It’s the first day of school here in Ames, Iowa. In past years, I’ve posted the following checklist, wondering if schools have made any improvement since the previous fall.
This year you have two ways to participate…
- Download this checklist in Excel. Enter the name of your school organization and fill in your ratings (editable areas are in yellow). Click on the Chart tab at the bottom, then print. Disseminate broadly!
- Participate in the 2-minute online survey. Fill in your ratings and click on the Submit button. See the aggregated results and compare them to 2008 (125 responses).
Feel free to use and distribute the Excel file and/or the survey link as desired. If you would like to conduct this online survey within your school organization, contact me about hosting a version just for you (at no cost). Hope you made some real progress since last year!
So, exact same checklist as in “past years”?
Sadly no we are way behind on a lot of these items.
What makes this checklist even more important during difficult budget times is that technology purchasing decisions often seem to be seen as discretionary by those with their fingers on the purse-strings.
An example: Our school has had a schoolwide Voicethread subscription for the past few years. We’re ditching it this year because “we don’t have the cash.”
It’s interesting that VT—an easy and approachable tool that makes it possible for teachers to engage their students in collaborative conversations about provocative, content related questions—is the first item on the budget chopping block.
I wonder sometimes whether district and school leaders see technology as something nice to have, but only when we’re flush with cash.
Do you see that kind of attitude in district leadership offices, Scott?
Bill
Sure, of course. Part of the ongoing marginalization of technology rather than its incorporation into the core of everything we do (like in the real world)..
I’m interested in learning from any and all schools/districts that rate themselves highly on question #3.