Technology Use Planning
What is technology use planning? In my estimation, technology use planning is best described as a journey with no end. The act of creating a plan is an ongoing process, all aspects of future goals must be weighed carefully and implementation tools set up in advance. Many people, like me, have been asked to take part in creating a technology use plan with no clearly defined goals or objectives. In my experience technology plans are often created only because accreditation requires them to be. They want the physical sheet of paper “the plan” to put into a filing cabinet, any real discussion of the process and implementation of technology is often discarded as being too costly or time consuming. According to a group of graduate students at Mississippi State University, “The plan (noun) is a clear, written description of the plan (verb) that is put into action by member of the community” (Al-Weshail et al., 1996). I think all too often we forget that a plan is a verb, an action to be to be taken. A truly great plan is under constant revision, being revisited and revised as technology resources, school populations, and financial resources change.
Upon reading the National Educational Technology Plan for 2010, I realized what a great tool this would have been when I was trying to help write our school’s technology plan. The NET plan provides clear recommendations that would allow for a real discussion of the needs of a particular school. This plan encourages schools to look at a new way of thinking about education, to look beyond seat time and look at the quality of student work, and the processes that led them there. The education system has become stuck in past thinking, and the NET plan encourages educators to look at technology, not as another thing you have to teach, but as a tool to help you engage students in the learning process while increasing productivity. If all school districts were to use this plan as a guideline when creating their own technology plans the face of education would change drastically. Teachers would become facilitators to learning, students would take ownership of their education, and schools would be able to adapt every program in every classroom to the needs of the students. Pull out programs would no longer be needed; students would be able to progress at their own rates. Computer programs would assess and differentiate for each child at an individual level. Growing up my parents always used the adages “you have to spend money to make money” and “you get what you pay for” in this particular case I believe that we need to invest in educational technology, and in doing so, we are investing in our country’s future through our children.
All of the articles that I read this week have a running theme; technology planning is an ongoing process that requires action. Anyone that owns a piece of technology can tell you that it is obsolete almost as quickly as you leave the store with your purchase. Technology is advancing at exponential rates, and our technology plans have to account for that. In his article about technology plans, See says, “Perhaps tech plans should be divided into phases, not years” (See, 1992). I agree with this statement because paper plans have a tendency to become concrete and stagnant, something technology may never be. To create a five year technology plan, I would need to know that the Mac book Pro I am recommending for every teacher will still exist, and will still cost around the same amount I projected when we get the budget for them, possibly five years down the road. This is an unreasonable expectation. If we think more in terms of phases than time; we can begin to work within the framework that See recommended. Create actionable goals for transformation and then consider what technology will be necessary to attain those goals.
If we consider application above technology then we begin to plan for what we really need, not what we think we need, or what might look most impressive. Purchasing technology without consideration to application can backfire on a school, draining their resources and seeing little change in student or teacher productivity. As an example, prior to my hiring, my school purchased two Mac computer labs and a portable Macbook lab for the school. They also purchased SMART boards for every classroom. The school’s intent was three-fold: to appease parents who were clamoring for more technology, to comply with the accreditation team’s recommendation for more technology, and to have a selling point for prospective students and their parents. The downfall in this plan came when the administration began attempting to implement this new technology. No one knew how to use a Mac computer; no one knew how to use a SMART board; there was no wireless infrastructure in place, and no one knew how to begin to solve these issues. Upon being hired, I was tasked with “fixing” the problem. After having read these articles, I now understand that what I did was a reversal of the process of creating a technology plan. I looked at what we had and what we wanted to accomplish and was faced with the daunting task of slowing us down. We needed a mission, a set of clearly defined expectations, and meaningful and regular faculty trainings to prepare our educators to implement this technology in their everyday activities. I needed to convince teachers, some of the most stubborn learners, to change the way they view technology from foe to friend. I discovered through this process that creating a technology plan is much easier if you have a vision first, and you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and think about learning in a whole new way.
I believe one essential aspect of technology planning that was left out of these articles is support. You must have the support of all of the community members. The teachers need to know that the administration is behind them as they experiment with technology. The administration needs to know that the tech people are there to support them with parents and teachers, as they pioneer a new way of learning. Parents and kids need to know that school community is behind them as they attempt to support the new infrastructure at home. We need to educate our community about the new technology plan, explain why these changes are being made and rally support and encouragement from the entire community. They say it takes a village to raise a child, educating a child is no different.
(Cator, K. and Duncan, A. (2010, November) National Education Technology Plan. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/netp2010.pdf.
See, John. (1992). Developing effective technology plans. National Center for Technology Planning. (19)8.
Al-Weshail, A. S., Baxter, A.B., Cherry, W., Hill, E.W., Jones, C.R., Love, L.T., … Montgomery, F.H. (1996, May 7). Guidebook for developing an effective instructional technology plan. Retrieved from http://www.nctp.com/downloads/guidebook.pdf.
Ashley Hungerford's EdTech Portfolio 