Chapter 1 does an excellent job of throughly expressing the significance of technology in our classroom environments as well as daily life. "By understanding how reliant all stakeholders are on the Internet, leaders can develop strategies to better communicate information, enhance public relations, collaborate with other practitioners, discover opportunities to improve school culture, and be open to a nonstop pathway of new, innovative ideas." Last year my district, Troy, was able to pass a bond that was geared solely towards technology and providing our students with 1 to 1 devices. Our technology department has been very cautious with the initiative loading staff with professional development; and providing support to teachers who were given classroom sets of iPads to distribute.

Chapter 2 discusses the relevance of the importance of incorporating technology into our classrooms and introduces the concept of digital leadership. "Digital leadership focuses on a consistent pursuit of innovation, effective integration of technology, quality progressional development, transparency, celebration of successes from which others may learn, establishment of relationships with stakeholders, an open mind, and anticipation of continued change." (Pg 23) Throughout our work focusing on leadership and the multiple factors that contribute to an effective leader. A digital leader embarks all of the qualities of a good leader, but using those skills to help students and colleagues develop and strengthen 21st century technology skills.

"Leaders need to be aware of the changing educational landscape, which includes societal shifts in technology use, advances in educational technology, and a new type of leaner." (pg. 17) Digital leaders are not only responsible for involving colleagues and students with technology and building their skills, but also being aware of the ever changing technology and education environments. Digital Leadership has broadened my definition of effective leaders and added to the many hats that a leader wears.

"If we discount the shifts occurring outside our walls and fail to embrace the new type of leader coming into our buildings we will never develop the capacity to anticipate needed changes that will transform school culture for the better." (pg. 17) Understanding the importance of incorporating technology and building students 21st century skills are challenging in low income areas, if many families are struggling to make ends meet it is difficult to have technology in the home. If students are given a device but there is not internet connection. It is a leaders responsible to not only help students build technology skills but also to help families understand the importance of building those skills.

"Many students’ lives today are filled with technology that gives them mobile access to information and resources 24/7, enables them to create multimedia content and share it with the world, and allows them to participate in online social networks where people from all over the world share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things." To help reach all students it is imperative to make real world connections, working with 4th and 5th graders, it has amazed me their technology skills especially relating to social media. Using students interest helps peak motivation and increase engagement, technology helps make that possible.

"When combined with learning systems, technology-based assessments can be used formatively to diagnose and modify the conditions of learning and instructional practices while at the same time determining what students have learned for grading and accountability purposes." Understanding that standardized assessment is an unfortunate part of our classrooms, building students basic technology skills is not only effective but crucial to measure achievement. This past year Troy was given a waiver to take our M-Step assessments on pencil paper, but starting next year we will not have that leisure, students need to be independent navigating devices.

"Another basic assumption is the way we organize students into age-determined groups, structure separate academic disciplines, organize learning into classes of roughly equal size with all the students in a particular class receiving the same content at the same pace, and keep these groups in place all year." This is a common struggle that I face in the resource room with students being grouped based on grade levels, not by instructional or by learning styles. To help fully reach students potential I am continuing to be creative when providing support, the biggest challenge being caseload numbers and schedules. General education teachers have a responsibility to instruct all of their curriculum standards and if students were grouped not only by grade level but by instructional level.