Effective district and schoolwide implementation of technology begins with strong leadership and grows through ongoing collaboration, developing partnerships, and facilitating professional learning opportunities. District and school-level leadership teams are encouraged to make a plan for implementing technology and develop an ongoing process for monitoring and evaluating systemic change. This plan should be grounded in building the collective capacity of all school staff and engaging multiple stakeholders, such as parents, to work collaboratively with the team.
Research to Practice
Implementing technology effectively requires more than delegating a technology plan to the chief technology or information officer. Just having access to technology, hardware, or software does not impact learning. Rather there must be a team across all levels of the education system in your district or school working towards a shared goal of technology implementation. To reach this goal, technology leaders need personal experience and an understanding of how to integrate technology throughout the curriculum to improve learning. Once your leadership teams are established, key staff at the district and school level can play an instrumental and effective role.
See it in Action
Learn how Indiana’s Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (BCSC) staff collaborated with community leaders and outside organizations to embed UDL principles into all of their initiatives, policies, and procedures, resulting in improved teaching and learning across the district.
Action Steps
Identify your core leadership team
- Convene a team that includes the principal, lead teachers, specialist personnel, school board members, superintendents, assistant superintendents for curriculum and instruction, technology personnel, special education and special program staff, parents, and community members to leverage technology to enhance teaching and learning.
- Define the goals for the leadership team that include gathering data to drive decisions, shaping the vision and establish short- and long term goals, ensuring access to professional learning opportunities that guide the integration of technology throughout the curriculum, and developing a continuous evaluation process.
- Ensure that staff of the leadership team has the time necessary to complete its work and collaborate with key stakeholders.
- Develop a communication plan and schedule to facilitate ongoing progress updates to all stakeholders.
- Make information available through announcements on district and school websites, maintain continuous communication with school staff through regular e-mails, and provide regular updates to parents and community stakeholders through the school newsletter.
Plan your outreach and build a community
- Engage stakeholders early in the process to establish “buy-in” from the beginning. Cast your net widely to involve both internal stakeholders (such as teachers, librarians, students, technology support personnel, curriculum directors, school board members, and support staff) and external stakeholders (such as parents, guardians, the media, businesses, colleges, and universities).
- Mobilize people and resources by developing a targeted outreach and marketing plan that aligns with external stakeholders, including text messages, newsletters, and school and district websites. Use technology to establish effective feedback loops.
- Seek input from a diverse team of stakeholders to adopt and communicate clear goals for teaching, leading, and learning that are facilitate by technology.
TIP: Plan a regular meeting time with the core team and don’t deviate from it! Making sure the time is set on the schedule and can be planned upon months ahead will ensure other priorities don’t interfere.
Supporting Materials
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Implementing Universal Design for Learning With Accessible Technology to Meet the Needs of All Learners
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Technology Implementation Strategies that Work!
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2017 National Education Technology Plan Update