Bringing Urban Schools into the Information Age: Planning for Technology vs. Technology Planning

This paper describes the many pitfalls that school technology planning processes can engender, and presents an improved model for planning for the use of technology in K-12 schools. There is a need for such a model because current school technology planning efforts are often devoid of context, and lead to poorly conceived arrangements of technology that are not supportive of learning goals. The new model is called “Planning for Technology” as opposed to the more common “technology planning” in order to emphasize the secondary nature of technology in relation to other considerations, such as curriculum and pedagogy. The model we present is described in the context of a case study conducted in an urban K-8 school that was attempting to make more productive use of their existing technology, and to more effectively plan for future technology.