Who has the power for change?

"So what does the School Board think of all that?"
The last week of June I was in Chicago at ISTE 2018. When I got back, a friend asked me "so what is ISTE"?  I shared with him that ISTE was the International Society for Technology in Education and that each year thousands of educators attend the annual conference. This year it was in Chicago. 

He then asked "so what are they all about?"  I told him that ISTE's vision is that "all educators are empowered to harness technology to accelerate innovation in teaching and learning" and the mission is to "inspire educators worldwide to use technology to innovate teaching and learning, accelerating good practice and solve tough problems in education by providing community, knowledge and the ISTE Standards".  I went on to tell him the ISTE standards is a framework for rethinking education.  

He went on to ask "so what does the school board think of all that?" That question caused me to pause. 

With all the excitement at ISTE this year, connecting with innovators, thought leaders, sharing of instructional practices, the one group not represented in force was the ones who ultimately "own the system" and control the purse strings, Boards of Education, community members and taxpayers. 

In Learning Transformed (Sheninger and Murray 2017) Eric and Tom talk about "Return on Instruction" (ROI).  The thinking is that "when integrating technology, there needs to be an ROI that results in evidence of improved student learning outcomes. (p.87).  I think School Boards, parents, taxpayers and even some educators, continuously ask the question "is technology really giving us a ROI and is it worth the money"? 

The other thought is how effective is technology if it is being used with traditional teaching pedagogy? That reminds me of the Iowa saying "putting lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig".  

Across the United States and globally, embedding technology into instruction and also learning, is making a difference. It is making a difference when the learning is reframed and redesigned from "sit and git" to  connect, collaborate and create.  The big question is why has this not gone to scale? 

Technology Procurement is BIG Business! Technology procurement is BIG business! In an article written for eSchool News in 2015, I pointed out this was a 12 billion dollar a year expenditure. Just think what that dollar amount is today in 2018. 

The Expo Hall at ISTE was AMAZING!  From industry leaders like Google, Apple, Follett, LEGO, Microsoft and Scholastic to cottage level start-ups, vendors shared their products, the benefits for teacher and what the projected ROI to be. For many educators it was like going to Disney's Tomorrowland, for others it was like "this is just how we roll".  

Interesting as well was the "footprint" and visibility of University and College teacher preparation programs in the Expo Hall, extremely disproportioned to the vendors. 

For me the emerging question was what is it the "secret sauce"? What is it the separates the "haves" from the "have nots"?  What is the thinking, conditions and dispositions of Districts that have "stepped through the looking glass" into the 21st century.  What is the thinking, conditions and dispositions of those who have not?

So again it gets back to "what does the School Board think"?