If a Principal can order the IT department to do their online work and have people help them with technology, then how would becoming a Google Certified Educator be useful to them? 

Tech For Educators have a lot of Principals who have done the course.

At the Indian School of Excellence, Bangalore, Instructional Designer and Principal, Ms. Shakunthala Bhandarkar says that many of us need to step out of our comfort zones. She took an opportunity to upgrade and upskill herself in the field of technology, thus building a “growth mindset.” Even though she has the IT department to help her, she believes that being tech savvy is a skill and it doesn’t matter if one is a principal or not. Being a leader, she wants to pave the way forward for many educators all over India by setting an example.

Another Principal who has found this course to be of great use to him is Mr. Mahendra Damle. Principal of Rachana Sansad Academy of Fine Arts and Craft, Mumbai, who says that “even though people were assigned to do things for me, self knowledge was better.”

Lead the way

After completing this course you as a Principal will become proficient in using 16+ tools and best practices of digital pedagogy like Flipped classroom, blended learning and project classroom. This practical knowledge will help you to lead the digital transformation that is required in schools to cope with any situation that you may face.
Moreover, you will be able to think independently about what is best for your students, rather than getting lost amongst multiple suggestions and feedback from all the stakeholders. Apart from that, you will learn about lots of free and easy to use tools which can be used in education, which will help you to save a huge budget in technology and please the pockets of the management.

Motivate Other Teachers

After Covid 19, digital skills will become one of the most significant skills for teachers.The New Education Policy, strongly emphasizes Digital Skills. If a Principal takes the initiative and becomes GCE, then they can motivate other teachers to become Tech oriented and implement the latest technology in the classrooms. Thus, benefiting the primary stakeholder, the students.

Build a Network

Using Google Groups, a Principal can create a Q and A Forum and invite other Principals from all over the world to discuss some of the best practices in their schools and colleges. Or they can even join other groups from all over the world. In this way the Principal is updated with the latest happenings in education. Hence a network of leaders and like minded individuals learn from each other.

Make Your Online Presence Known

Through the course you will learn how to build your own website. Use this website to highlight your mission and vision of the school or college, showcase your faculty members, boast of your campus and awards and much more. You will learn how to add in a carousel of images, videos, testimonies, links to customise your website to suit your needs.

All In One

With the help of Spreadsheets, you will learn how to manage important information about your school by creating a Dashboard which can be used to showcase data in a fun, dynamic visualization. You can even make your data live by linking this spreadsheet to your website. As you update data on your spreadsheet, your graphs, charts and visuals stay synced on your website. This could be another way of impressing your management.

Effective Presentations

As a Principal, one is expected to make a lot of presentations. However, nobody wants to sit through long and boring presentations. Learn how to use Google Slides to make effective presentations that will impact your audience and capture their attention from start to finish. This also implicitly sets a standard for all your faculty members to follow.

Increase Efficiency

You can now save time and increase teacher productivity by collaborating on Google Docs. This tool allows individuals who have access to the document to work together on a particular document. No need to continuously keep making new documents, since it gets automatically saved in your drive. It also allows faculty members to access the document from any device. One can even search for folders by the type of file they are looking for thus saving time overall.

Gmail To The Rescue

A Principal’s inbox is always full; this can be very tedious. Sometimes you might even skip a few important mails from the Management or parents. To avoid this use some of the inbuilt features of Gmail to optimise your usage. Learn how to create labels for your mails and put them under special categories so you never miss them. Use the “Add to Task” feature to be reminded about certain tasks during the day, be in constant touch with your faculty members using Google Hangouts from your email.

Virtual meetings

Should there be an emergency meeting and you as a Principal are not in town, you can still conduct a faculty meeting using Google Meet. This platform allows upto a 100 participants to attend a meeting. Another added feature is that it is totally secure and only authorised users can join the meeting, this makes it reliable.

Involve all your stakeholders

Learn how to create a YouTube channel for your school and get your students, parents, faculty members and even support staff involved in creating videos or documentaries about your school. In this way you will have an online diary of all your school’s achievements throughout year to look back on.

Save the Date

A Principal’s schedule is ever so busy. Keeping a track of meetings and events to attend can be difficult. With the help of Google Calendar learn how you can keep yourself organised by inserting events into your calendar and setting reminders hours before the event takes place so that you never forget. 

Principals set the tone for the role of education-related technology in their schools. If a principal is wary of technology, teachers will pick up on that hesitancy and thus it will indirectly affect the student. If principals are excited about new opportunities, teachers will feel encouraged to try new technologies in the classroom.