Dangerously Irrelevant

Today I had the odd experience of hearing United States Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), recipient of SETDA’s federal policymaker award for his co-sponsorship of the ATTAIN bill, say to the lunch crowd that he was going to tell us a few statistics that most of us didn’t know and then recite a few of the slides from the original Did You Know? presentation.

I think I’m proud? I know I’m glad he is behind ATTAIN. But I’m also going to send him the new version!

Here’s a paraphrase of a great quote from Frances Bradburn: “Yes, you absolutely need tools and training and all those other things. But the key is to begin.”

As you can probably imagine, I was delighted to read Don Knezek’s thoughtful and lengthy reply to Doug Johnson’s query about everything that ISTE was doing to address the technology needs of school leaders (as opposed to teachers and/or students). As someone who has worked with ISTE in several different capacities, including being on the NETS-A advisory board, I have tremendous respect for the work done by Don and his team at ISTE. Don mentioned several ISTE activities of which I wasn’t much aware and highlighted other programs that I knew about and/or in which I have been involved.

As you look over the list of things that ISTE is doing, it is clear that they are doing quite a bit, perhaps as much as any one organization can do. That said, and as Miguel Guhlin noted on his blog, the concern that most administrators still are woefully unprepared to be effective leaders in the area of technology continues to exist at an extremely large and widespread scale.

I noted in my second-ever post on this blog that a variety of entities need to step up to the plate. ISTE can only make so much impact with its programs. Even if ISTE doubled its activity in the leadership arena, the need still would be vast. CoSN is doing some work in this area, as is SETDA and NSBA. Other initiatives include the now-defunct Gates Foundation Leadership Challenge Grants in each state, TICAL, and our own efforts here at CASTLE.

We need state departments and the federal government to realize that leadership is the key and to take concrete steps to address the issue – our society is becoming more technological, not less. We have a moral obligation to prepare students for the world in which they will live. I do not think that we, as a nation, should to continue to let students acquire the majority of their technology skills, knowledge, habits, and beliefs on their own – there is an important and vital role for schools in this. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: nothing meaningful and sustainable happens without good leadership. This is true in education, in corporations, and in government. We know this, and yet we continue to focus most educational technology initiatives on teachers and students.

It is a little dismaying that the three main national associations that represent school leaders – AASA, NASSP, and NAESP – do little if anything when it comes to addressing the technology needs of principals and superintendents. There are no major technology leadership initiatives coming from these associations – only a few articles and/or conference presentations now and then. Similarly, university educational administration programs are not doing much either. Having the impetus for technology leadership training come from the school boards association and educational technology organizations is not sufficient – we need the buy-in of our major leadership groups and university preparation programs.

Does technology positively impact student learning? Although David Warlick has noted that the question may not really matter that much, educators, citizens, and policymakers still are interested in this issue as they seek to justify current and expanded technology funding in schools.

The Metiri Group has just issued a report commissioned by Cisco Systems that finds that technology can have significant impacts on student learning outcomes when implemented with fidelity. The report, Technology in Schools: What the Research Says, notes that school organizations must pay "serious attention . . . to leadership development, professional development for teachers, school culture, curricular redesign, and teacher preparation" in order to see the learning benefits of their technology investments. The results are no big surprise for technology advocates, but it is nice to see additional research support for our claims.

Guess what? All of these issues (except teacher preparation) are under the control of school leaders. Now, what are we going to do to help administrators ramp up their technology leadership skills?

You can download the full report or read eSchoolNews’ article.

David Warlick’s recent comments about rural Internet access got me thinking again about an issue I’ve discussed with my students.

I think we need some kind of national rural Internet initiative, similar to the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration during the New Deal era. I also think we need to start thinking about high-speed Internet access as something that’s as essential to communities as water, electricity, and sewer service. I don’t think there’s much disagreement that universal access to information and services on the Internet is going to become increasingly important in the future.

WiMax, EVDO, or other wireless broadband technologies that have long reach seem particularly promising.