Technology Use Planning Overview

A Working Definition of Technology Use Planning

Technology use planning in education includes the acquisition and effective implementation of technology with the goals of increasing student engagement, meeting student learning outcomes, applying accurate assessment, improving current pedagogy, and developing cutting-edge pedagogy while ensuring that all aspects of student diversity is taken into account.

The National Educational Technology Plan 2010

The National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) 2010 has two goals as its guiding principles: (1) to increase the proportion of college graduates in the United States from 41 percent to 60 percent within the next decade (only 7 years now) and (2) to prepare all high school students for an smooth transition into college. In addition, it outlines where education in the U.S. needs to progress towards in order to remain competitive in the global community. The plan includes five major areas of concern under its Goals and Recommendations: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Each area explains the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the issues that the NETP, if implemented effectively, will address.

Although the ten-year timeline for meeting these goals seems a bit over-optimistic, the plan itself can be used as an overarching, basic reference for all technology use planning and decisions for all institutions and all who are involved in education including educators, technology specialists, school boards, deans, presidents, and legislators.  Institutional technology plans in particular should be designed around or informed by the NETP and the NETP itself can act as a gauge to measure the progress in meeting the outlined goals.    

The plan for the future of the educational system in the U.S. is the primary focus of the report; however, it is also important to note the research and development section, which describes a new approach to procuring the resources educators need to implement the NETP successfully where research and development is focused solely on education from the outset. This is particularly important because it does not only involve education but also the fields of business and entertainment in collaboration with educational technologists.

Response to Developing Effective Technology Plans

John See claims that long term technology plans might be ineffective because innovations in technology are changing so quickly that plans based on current technology will be outdated before they are even put into action. However, while it may be true that innovations in technology have a higher turnover rate than high school students employed at fast food restaurants, it does not necessarily follow that it is impossible or ineffective to plan for the long term (1-5 years ahead, let us say).   

Institutions can implement a long term technology plan as long as, as See himself implies in his discussion, the plan itself is flexible. A long term plan should be modified during the course of its implementation. These modifications should be based on educational technological innovations that have shown tried and true results which align with the goals set by the institution, which are backed by research, and which have been informed by the National Educational Technology Plan.   

See also argues that in order for a technology plan to be effective, the focus should be on what specific technology and how that specific technology will help in achieving institutional goals rather than on procuring technology and then reflecting on its value to the institution.

I agree with See's point. The idea of being a cutting-edge institution often seems to trump the concern for actual applicability of the technology in achieving goals. I have had conversations with colleagues in which there is agreement that, for example, our students need iPads, but how they fit into even the small scale goals of our department remain unclear. If having iPads would clearly contribute to achieving the college's goal of having all students become global citizens or contributed to developing critical thinking and communication skills, then iPads might be warranted. However, if discovering and developing innovative uses of technology in education is an institutional goal, perhaps the goal itself requires that the technology come before application.

Experience in Technology Use Planning

Presently, I have no experience in technology use planning. In fact, my only real experience with technology in education is creating an occasional power point presentation for a mini-lesson and showing an occasional YouTube or Vimeo video as a supplement to traditional classroom activities. However, I do plan to use some of the technology skills I acquired in the course of EDTECH 501, specifically Feedly, Camtasia, GoAnimate, and Voicethread. There is a lot of potential for using these programs/applications as supplementary material for both my students and colleagues.