Humans have a long history of using technology. It is reasonable to conclude that humans and their technologies cannot be separated. Without our tools, our species would not have become the Earth-altering species we have become. When reviewing the history of our technology, we see that information technologies are a relatively recent invention, but for several thousand years, we Read More
All IT users know the systems work well sometimes and they don’t work well other times. Systems function well only when they are properly configured, and IT professionals (usually) complete formal programs of study to learn the craft of configuring IT and pass professional exams to verify they know what they are doing. IT configuration Read More
Innovation is defined as “doing things differently.” In education, leaders, including technology leaders, must negotiate a balance between existing practices and innovation. Educators are professionals who are deeply invested in what they do and how they do it. While “we have always done or this way” is too often given excuse for not implementing new practices, including those thought to be improvements, it is also given Read More
echnology comprises hardware, software, network infrastructure, cloud platforms, and personnel resources. IT leaders must be prepared to accurately assess each when making technology procurement decisions. The assessment must integrate both internal and external factors. The internal factors are grounded in the contingencies described in a previous section. Software, for example, has system requirements, and if the existing hardware and operating systems do not meet those requirements, and there are not sufficient funds Read More
I have been cleaning out old digital files. Here is an interesting piece I found:
During one week when I was managing IT for a small rural school, I encountered two examples of how educators do not understand the nature of enterprise systems. On Monday, a teacher brought me a sale paper for a local box store retailer (it was early in the holiday gift buying season). She told me she had $300 Read More
Enterprise networks are incredibly sophisticated and complex systems. They combine hardware and network software that must be scaled for hundreds or thousands of users on campus. There are three adjectives that describe every network if it is in a school or any other business: Ensuring a network is all three necessitates expertise in network architecture. Decisions must be made about the hardware and software and configuration necessary to meet Read More
Ethernet is the dominant network technology used in schools (and just about every other organization). When connecting computers and other devices to Ethernet, we use the same protocols and the same devices no matter how many nodes are connected. The devices we use to create computer networks are designed to meet three different classes of networks. One Read More
I had AI create this post based on a chapter I wrote a few years ago. 188: Elevating EdTech Professional Development: Training, Planning, and Design If you have ever sat through a school professional development (PD) day focused on “technology integration,” you might be familiar with the following scenario: A room full of educators with Read More
I recently had a series of conversations with educators about Google. I was anable to point these folks to the specific artcile I read a few years ago in which scholars challenged some of the assumptions we made how Google uses student data. I promised a blog post pointing to it. Here it is! In Read More