As you get underway with the information and communication technology planning committee, the quotes below may help stimulate lively discussion and forward thinking:
- The new education paradigm makes a shift from content-based curriculum to process-based curriculum.
- The new paradigm focuses on transparent usage of technology rather than on just the tool.
- The new paradigm focuses on information fluency, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and real world communication skills.
- We must visualize that future, but it is not about technology – it’s about the social power of technology to fundamentally transform the world.
- When these questions serve as the foundation for the technology plan, the focus will be on how to improve student learning rather than buying the latest technology, such as multimedia, and then trying to figure out what to do with it.
| What is out? |
Technology Committees |
| What is in? |
Information Communications Technology
Professional Learning Communities |
Technology Plans
- The plan should establish clear goals and a realistic strategy for using telecommunication and information technology to improve education.
- The plan should have a professional development strategy to ensure that staff know how to use these new technologies to improve education.
- The plan should include an assessment of the hardware, software, telecommunication services and other services.
- The plan should provide for a sufficient budget to acquire and maintain the hardware, software, professional development and other services that will be needed.
- The plan should include an evaluation process that enables the school to monitor progress toward the specified goal.
- The plan should probably not cover a period of more than three years because of the rapid development cycle of new technologies and services.
(Source: An Educators Guide to Evaluating The Use of Technology in Schools and Classrooms: www.ed.gov/pubs/EdTechGuide/index.html)
The guiding question technology leaders must keep in mind as they develop their plan is, “Are students using technology in ways that deepen their understanding of academic content and advance their knowledge of the world around them?”
Barnett, H. (2001).
ERIC Educational Reports,
October.