Throughout my journey with blended learning, I've learned what works and what could have been be done better through research. First, a clear vision and goal must be implemented to support any initiative and leadership must support it fully. Chambers and Speirs (2016) describe that a successful initiative is determined by leadership. Leaders must be willing to set the vision and lead the way through modeling the required expectations. These leaders must also commit to what they are expecting others to do. They should also be knowledgeable about the initiative and be able to articulate their message with others. Once a clear vision and goals are determined, creating a strong infrastructure and the selecting the right tools are extremely important. Schools in Mexico who were implementing an ICT program were left with little or no access when their infrastructure was unable to handle the ICT online courses due to poor connectivity issues (Commission on Information and Communications Technology, 2009). It appears that a review of their infrastructure was not done or was done so in a poor manner. Essentially the cart was put before the horse. The LA iPad initiative is another example of how infrastructure (or the lack thereof) played a role in the failing implementation process. The LAUSD IT network was not set to handle the implementation of their iPad initiative. It was not secured enough to keep students from hacking and disabling the security functions within their network. Due to this several millions of dollars were lost in the failed iPad implementation. Leaders need to make sure infrastructures can handle large amounts of bandwidth, security, and there are firewalls set in place (Chambers, 2014). I learned that getting leadership support is a big part of being able to make my innovation plan successful and reality. I've also come to realize that a strong infrastructure needs to be in place before my innovation plan can grow beyond my classroom walls.

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Leading Organizational Change

The Why, How, and What

When was the last time you thought about why you teach? Today? Yesterday? Last Month? Simon Sineks states, “If you don’t know why you do what you do, how are you going to convince others?” Establishing a clear “why” statement can inspire others to join your cause. Your goal should be getting people to believe what you believe in order to lead change in your organizations. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it and if you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe” (Sinek, 2016).

Dr. Kotter states one must, “win over the hearts and minds” before one can attempt to change the behavior of an organization. If you know your why winning over their hearts and minds should follow suit. Many people are caught in the whirlwinds of everyday tasks and sharing your innovations appear to be a waste of time. Your task is to create an influencer that is designed to assist your wildly important goal (WIG). Unless you share a common, belief system designed on urgency your WIG may not be attainable.

I have designed a plan that I believe can target both ideas (hearts and minds). My innovation plan of a blended learning environment is designed to give back the time that teachers need to connect and build strong relationships with students. When educators connect and build relationships with students (through creative learning environments) the mind will follow. In a case study done by Patricia Brady Gablinske (The University of Rhode Island) she stated, “strong teacher and student relationships revolve around how it affects the teaching.” This leads me to believe that students tend to perform at higher levels because they know someone truly believes in them.