Open Options | Needs & goals

Technology for learning
Limits

Technology for learning

The goals should be effective learning environments & increased student achievement.

With good planning and implementation, technology can support learning, assessment, administration, and/or communication. Technology should not be deployed for its own sake. A good tech plan is formal, clear, and broad. The plan should fit with the needs, goals, and capabilities of the school (e.g. improve reading skills, use the Internet to enrich curricula).

Goals, not brands or boxes, should be paramount.

Using existing resources and expertise are important for a good tech plan. Schools need to reuse and expand existing solutions to build capacity over time, rather than discard everything and start from scratch. Such capacity includes hardware, software, integrated systems, and the skills and enthusiasm of staff. Open source will require new expertise, and some solutions include significantly different architecture. (e.g. A school may want to replace a lab of stand-alone desktop computers running Microsoft Windows with networked Linux thin clients.) The attractive advantages of open source must be tempered with wise spending.

Some schools already pay for more technology than they need. Many users probably don't use the numerous features of programs like Microsoft Word. The open source community offers a variety of free solutions for Web browsing, email, and basic productivity. Many open source solutions run on Microsoft Windows or Apple Macintosh. With either proprietary or open source software schools should teach thinking and technology literacy, not dependence on specific programs or brands.

What technology do you actually need to support learning goals?
Are you trying to support advanced curriculum in technology?

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Limits

Technology can only be part of the solution.

Technology should solve more problems than it creates. Schools have limited resources so technology may not always be the best expenditure. For example, time and other resources might be better spent on reducing class size, increasing course offerings, or supporting extracurriculars. The savings from open source may provide more resources for these other worthy goals, but any savings won't be certain until after migration. Resources should be spent pragmatically with a clear sense of what technology can accomplish and how the tech plan fits in the larger vision for the school.

The plan should clarify priorities because you can't "do it all."

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Open Options is a product of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These materials are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. The following acknowledgment is requested on materials which are reproduced: Developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon.

This Web site was developed and maintained by the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium. The federal funding for the regional technology consortia program ended on September 30, 2005, and no further updates are planned unless additional funding becomes available. However, much of the content is still useful and NWREL will continue to provide access to this site to support educators and to meet its own technical assistance needs.