133: Planning and Goals For the last several decades, school planning has focused on first setting goals or defining expected outcomes and then designing and implementing systems to accomplish those goals. In this, educators are following the strategic and logistic planning that has been common for leaders of other organizations. In the 21st century, curriculum Read More
133: Planning and Goals In response to several diverse factors, the curriculum in K-12 schools has expanded in recent decades so that it now includes topics such as advanced mathematics including computer programming, a broad survey of the sciences including the social sciences, foreign languages, performing arts, visual arts, physical education, health, and the trades. Read More
Sherry Turkle, a sociologist from MIT studied computer users’ sense of identity early in the days of Internet-mediated communication. She observed that many users at the time were creating multiple online identities and that many users were exploring different senses of identity through those online spaces, and Turkel (1995) began her book Life on the Read More
Because evidence of tools accompanies evidence of humans, it is difficult to decide if humans preceded tools or if tools were created by pre-human primates. In his book The Artificial Ape, archaeologist Timothy Taylor (2010) claims the question cannot be answered because the human species and the technology we have created cannot be separated. He Read More
Placing a technician in every school to be the primary source of IT support does improve efficiency of repairs but, coincidently, it increases dependence on that technician, thus efficiency can actually decrease. When teachers and others depend on the technician, they are unlikely to develop their own troubleshooting skills, so rather than resolving a problem Read More
Especially in large and diverse organizations in which the logistic goals are only achieved by individuals who have greater expertise than others in the organizations, the division of labor and responsibility is more marked than it is in other organizations. Efficacious IT management is clearly an example of such a situation, so it is helpful Read More
141: Rogers’ Stages of Adoption Everett Rogers’ (2003) influential work on the diffusion of innovations explains much that we see on how new idea and practices spread throughout populations. This excerpt from my book Efficacious Technology Management which was released under a Creative COmmons license about a year ago is one summary I use when Read More
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The literature surrounding organizational change often uses the terms “change” and “innovation” interchangeably. When organizations deploy innovations, the leaders and members adopt new tools, follow new procedures, and are driven to meet new purposes. Scholars and practitioners in the field also recognize change can affect different levels within the organization and also the purpose of Read More
While imaging is a reaction to software changes that have adversely affect the performance of a system, freezing is a strategy that prevents software problems from occurring. A technician installs the application that provides the freezing function and then configures the system exactly as he or she wants it to function. Just like imaging, all Read More