Dive Brief:

• The Consortium for School Networking’s Framework for School System Technology Success can serve as a roadmap for school leaders preparing to make a digital shift, outlining best practices and offering tips across 10 implementation categories to properly prepare for a new digital environment.
• Jean Tower, director of media and digital learning for Massachusetts’ Needham Public Schools, writes for EdTech: Focus on K-12 that CoSN's framework encourages schools to start with a vision and develop long-range metrics, policies and professional development plans from there.
• It also urges a focus on stakeholder relationships, recommends strengthening and aligning infrastructure to support digital technology plans and endorses the creation of efficient systems for information and data management.

Dive Insight:

Districts across the country are somewhere on a continuum in the shift toward a digital environment that is no longer considered optional. One of the priorities of the Obama administration was to improve Wi-Fi access in the nation’s schools and send taxpayer dollars to fund this transition. With better internet access in schools, more teachers are free to embrace open educational resources and replace traditional textbooks with digital alternatives.

Early on, many schools pushed too quickly to get devices in the hands of students. Now, districts are being more conscientious about building out infrastructure to prepare for those devices and offering teachers appropriate professional development to ensure the devices actually cause a shift in teaching and learning. These are two of the most important steps in introducing new technology into classrooms.