Information technology is an essential aspect of every school. Students and teachers use computers to consume and create digital information. Administrators and staff use cloud-based student information and business systems to manage data and facilitate operations. Librarians manage digital collections and subscriptions to full-text databases, and technology specialists support learning management systems and other infrastructure Read More
When listening to students and teachers, as well as administrators and staff who comprise the users of ICT systems in schools, I hear complaints about the technology (they tell me it is unreliable and insufficient). I also hear from them complaints about the people charged with managing ICT (they tell me technologists are unresponsive to Read More
About 15 years ago, there was a book and article entitled Change or Die that was widely popular and that was discussed at every conference and meeting we attended for a season or two. The thesis of the book and article was simple: When faced with the choice of changing one’s behavior or dying, many humans Read More
While educators who work in technology-rich places and spaces are likely to become more independent and capable to using it, there are aspects of maintaining technology that are beyond the expertise of educators. This is particularly true of those parts of the technology that can be disastrous to other users if they are misconfigured. Also, Read More
Organizations plan. Especially in the last several decades as information technology globalization, and other factors have changed the nature of economic, political, and cultural interaction; leaders have sought to engage members in the work of reinventing what they do and how they do it. In some cases, these efforts are successful; in other cases, they Read More
As “data” has becoming gate focusing mantra of school leaders, they have become fixed on changes in graphs. When the line illustrating data changes direction, and begins to show the desired changes, we commonly hear leaders say, “We are encouraged by the trends.” Whatever the change, the leaders will then explain how recent interventions explain Read More
There is no lack of ideas about how to restructure and reorganize schools and classrooms. Educators are very familiar with the never-ending series of “buzz words” that emerge, capture the attention of leaders for a few years, then fade into disuse when the next term distracts leaders. In recent years, the derisive label “buzz word” Read More
In locations where computers, laptops, the Internet, handhelds, and related devices have penetrated into the consumer market, ICT has become a transparent part of life making it difficult to perceive its strong sociocultural influences. From inside one of those cultures, we hardly recognize the extent to which ICT changes how businesses buy and sell, performers Read More
Technology systems are very valuable. Even a modest system can represent an investment of tens of thousands of dollars for network devices (routers, switches, access points, servers, and similar devices that users never see). The cost of software to keep the devices functioning is frequently thousands of dollars per year as well. Including personnel and Read More
“Cloud computing” is the vernacular term for computing services that are provided via a World Wide Web interface. As mobile devices have become more popular, cloud computing has become popular as well. Despite the impressive computing capacity that is available in mobile devices, they have less capacity than a laptop or desktop computer with a Read More