Can't Seem to Escape the Technology Issues

I had the opportunity this evening to meet with our board and building members of our leadership team. It is an opportunity for board members and administrators to share in a more informal environment and one that the board has initiated. One of the topics of conversation was our Classroom 10 initiative that quickly led to the topic of technology.

The board members heard a variety of issues and concerns related to technology, some that have been expressed before and some that they may not have heard before. They responded with questions and comments expressing concern with the situation as described. If someone had been present with no attachment to our system they would probably be asking who was in charge of this zoo.

As I was listening to the conversation, three things came to mind. First, I was the only one present that had a system context related to this issue. There are others with this same context, but not in the room. It would have been interesting to watch the reaction had they been present. The issues and concerns being expressed are based on personal experience and are real for the individual. Viewing them from this context, the answers and solutions seem simple enough. If they were that simple, I would not be blogging on this topic this evening. We are engaged in what is still comparably new work to ours and other educational systems and the solutions require more than technical tweaks. We have begun to look for adaptive solutions, but they will take time.

This system context leads to my second thought. Those of us with this knowledge have and continue to do a poor job of communication. We have made some changes in the department, but based on the conversation there is a lack of clear understanding of how the pieces fit together. What we thought was appropriate engagement in the planning and implementation was not effective. Back to the drawing board.

Lastly, it became clear that there is a sense of urgency developing with those in the room. This is welcome and has not been present. The combination of having money through a technology levy for purchases and training, seeing the potential for some of this "stuff" to truly impact learning, and the third party (Meteri) audit of our buildings and system has resulted in some creative tension. We know from experience the importance of urgency in creating and sustaining successful change so we need to take advantage of this opportunity and respond to
the concerns.

The stakes are high and the potential is great resulting in a wonderful learning opportunity. On the agenda for Thursday as our combined tech groups meet for the second time to move toward forming a team we will need to spend some time discussing this opportunity.