Educational Technology Foundations
Module 10: Technology Planning
Technology planning is a complex process that requires collaboration and cooperation across a broad range of technology issues and stakeholders. An effective education technology plan must consider and articulate the following dimensions:
- Goals. Articulating goals is an important element of strategic planning. What does your organization need to accomplish?
- Standards. What professional organizations have created standards relevant to your planning goals? There are probably multiple sets of standards you need to consider. There may be curriculum standards (such as the Common Core), leadership standards (such as PSEL, ELCC, & NELP), discipline standards (such as NCTM, NGSS, and NCTE), and technology standards (such as ISTE or AECT). What are the relevant standards and how should they guide your planning?
- Learning Theory. Especially when planning for the use of education technology, it is important to understand the principles of How People Learn. Study this book by the National Research Council and use its principles to guide your creation of an effective learning environment.
- Systemic Improvement. What is your plan for collecting data regarding the progress students are making toward attaining educational goals? How will this data be collected and how will it be used to guide the continuous improvement of the teaching and learning environment?
- Professional Practice. What do teachers, faculty, and administrators need to know in order for your plan to succeed? How can you empower them to deepen their professional knowledge and skills? What professional standards guide what your organization’s personnel need to know?
- Accessibility. A core value guiding American education is the belief that every person can learn and has the right of doing so. How will your organization provide equal access for every learner? What Web accessibility standards will guide your selection of online tools and services? What are the needs for differentiating instruction and what strategies do you plan for doing so?
- Tools. What are the tools that will power your plan? How do the principles of How People Learn inform your tool selection? What data do these tools collect and where does this data reside? Is this data collection adequate for the cycle of systemic improvement specified above?
- Obstacles. What can make your plan fail? How can you anticipate these obstacles and plan for overcoming them? What risks are you taking and what are their potential consequences?
- Leadership. Who will create the shared vision required for this plan to succeed? How will this vision be communicated and embraced throughout the organization? Are current staffing levels adequate? What reorganization is needed, and what additional personnel need to be hired? How will you recruit and retain the staffing needed to oversee the technological elements of this plan?
- Timeline. How long will it take for this plan to take effect? What are the milestones and when will they occur? Are the milestones in the correct procedural order, i.e., do any milestones require things to have been done that are too far ahead on the timeline?
- Costs. Provide a budget showing what the plan will cost. Accompanying this budget, provide an explanation of each line item. Identify costs that the organization already has covered versus items requiring additional resources. How will the organization fund these added costs? Are there ways to reduce these costs? Could open source solutions or open education resources reduce planned expenditures?
- Trends. We live in a fast-paced world. Especially when it comes to technology, it may seem that the only constant is change. What national or international trends are occurring within the domain of this plan? How will emerging technologies impact this plan?
Collaboration
You can use communications technology to help collaborate in technology plannning. Notice, for example, the collaborative methods the U.S. Department of Education uses to sollicit input into the National Education Technology Plan.
