Module 4: The Foundation for a Technology Use Plan
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In this section:
You'll begin to apply the concepts we discussed in the Connect section. We're going to identify stakeholders, and plan some specific ways to find out about their diverse visions.
- Finding Your Heroes (a.k.a. Your Technology Team)
- Finding Your Stakeholders
- Questioning Stakeholders
- How to Question?
- Sorting It All Out
- Alternative Idea
Finding Your Heroes (a.k.a. Your Technology Team)
Your technology team or steering committee are the people who you'll work with to design and implement the technology use plan. Picking your team is extremely important. Remember the knights of the round table, each with different skills and weaknesses, but all strong of heart and full of passion for the Holy Grail. You need to assemble a team of women and men to fill your technology round table.
A key factor in picking your team, also called a "steering committee", is making sure there is representation of key stakeholder groups. Keep it small. It might consist of an administrator, a teacher/union person, a parent, a student, and a staff person, with perhaps a local business person involved as well. Make sure everyone knows this is a working committee, not an advisory board. You don't want to be stuck conducting dozens of interviews or analyzing hundreds of surveys by yourself!
Finding Your Stakeholders
Below is a list of possible stakeholders. First read through them and pick ones that have a stake in your particular situation and then list their names, or positions. Next, briefly describe their role in contributing to the vision of technology in your district.
Teachers:Parents:
Students:
Technology leaders (Technology committee members, or teachers who have shown interest in using technology in their classrooms):
School board members:
Experts in technology and curriculum:
Site administrators (principles, vice principles, etc.):
Technical support (facilities managers, maintenance, etc.):
Union representatives:
Local business and industry:
Service clubs:
Government agencies:
Local colleges and universities:
Others:
Questioning Stakeholders
Before you meet with, survey, or contact stakeholders, write down some questions you want to ask them. You are seeking information and thoughts as well as how they feel about the whole idea in the first place. Questioning as many stakeholders as possible is an excellent way of achieving buy-in.
Below is a list of stakeholders with examples of questions you might want to ask them to elicit their vision for technology in the schools. This is designed to broaden your thinking of who really has something at stake and what they have to offer. For example, many people forget about the role that facilities and maintenance workers play, and these are the very people who are essential to install the technology and keep it working!
Exercise:
This exercise is the basis for your first graded assignment
for this course. For additional information on the grading of the
assignment, be sure to check the assignment overview
and the assignment rubric.
In order to practice writing and asking stakeholders questions we're going to have everybody pair up and try it. Here's what you're going to do:
- Your instructor will pair you up with a partner from this
class.
- Contact your partner by email. Ask them which stakeholder
they most closely resemble, or want to "play." For example, if
your partner is a teacher, they would play..well..I guess...
teacher! If your partner doesn't seem to fit any of the
stakeholder descriptions, have them play a parent.
- Use the questions below to spark your thoughts, and draft
at least six questions for your partner to answer.
- Post these questions on the EDTEC 596 Newsgroup,
Vision Discussion. Do not email the questions.
- Email your partner when you have posted the questions and
ask them to answer them on the Newsgroup (again, not by email,
so that everyone in the class can be inspired by your
magnificent questions--and their insightful answers).
- Read the Newsgroup for your own questions and answers. Post a short message that chronicles any trials and tribulations, things you learned or realized, or problems you had with the exercise.
Examples of questions for..
Teachers:
- "How do you feel about using technology in your own classroom?"
- "What do you think your classroom will look like in 5 years?"
Parents:
- "If you could imagine your child working and learning in a high tech classroom, what would it look like?"
- "What are your biggest concerns about technology in schools?"
Students:
- "Describe a time at school when you really learned a lot using computers?"
- "How do you feel about being taught more about computers in school?"
Technology leaders (Technology committee members, or teachers who use technology in their classrooms):
- "If you could wave a magic wand and transform your classroom with technology, what would it look like?"
- "What's your biggest concern about using more technology in your classroom?"
School board members:
- "When you visit a classroom, what technology-based activities would you want to see students doing?"
- "If you read a newspaper report about technology use in our district, what would you want the headline to read?"
Experts in technology and curriculum:
- "What will teachers be doing differently then than they are now?"
- "From your experience, what is the worst thing that can happen from integrating technology in our schools?"
Site administrators:
- "When you envision technology at work in your school, what does it look like? What are teachers doing? What are students doing?"
- "If you were to overhear a parent talking about technology use in your school, what would they be saying?"
Technical support (Facilities managers, maintenance, etc.):
- "With the current rate of growth of technology in our schools, what will your department look like in five years?"
- "Do you have any ideas or concerns about the increasing use of technology in our schools?"
Union representatives:
- "How does a great teacher use technology in their classroom?"
- "In an ideal world, what kind of support would a technology-using teacher have?"
Local college and university technology coordinators:
- "What are some of the best examples of good technology using schools in our area?"
- "What does the research indicate about trends in school technology?"
How To Question?
How you talk with stakeholders depends on who they are, how much access you have to them, and the extent to which personal contact is an important element, both with respect to eliciting real input about visions and for soliciting "buy in." Interviews, focus groups, and informal, one-on-one contact are the most personal, but also take the most time on your part. Surveys and phone calls tend to be less so, but you can contact lots more people in a limited amount of time. Large, group meetings, if well planned, can be both personal and efficient.
Interviews
Interviews are very useful for experts who may not otherwise offer
information, or for key stakeholders--leaders of stakeholder
groups. Take them to lunch, or just arrange a one-on-one meeting
to "get their take" on the technology vision.
Interviewing someone who has been involved in creating a technology plan in another school or district can be very enlightening as well. Ask them particularly about how they went about establishing a shared vision and how they got the different players to buy into it. Ask them about the consequences of either getting, or not getting, buy-in from stakeholders. Also ask them about the best and worst things they remember from the experience. You may learn a lot from tapping into memorable moments in their process.
Informal one-on-one
One-on-one meetings are good for getting people who have important
things to contribute, like facilities workers, but who might not
readily respond to surveys, meetings, or interviews. To reach
these folks you may have to physically walk up to them in a
hallway or building and just engage them in a conversation about
school technology. Then, if they're interested, you can bring them
into a focus group or schedule a formal interview.
Presentations
Presentations are primarily for district leaders and other "higher
ups" who appreciate you coming to them with the germ of a specific
vision, showing them what it is, and then asking them what they
think about it. You may also use this with groups like the Parent
Teacher Association to let them know what other school districts
are doing.
Focus groups
Focus groups are great for small groups of teachers, concerned
parents and students. Keep them small and start out by
brainstorming, then try and focus the ideas down to specific
lists.
Phone calls
Phone calls are inferior to face-to-face contact in their buy-in
and consensus building effectiveness, but they are better then
nothing. When you call people, be sure to have your questions
written down and have paper and pencil ready.
Large Groups
Organize a community wide event in the school gym or all-purpose
room to brainstorm en mass. Provide paper and big pens and keep it
short and moving at an brisk pace. You could organize the event
around a pot-luck dinner, brainstorming and dance, depending on
the culture in your community.
Assembling large groups of stakeholders is the hardest form of vision building, but at the same time it can be a very effective and efficient way to find consensus and create buy-in in one fell swoop (isn't it a bummer how the hardest stuff in life is usually the most valuable!).
Surveys
Mailed surveys are a good way of reaching lots of people you can't
get to in groups or personally. And don't forget e-mail! It can
provide a very efficient way of sending out and getting back
surveys--IF people have e-mail accounts and use them! Just
remember to e-mail the person first and ask them if they
would be willing to answer a few questions before you send the
survey. This is the tool you'll use with your partner for this
assignment.
If you decide on a survey, do some interviewing and one-on-one meetings first to get an idea of the kinds of questions--and answers--you should include in the survey. Surveys are best for verifying what you already know or suspect, not for finding out what the broad issues are in the first place.
Sorting It All Out
Eventually you're going to have to pull all the diverse ideas you gathered into a single, coherent vision for your district and write it down! That means getting together with your steering committee to combine and group goals, prioritize them, draft, proofread, and edit them, and so forth, in an effort to reflect the sense of what various stakeholders are getting at in their diverse visions.
Here, too, get feedback from the important stakeholder groups on your steering committee. Make sure everyone can "live with" the vision, even if it isn't everything they wanted. And remember, it is this vision that will drive the rest of your planning process. If it isn't in the vision statement, the goals you've set up for yourself, it isn't in the plan!
Alternative Idea
Another overlooked, but very rewarding activity, is to take tours of local businesses and universities that have integrated technology into their facilities. This is a nice way of creating involvement with local business and academic leaders and making them aware of your existence and plans, while at the same time gratifying them by acknowledging their expertise. Try and contact someone as high up in the business or university as you can to ask for a tour of their facilities. During the tour remember to ask as many questions about successes and problems as you can, as well as their opinions of your plan to integrate technology into the schools, schools that most likely are educating their children.
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Page authors: Bob Hoffman and Caleb Clark
URL: edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/EDTEC596/session4/apply.html
Last updated: January 30, 1998