Budgeting:
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One of my favorite findings on the web recently was the phrase that defines Sandy Springs Friends School's strategic plan about technology. They state, "We will incorporate our use of technology in a manner in keeping with the importance that the school places on human interaction." So there are times in a school's development when that might mean that less is more. While we leverage technology for learning, let us make sure we are not failing to develop in our students abilities for face-to-face learning, listening and oral communication skills. Are there times when we we need to promote use of the books that we already own over Internet resources that we can't find the funds to acquire?
Serving at TAS during its laptop initiative was a heady experience. We were blessed with abundant resources. I learned to read blogs and technology journals for getting ideas and knowing which expensive financial endeavors really paid off in learning and also about valuable free stuff on the web. Now that I am at a school that has fewer resources and a less developed technology infrastructure, I'm carefully applying what I know to prioritize and support technology purchases that make the most sense for learning. Unlike my previous schools, CAS must operate within a very limited budget. Our technology acquisitions can't often be experimental, and must always be needs-based and defended by cost-benefit analysis and sound research. I presently serve actively on a K-12 technology-for-learning committee charged with developing vision for technology use at CAS, an annual budget, and a 3-5 year technology plan for our learning community. I'm told that I was hired in part because my experience might be valuable for shaping this vision and the action plans to achieve it. Folks know I like to read up on matters before I spend money; I like to pilot and trial programs before purchasing them for school-wide use. And I know how to find the research. Learning and Leading with Technology is a journal that routinely offers peer-to-peer advice and professional reviews of gadgets and tools. Combined with the outstanding Educational Leadership from ASCD, one is able to marry software to scholarship, gadgets to good learning. Finally, while no one has said so, I think another thing that makes administrators smile is a Quakerly frugality and an aim for simplicity. With a background in numerous schools, I have a certain savvy about how much change can be absorbed at once in a learning community. Our technology expenditures need to be rationalized within the complex pressure-cookers that high achieving schools with excellent, self-motivated educators often are. One should never be in the position of defending an expensive acquisition that goes unused because no one had the time to learn how to implement it widely for learning. And teachers shouldn't be in the "wag the dog" world of contriving a use for a tool that didn't have a proper educational basis for buying it in the first place. (Yet when technology budgets are in the hands of techies who lack experience in the classroom, such can sadly happen.) The Quakers I've most admired learned patience as well as excellence and both are achieved by listening to others and reflecting. |