As an administrator, I would ask myself the following questions to guide technology integration:
1. Is the school equipped to handle the additional technology? Technology is a wonderful thing, and needs to be used whenever possible...but if your school doesn't have the infrastructure to support the technology, it simply cannot be used. As you've already read, I went two years in my portable with no wireless Internet and a jungle of cords circulating my walls. When I moved into the school building, I noticed that I had three outlets in my room. Two of them were in a corner, one on a wall. Of course I wanted to reconfigure my room arrangement to fit the need of my students and instruction, so I ended up having to buy a 50 foot extension cord and running it through the ceiling, dropping it down in the center of the room so that it could support my projector, Elmo, and laptop. In older buildings, outlets are few and far between and technology needs power in order to work!
2. Do we have appropriate on-going professional development scheduled to train teachers to use the new technology? In order to use new technology, you must know how to operate it! When integrating technology, it is imperative that on-going professional development is scheduled so that teachers can learn how to use the technology. If the teachers aren't trained, chances are the new technology will collect dust in a closet somewhere.
3. Do we have someone that can help us troubleshoot problems? Technology is wonderful when it works, and not so great when it doesn't. It is important to have someone in the school that is knowledge about the new technology so that they can help teachers troubleshoot problems. As an administrator, I would be sure to attend trainings and do research on the new technology so that I could help answer questions and troubleshoot problems, too.
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