My goal is to position technology in our district such that it supports both the “authorized” work of schools, as well as the emergent. Authorized here is meant to include current communication systems and software and tools that are accepted and have widespread use. Emergent technologies are those that we are considering adopting or are intrigued by and want to pilot – things we haven’t yet fully brought into our district as authorized.
Examples
|
Authorized |
Emergent |
| Student Database Management System
Web browsing Word Processing Spreadsheets Databases Teacher web pages |
Interactive white boards
Capturing digital stills and video Blogs Wikis Google Docs Student Email |
Initiatives in Each Category in my School District
|
Authorized |
Emergent |
| Student Biographical Reports
Emergency Call and Email System Data Warehouse Technology Planning & Revise AUP Assessing web hosting services |
Several new interactive white boards
Districtwide “Private Label” Wiki Google Docs at High School Blogs with students Blogs among teachers and administrators Twitter Homework Pilot Technology Planning & Revise AUP |
I presented this classification to a group of parents and described our technology program in terms of authorized and emergent in an effort to differentiate between technologies that have already become well established as “the way we do things” and those that are new to our district, or are still in a pilot phase. After some really good discussion and questions (What’s the difference between a blog and a wiki? What is twitter, really?) I pointed out that most of the emergent technologies required high bandwidth access to the internet. I felt like parents really “got it” and supported the idea that much of the funding required for an effective technology program goes to fund what I call “invisible” items – bandwidth and network infrastructure. It was a great exchange!
