This week, I was able to get in touch with the business side of an educational system. I was able to connect with colleagues that I do not normally get to sit down with and ask them a few questions regarding decision making and processes that are honestly overlooked and not thought about. I realized how much I don’t think about when it comes to transportation, our critical elements of field studies, and our ever so necessary use of technology. I would have to say that I have a greater respect (even though I already highly respected my colleagues) for what I didn’t realize has to go into all of these decisions. I think that something that is often not thought about is that each and every job wears numerous hats that often go unaccredited. When thinking about the development, I realize that the words “backwards planning” pop into my mind often. Think about “the end in mind”. Where do you want to be and then think about how you will get there.
This EA looks at and considers the entire organization. What needs to be considered are the available resources? What does the organization have to offer already? Is what they have to offer what they need? Do new plans and goals need to be placed into effect? When going into education, I only thought of myself as working with my classroom. I initially thought that I would have a kind of class to myself and that would be my focus. I quickly learned that decisions are made involving many, not just my students. With this and I realized that there was much collaboration throughout a school. My next step, as a classroom teacher, was seeing this collaboration in grade level meetings. I saw this happen rarely at a public school that I was working at. What I saw happening more often was that a couple of teachers decided to collaborate together. I saw that Principals were not welcomed into these meetings and were generally not welcomed into the classroom. I saw great separation everywhere I looked.
I initially saw Enterprise Architecture as basically a business practice and therefore this was a bit hard for me to understand. Reading on, I could see that this is more than just business, but business mixed with education and tying into technology. What I quickly learned is that there is a core connection to starting with the end in mind. Basically, in any business and especially being in a school, the mission statement drives the goal setting. Of course, the goals from year to year change as do many other things. I found that EA offered what seemed to be an equation of some sort in aligning goals with the mission statement and the use of technology.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1vxppCse3Xqjona4S7RxyYDmIK89hb-bqwGSv3GXRwVI/edit?usp=sharing
This week we have just started to dig into what "Enterprise Architecture" really is. I would have to say that I am extremely new to this term, but after reading and discussing this with my peers and instructors online, many of the concepts are familiar. I appreciate that we have started to discuss many of these ideas in the previous courses, which I am sure was not a coincidence. I understand that we are going to be focusing on the integration and collaboration of missions, resources, strategies, and technology in a business. I look forward to learning more. Thank you everyone for a great start!
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2015
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