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 have been downloading some of our cognition; this is what we have done with pencils and paper for generations. We store information in books. We develop strategies for writing down numbers and manipulating them in certain ways to calculate. We write, draw images, and sketch graphs.
In recent decades, when we refer to information technology, we mean digital electronic devices and the networks and systems to which they connect. The nature of these devices has changed during that time as well. Whereas school and technology leaders were once concerned with installing desktop computers with appropriate software installed on them, then they were concerned with installing high-speed internet connections in each instructions space; today, we find them securing access to cloud-based computing systems and connecting to them with a variety of devices.
Coincident with the changing nature of IT in schools, there has been an increasing need for a range of IT professionals to ensure the devices are well-chosen, functional, and used for appropriate teaching. It is unusual to find educators who have sufficient technical expertise to manage enterprise networks that are necessary for school operations and effective teaching and learning. It is also unusual to find IT professionals with sufficient understanding of learning to make effective judgements about how technology should be used in classrooms.
In a situation in which the expertise necessary to make effective decisions cannot reasonably be found in a single individual; decisions must be made collaboratively. When making technology decisions in schools, the expertise of educators to decide what is appropriate, the expertise of IT professional to decide what is proper, and the expertise to school leaders to decide what is reasonable is necessary. The input of each group is essential, but none is sufficient.
If the collaborative decisions are going to be sound, and result in IT being used to make school operations efficient and teaching and learning effective, it is necessary that all participants in the decision-making share a common understanding of what they mean when they use certain language. While the details of how one configures a network and accesses cloud computing services should be left to the IT professionals, both the teachers and school leaders who are collaborating with the IT professionals should have a conceptual understanding of what they are doing and how the problem must be solved. Similarly, it is essential that the IT professionals understand the variety of activity that constitutes teaching and learning, and that the best-laid plans are often not what happens when students, teachers, technology, and curriculum come together.
IT decisions require the collaboration of three different groups:
- Educators, especially teachers, who are the professionals spending their time working with students to teach the many curricula that are included in the program of studies. Most schools have instructional coaches, curriculum and assessment leaders, and others who provide academic leadership. While these professionals may have educational expertise, if they are not involved with delivering lessons when students are present and actively using information technology systems, then they cannot be included as educators in decision-making.
- IT professionals who spend their time managing the hardware and software infrastructure in the school. In recent decades, a wide range of IT professionals have been added to the typical school staff. The IT professionals most important to decision-making are those who have the broadest knowledge of the infrastructure and who can provide direction to the correct individual on the IT staff who is responsible for implementing the decisions.
- School leaders who manage school operations. These leaders must be familiar with budgets, human resource procedures, regulatory and policy expectations, and other limits. They must also be able to be the arbiter of disputes and have the authority to direct IT professionals and educators to take decided actions.