Unnecessary Technology
February 12, 2008
One of the dangers of selling education technology is selling unnecessary technology. I was talking to Jeanne Hayes from the Hayes Connection yesterday, and she was telling me about her workshop on the topic of how Large Scale Technology Implementations Fail.
Then, today, this article from the Washington Post crossed my desk:
The problem? What a former Alexandria school superintendent calls “technolust” — a disorder affecting publicity-obsessed school administrators nationwide that manifests itself in an insatiable need to acquire the latest, fastest, most exotic computer gadgets, whether teachers and students need them or want them…
To paraphrase the movie “Field of Dreams,” if a computer company makes a classroom gizmo, the Alexandria school system will buy it.
We are trying to develop a number of methods to protect us from this tendency:
- Aim to become the long-term strategic technology partner for the school as opposed to a short-term sales person
- Choose our technology partners wisely and make sure that our partners’ philosophy is in line with our philosophy
- Help administrators understand the professional development needs that surround any new product
- Understand that buy-in will be required by the teachers, administrators, curriculum directors, and IT directors before adoption of any new technology
Jon Becker from the blog, Educational Insanity, writes about the “people” issue in technology adoption:
educational leaders/policymakers are guilty of installing systems without regard to the personnel…the ed. tech. policy agenda has been dominated by a focus on infrastructure development supported by a bit of professional development. In other words, the “systems” have been installed and the leaders are then forced to try to fit the personnel into the system.
One of the largest initiatives at SSI K12 this year has been developing a professional development practice for these reasons exactly. If we want to be a technology partner for every school in America, we need to understand how training and professional development fit in this picture.