An Offer You Can't Refuse
The Case of the Incredible Shifting Universe
Who Are You?
District Technology Coordinator
The Scenario:
Your Superintendent has gone to a state meeting where she saw a presentation by the XYZ Software company. XYZ has promised your Superintendent that if your district buys XYZ's integrated learning system software and has every student using it for a minimum of 40 minutes a day then aggregate reading scores will rise by 2 grade levels for every student within one year. If this isn't so, then XYZ will refund the software's purchase price. Low reading scores have historically been a problem in your district, and so if it works, XYZ would be an amazing thing. The problem is, the software will cost your district about $100,000 (which is about 90% of your entire technology budget) and in order to get every student using XYZ for 40 minutes a day, you will need to "repurpose" almost every computer in the district for XYZ use. Further, the entire focus of technology staff development will shift to teaching teachers how to manage XYZ...and your staff will have to devote themselves to learning and managing this new system. XYZ has paid the way for the Superintendent and a "team" of district people (you, a few teachers, a principal, etc.) to visit a model district using XYZ. This thing is moving fast and you are seeing your job (and those of your staffs') change before your eyes.
Your Challenges:
What are you going to do? Will you go with the change...and if so, how will you manage it? Can you stop or slow down this "process"? How can you; and is it appropriate for you to try?
Think About:
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Last updated, December 29, 1998