Shared Vision for Instructional Technology | Executive Summary by Anna LoBean

This executive summary is intended to highlight key trends in instructional technology. To

create this executive summary, I have synthesized the following documents:
• ISTE’s essential conditions of student-centered learning;
• At least two recent peer-reviewed articles in the area of learning;
• Technology plans at the school, district, state, and national levels.

ISTE’s Essential Conditions for Effective Technology Use in Schools

Shared Vision: A shared vision includes teachers, support staff, administration, students,
parents, and community to align their vison with the standards. This is essential when the
vision is clearly defined and allows leaders to collect, incorporate, and share input on what
technology tools are needed for long term success. By allowing everyone input this allows for
higher success rates and buy in.

Implementation Planning: When the school plans for building technology infrastructure as well
as evaluating the use of it and providing professional learning and coaching the success rate will
increase. This is essential to make sure the school has the appropriate bandwidth to support
their resources and funding is provided to make sure it can be sustained.

Equitable Access: Schools must ensure that they have robust and reliable resources for all
students to use including language learners, students with disabilities, low-income household,
etc. This is essential to make sure that the learning gaps between students are narrowed and
all students have the same opportunities and are supported in their homes as well.

Prepared Educators: Ensure that educators and leaders know how to use technology and that
tools are aligned with the school vision. This is essential to make sure schools meet the
required digital citizenship set aside from their districts as well as teachers know how to use the
tools and have the knowledge to use the technology effectively.

Skilled and Sufficient Technical Support: Making sure that your school has the proper technical
support and infrastructure is important to ensure the technology can be used to its full
potential. This is essential for schools to have technology leaders or staff that respond quickly
and collaboratively with teachers and students to fix or improve the quality of the products.

High Quality Learning Activities and Content: Making sure that the materials or content
selected is relevant and aligned to the standards and creates an authentic learning experience
that supports the schools vision. This is essential to make sure that the applications are high
quality to ensure that the school is not paying for resources that may not provide the highest
quality of learning.

Ongoing Evaluation: Making sure that there is an ongoing partnership with all stakeholders to
make sure that the school vision is always being met. This is an on-going process that needs to
be frequently visited. This is essential to make sure that once the technology is purchased it is
not outdated and that they are installed quickly. Timelines are essential to help make sure this
process is smooth- larger districts have a hard time with this since there are so many hurdles to
get technology into all the schools in that district.

Recent Peer Reviewed Research on Learning (e.g., constructivist, engaged, technology-

enhanced)

The first research article “It Takes a community to Save $100 Million”, it mentions how we learn
more from each other in an informal way than from training manuals. Training manuals and
basic troubleshooting directions tend to not always fix the problems we have – mainly because
when you have a problem there are multiple problems. We simply learn better from learning
from each other, and the situations people have worked through. Having communities where
people can share their experiences creates engagement, imagination, and alignment.

The second research article “ The Medium is Not the Message” I love how it mentions there are
no mediums that are better than the other – it’s the instructional method that makes the
difference. Fancy new tools are not always the best- they loose their lust and become less
meaningful to our students. I often think oh I need to try to use that, but it is important for me
to stop and analyze the benefits the tool has before jumping on the band wagon! I also like just
because students are “engaged” doesn’t mean they are learning. This important to realize that
we still need to focus on our teaching rather than making everything “fun”.

Shared Vision Readings and Resources]

Synthesis of National, State, and Local Technology Plans

The National Standards mentions important recommendations for technology vison plans. We
need to ensure students and educators have access to the internet and adequate wireless
connectivity. For technology to be successful students need to have at least one source of
internet connection whether that is at home or at school. There needs to be plans in place to
provide infrastructure and funding for the resources to make sure they do not dissolve. Some
of the challenges that still remain is those students that have the tools at school but once they
go home they do not. We need to find a way to bridge that gap and make internet accessible
for all.

At the state level their vision is to maintain all networks, hardware, data, and software tools to
ensure reliable performance as well as availability and secure access. The state plans to partner
with the Department of Administrative Services to establish a wireless aid in connecting to the
state supplied bandwidth. This would be extremely helpful but also scary if they state was ever
hacked which would in turn bring down all of the schools’ connections. The state plans to also
collaborate with districts and states to share digital resources. I strongly believe that would be
incredible for districts that do not have as much funding as others which would allow the state
to provide more for all students!