In the United States, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) is recognized as the first large-scale effort to provide school-owned computers to students. In 2002, middle school students in the New England state were provided Macintosh laptops. Since then, one-to-one initiatives have been widely adopted. In some schools, students are allowed to take their devices Read More
Category: Technology
What Matters When Designing Technology Solutions
A brief excerpt from a research project: The more active role for the school leaders in these technology decisions appears to have been grounded in their ability to apply their judgement to four variables of the systems and to criticize the technology in these terms. Improvement: Did the solution solve the problem? Ease of use: Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Reasonable Implementation
School boards hire superintendents and other high-level administrators to make the ultimate decisions about what happens in the school. These leaders are charged with ensuring all decisions, including those related to appropriate design and proper configuration of IT systems are reasonable. Reasonableness is defined by: Budgets—All decisions must fall within the available budgets and the Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Appropriate Design
Schools are places where learning is supposed to occur. Educators, including teachers and curriculum leaders, are the professionals who are responsible for defining what should be taught. They are also responsible for deciding how it will be taught. These comprise curriculum and instruction decisions. While many curriculum and instruction decisions are made for lessons that Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Properly Configured IT
It is the role of the IT professionals to ensure that technology is properly configured to both provide the services educators need, plus reflect the responsible configuration of the system. Remember, we do not want IT professionals running schools and we do not want educators to be running IT systems. Proper configuration of the IT Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Acceptable Use Policies
The leaders of all organizations take steps to protect them from liabilities and damage resulting from the inappropriate use of IT systems. At the highest levels, the organization’s governing body (school board are generally responsible for adopting policy) will adopt policies to protect the organization by ensuring they comply with relevant laws and regulations, and Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been law in the United States since 1998. The intent of the law is to protect the privacy and the personal information of children, thus is requires the publishers of web sites that collect user information to have parental consent for those under 13 years of age. Read More
Another Take on Wicked and Tame Problems
In the 1970’s two professors of planning from California published ana important paper in which they defined “tame” and “wicked” problems. While each can be challenging, the two are differentiated by the how we approach problem and judge if they have been solved. Technology problems are typically tame problems, while teaching is a wicked one. Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been law in the United States since 2000. The intent of the law is to protect the privacy and the personal information of children. In general, this is the law used by social media and other companies that restrict access to their platforms to individuals under 13 Read More
Elevator Pitch on IT in Curriculum Initiatives
Educators are constantly reviewing what they teach. Many regulatory agencies require curriculum documents to be updated, and professional organizations update curriculum suggestions as well. IT professionals are often expected to participate in some of these efforts. Although IT professionals will not make recommendations about what should be taught, they will be asked to participate to Read More