Introduction
During most of my school career (1993-2001), I reaped the benefits of successful technology planning when my school district developed a technology plan that involved pursuing and receiving several technology grants. What is technology planning? A technology plan is both a formal document that plans out an institution’s vision and mission for technology implementation and evaluation and is also the carrying out of the plan. Anderson (1999) calls technology plans both a noun and verb (1). The noun portion of technology planning is the road map — the document created (2). The verb portion of technology planning is the actions, attitudes, and results of the technology plan (2). Both are important elements of technology planning. This posting will address several questions around technology planning, including the National Educational Technology Plan 2010, the timeframe of technology plans, and the elements of an effective technology plan. I will wrap up this posting reflecting on the technology planning I have observed and experienced in the past in K-12 systems, higher education, and libraries and how I might implement it at the organizations I work with and will be connected to in the future.
National Educational Technology Plan 2010
The NETP could be an effective and powerful resource for technology planning. It shows the direction of education with the plan’s vision and then outlines several recommendations, many of which can be used to develop specific technology goals in local educational institutions. These recommendations include concrete ideas for technology integration that are easily adaptable yet flexible enough as technology rapidly continues to change. The recommendations also include ways to assess evaluate success. Finally, the recommendations frequently discuss professional development, a key part of technology planning.
Some of the specific recommendations from the NETP 2010 that could be easily incorporated into a technology plan include:
3.1 Expand opportunities for educators to have access to technology-based content, resources, and tools where and when they need them (xviii)
4.2 Ensure that every student and educator has at least one Internet access device and appropriate software and resources for research, communication, multimedia content creation, and collaboration for use in and out of school (xix)
5.1 Develop and adopt a common definition of productivity in education and more relevant and meaningful measures of outcomes, along with improved policies and technologies for managing costs, including those for procurement (xx)
These recommendations could all be easily formulated into ways that result in more effective teaching that allow students and teachers to “work smarter, not harder” (See 1992).
Technology Plan Timeframe and Elements
Technology is changing rapidly, even more so than when See (1992) was written. One might think that technology plans should be written for short time frames then, which is something See advocates. However, I strongly disagree. New gadgets, devices, and software platforms are being developed each day. As a result, it is vital for planning purposes to think about the bigger picture, the vision and mission for a district and write and implement a technology plan in such a way that looks longterm for organizational goals. Plans take precious time to implement and write. If plans are being rewritten each year to take advantage of the latest and greatest technology because it is the latest and greatest, this is not a wise use of the organization’s time and resources. Instead, in a rapidly changing technology world, it is more vital to look at the long-term goals of the next three-to-five years to not get caught up in hype.
This discussion leads nicely into See’s comment about focusing applications not technology (1992). I do agree with this comment for the same reasons as mentioned above. It is easy to get caught up in buying and bringing in the latest and greatest platforms and devices. A lot of the time, these will end up installed and unopened or unvisited or gathering dust in the closet, because their application was not thought through. Instead, if the focus is on how the device or platform could or could not be used, the planning of its purchase and implementation is much simpler.
An incredible set of questions has been developed and posted online by an independent education technologist (Gliksman 2011) that for those looking to implement iPads in a school. This set of questions covers many of the important areas a technology plan needs to cover. I found the questions to be useful for any type of technology planning.
Personal Reflections
Plan to read Technology Made Simple (2007). As I mentioned in the introduction, during most of my school career (1993-2001), I reaped the benefits of successful technology planning when my school district developed a technology plan that involved pursuing and receiving several technology grants. Students, teachers, and the local community all benefited from the work of a core group of teachers and administrators who relentlessly pursued new ways to implement technology and pursue professional development to better implement technology into already existing curriculum. The students who impacted by the classes that incorporated the technology proceeded to be ahead of their peers, in the earlier days of the technology revolution. I personally can attest to its impact. That early exposure to technology use in English and social studies papers, presentations, and projects and to technology use and application in journalism and in web design has been invaluable in the years since. I also benefited from opportunities to collaborate with teachers to develop web pages for their classes and help them develop their technology skills, especially in the areas of awareness and application (See 1999) as the result of a professional development grant. As a student trainer assistant, I didn’t get involved in the integration and refinement circles that See mentions, but they did happen at a later time.
Technology planning has continued shape and definitely impacted the careers I have pursued since that time. I have worked in a college IT department as a college student, helping implement the results of the university’s technology planning through equipment install, support, and on-the-spot training. I helped run a classroom “brain” as a graduate TA at large university, where the brain was the central device that controlled all the instructional media that had been installed in the classroom (computer, projector, VCR, etc.). I also helped manage the classroom clicker system which had replaced the time-consuming grading of paper quizzes; both developments were efficient replacements of previous uses of technology or lack thereof. Both of these had to have been planned out and implemented to be successful. In my current profession as a librarian now, we rely on the libraries we work with to plan out their technology implementation three years out. This helps in their budgeting and planning for the libraries’ futures.
In a future career, I hope to focus on technology professional development, the missing key to many organization’s successful implementation of technology, tools, and applications. With the explosion of online interfaces and tools, there may be easier ways to successful implement staff development that meets See’s Awareness, Application, Integration, and Refinement. I helped run the 23 Things Kansas asynchronous online professional development program for librarians in 2010, which addressed at different times some or all four of these elements. We have heard fantastic response from many participants on what that program did for them. The 23 Things model (originally developed by Helene Blowers at PLCMC in 2006) has been implemented mainly in libraries so far, but has had very successful results.
Conclusion
I’ve always seen technology planning mainly from the paper document perspective or through the implementation perspective. Learning about the importance of staff development and the numerous other elements that go into a successful technology plan has been quiet informative, and I hope to take back some of what I’ve learned to my own workplace. I also will be able to apply what I’ve learned in future careers. Finally, I’ve heard a lot over the past few years about the book Technology Made Simple (Bolan), a technology planning guide for small and medium libraries, but have never read the book. It is one of my goals to read this book now. Technology planning is a powerful tool for future innovation and impact in communities and organizations, when it’s done correctly.
References
23 Things Kansas (2010). Retrieved from http://www.23thingskansas.org
Anderson, L. S. (1999). Technology Planning: It’s More Than Computers! Singapore: National Center for Technology Planning. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://nctp.com/articles/tpmore.pdf
Anderson, L. S., et. al. (1996). Guidebook for developing an effective instructional technology plan, Version 2.0. Mississippi State University. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://nctp.com/downloads/guidebook.pdf
Anderson, L. S., & Perry,, J. F., Jr. (1994, March). Technology Planning: Recipe for Success. National Center for Technology Planning. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://nctp.com/html/tp_recipe.cfm
Bolan, K. (2007). Technology made simple : an improvement guide for small and medium libraries. Chicago: American Library Association.
Gliksman, Sam. (2011). Preparing your school for an iPad implementation. Retrieved July 26, 2011 from http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/preparing-your-school-for-an
Learning 2.0 – About (2006). Retrieved from http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/
See, J. (1992, May). Developing Effective Technology Plans. National Center for Technology Planning. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://nctp.com/html/john_see.cfm
Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology. National Education Technology Plan 2010. (2010). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. Retrieved July 26, 2011, from http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010