Change Management

In the landscape of independent schools, the integration of artificial intelligence is becoming a tangible reality.

In recent months, I have come across many people who have an unusual phrase in their title: the department of modern learning. For some, it’s not a new title, but there is a shift in how technology is viewed at those schools.

You’ve heard it before, technology in our lives and our kids’ lives is unavoidable. It’s what drives our world as we know it. I grew up in a time when technological advances moved so fast that many people had a hard time keeping up.

My New Jersey public school district had terminals connected to timeshare mainframes in classrooms before the Beatles set foot in America. I learned to program in a required 7th grade class around 1975.

I entered the field of education because I found angsty teenagers amusing in a way that many adults didn't appreciate, and because I wanted to impart my knowledge of the Spanish language and the Spanish-speaking world to them.

The energy of having a fresh start at school each year has always given me joy. This year I began my year with a self-inventory and asked what I could improve, and I swiftly and I swiftly landed on the topic of passwords.

Almost 30 years ago when I started in Educational Technology, the job description for being a school tech leader was vague. Personally, my biggest qualification was that I knew more about computers/technology than anyone else at the school.

In December 2022, under the blanket of an expectant winter, OpenAI introduced a new resource, the epitome of their human-to-machine technological prowess - ChatGPT.

In an ATLIS Town Hall, participants pondered the changes that have come to the leadership role of technologists in independent schools, including acting as trusted guides for the many complex technologies that are now desired at their schools.