Climbing the same mountain
Tuesday, August 27, 2013 at 05:13AM A mountain climber spends weeks on a mountain undergoing terrible conditions, taxing his body and mind to the limit, working as hard as humanly possible. He finally, triumphantly reaches the summit, only to look over his shoulder to see that everyone else in his party climbed a different mountain.
The little parable above is one I often share with librarians, illustrating that a library program has to be working toward the same goals as the rest of its building if it is to be considered vital to a school.
But the same rule, of course, applies to technology departments.
A problem in many districts, my own included, is that technology, curriculum, and professional development have all lived in their own little worlds - each with its own set of goals, objects, budgets, committees, and leaders - for a very long time. To some degree this is justified. Technology plans have parts that fall outside the interest of curriculum - school finance systems and security cameras and even basic infrastructure don't really need to be aligned to what's happening in the revision of the elementary science standards. And PD has responsibility for training teachers in skills that don't involve technology. Imagine that.
Exacerbating this separation is that CTOs often do not have an education background and (warning - over generalization here) tend to be opinionated and ambitious individuals who sort of like ruling over their own little kingdoms/queendoms. This fine if one measures success by evaluating one's technology initiatives by comparing them to the technology initiatives of other schools (the school with the most toys wins!) rather than judging technology's impact on student performance and whole school measures of success.
This seems to be a very propitious time for technology departments to redefine their role in their schools. Rather than being assigned a purely support role (think maintenance and custodial department), technology leaders must find ways to remain on the same mountain as the superintendent, school board, principals, and directors in their districts. Serious 1:1 and BYOD projects demand this redefinition.
A couple years ago, we began:
- Aligning our tech goals with the overall district strategic plan. (The plan is due for an overhaul this year and we will be active participants in the rewrite, invited or not)
- Meeting on a regular basis with the directors of curriculum and professional development to discuss mutual objectives.
- Placing a technology integration specialists on all curriculum writing teams.
- Embedding technology skills in the teacher evaluation process.
Yes, we still write a separate technology plan (state requirement) and annual technology goals that reflect non-curricular areas and infrastructure. But I can envision a day when such a plan is unnecessary - technology is simply a part of a district's strategic plan.
It's most assuredly better for kids when all the adults in a school are on the same mountain-climbing team.
Reader Comments (3)
Well said.
I couldn't agree with you more! Our district was fortunate to hire a new curriculum director this year. She has developed an awesome 4 year curriculum plan that has embedded technology integration, inqury based learning, and PBL. We are also aligning the work of my digital learning coaches to support the new plan WITH job embedded PD. We have become very good friends and I do believe it will help our district move all classrooms forward ( not just those with the savvy teachers).
Hi Jen,
I'm thinking smart curriculum directors are figuring out their success will somewhat technology dependent as well. Let's keep comparing notes!
Have a great Labor Day weekend and start to your school year.
Sweating it out here in Mankato!
Doug