a chance to allow a colleague an opportunity to do that. Remember at the end to value your colleague and their contribution!
Instead of delegating, however, why not consider a collaborative or co-operative approach. Allow the other person to access some of your time and your resources to complete the task. Or even, instead of delegating to one person, why not invite a more wider participation among all your colleagues or wider still using the internet among colleagues elsewhere. Surely this would be a more modern web2.0 way?