[podcast]
Have you ever stopped to consider “Who is driving the technology agenda in our school?”
This short video helps you understand how technology companies can set the learning agenda in your school.
Video Highlights:
0:00:00.6 Story about Bill and his horse and what this has to do with your technology plans
0:00:36.2 Why you need to be aware of who is driving the direction of your schools Technology agenda
0:01:39.9 How technology companies can drive your school’s technology agenda
0:02:01.6 Who developed the concept of BYOD (Bring your own device)?
0:04:07.2 What you can do to remain in control of your schools BYOD plans
To watch the entire training video, and to receive more resources just like this, join the Unlimited Support Community
Transcript: Who is Driving Your Technology Agenda
One of my favourite stories is about this guy by the name of Bill and Bill is a man, he’s galloping down the street on his horse and one of his friends yells at to him “Hey Bill, where are you going?” And so Bill looks out over his shoulders as he’s hurdling down the street and he says “I don’t know, ask the horse.”
And you know this story reminds me of a lot of school’s technology plans and their BYOD plans that if you are in charge of developing ICT in your school, an interesting question to ask yourself is this “Who is driving the technology agenda in our school?” Quite often what happens is we can end up on this technology plan, we can end up on this desire to create a better learning environment for our students and a better teaching environment for our teachers but we don’t quite understand who is driving the agenda.
[bctt tweet=”This is an interesting Blog post on Who is driving the technology agenda in our school?”]
We know that we are hurdling towards some sort of a result we know, there’s some where that we’ve got to get to but we are not necessary in control. Technology is kind of like the horse and the horse is taking us but we don’t know exactly where we’re going to end up. So I wanted to just take a moment to look at this concept of who’s driving the agenda, the technology agenda in your school.
Now there’s several agenda or several people that can run an agenda in our school and as we’ve been working a lot with schools over the – especially the last year, we’ve been able to dig down into some of these agendas and then find out where they actually lead us.
So one of the first places or one of the first things that can drive a technology agenda is actually technology companies. Now one of the great things that companies can do for us, the technology companies is that they create this sense of a feeling, like you always need to find the latest and greatest technology to achieve your outcomes. Now here is an interesting question for you which you might want to consider. Out of this concept of bring your own device, where did this really start? Where did the concept and where did the terminology come from, bring your own device? Just stop and have a think about that for a second. Where did that came from? BYOD, Bring Your Own Device.
Do you know the whole concept of BYOD or Bring Your Own Device was actually developed by technology companies? Were you aware of that? Not just bring your own device in the business world but bring your own device in technology. Now I get to sit in a lot of meetings at big technology companies and generally the head will come in and I’ll start to talk and they all start with a similar story, you know they’ll say “Well my student is in X, Y, Z school and they’re in this year” you know I’ve really come to understand the power of technology and how this can really differentiate my child’s education. So I’ll talk about this with great passion about why they’re in it and I’ll say, and this is why we are in this market. We are here to make a difference with the next generation.
We are here to drive change in education. We believe that we can deliver a far better education system by using technology. And then I’ll go and say now this year, the goal is to ship X amount of devices. Now as you sit there and you listen to that, knowing that the whole concept of BYOD really was delivered and developed by companies to sell more computers, that actually makes sense doesn’t it? The more devices they can get into the hands of students, the more devices they get to sell and so on.
[bctt tweet=”You should always think twice when you hear someone say ‘We’re here to drive change in education’ Here’s why”]
Now it’s not all bad, it’s not a bad thing that the BYOD was developed by companies to try and sell more devices because what is happening is that schools that are strategic in their thinking that understand that this is where this agenda is being driven from, well then we can leverage this enormously in your school and you can create perfect opportunities to partner with these companies to get what you need in terms of education. So I’ve seen some schools who have partnered with technology companies that have been able to tap into professional development budgets that weren’t necessarily there beforehand.
They found ways to develop support systems, insurance systems and so on because at the end of the day, the technology company wants to sell technology and the school wants to re-enable the students to have technology, but technology that works. So if you’re thinking and understanding this concept, then one of the greatest things you can do is leverage this to the best of your ability to make the best purchasing decisions you can.
The full version of this video and transcript is available in our Unlimited Support Community. Register now to access our entire library of resources, plus join the online community of teachers.
