An administrator's core responsibility is to set a vision and plan for his or her school or district's success. What about a technology plan? Explore how to shape your school or district technology plan to align with academic and instructional goals and standards, integrate it into other school or district plans, and move technology to a prominent place on the district’s policy agenda. To help assess your current technology use and chart a course toward increased technology implementation, consult the EdTech Locator.

Related Resources

Find free webinars, chats, and resources on implementing technology in various aspects of education through the Schools Moving Up website, an initiative of WestEd.

2005 District Salute Videos: Clarke County School District (Video)

In 2005, NSBA acknowledged the technology achievements of three school districts. This resource is a video about the efforts of one of the three honorees, Cooke County School District in Georgia, to integrate technology. The video features interviews with school administrators and teachers about their recent experiences.

National School Boards Association

21st Century Learning: What the National Education Technology Plan Means for You

The plan, released in January 2005, is a blueprint for how school leaders can create classrooms and schools where technology helps students thrive and prepares them for today’s technology-saturated workplace. This special report lays out a road map for following the plan’s recommendations in your schools.

American School Board Journal

7 Things You Should Know About Cyberinfrastructure

Cyberinfrastructure merges technology, data, and human resources into a seamless whole. It integrates high-performance computing, remote sensors, large data sets, middleware, and sophisticated applications. It also helps faculty and students share expertise, tools, and facilities to generate knowledge.

A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning (PDF)

Although many have shown enthusiasm for online courses and online learning, teachers, administrators, and other school and district staff oftentimes do not know what to do online or how to implement it. This primer provides helpful advice for educational professionals in developing and advancing online learning.

North American Council for Online Learning

Access and Equity in Online Classes and Virtual Schools (PDF)

The focus of this Issues Brief is to increase the awareness of the importance to students, teachers, and administrators of making online courses accessible to meet your legal obligations. This Issues Brief references civil rights legislation in the United States, but the issues of access and equity are relevant to all online programs.

Access, Adequacy, and Equity in Education Technology

This report examines the state of educational technology resources and support in public schools across the country, as reported by classroom teachers and instructional assistants.

Art Education 2.0

Learn to explore ways of using technology to promote effective art education practices, encourage cultural exchanges and joint creative work, and support artistic projects, curricular activities, and professional development opportunities with Art Education 2.0. Discussion forum topics include taking art to the hearing impaired and computer art programs for middle school students.

Assistive Technology in K-12 Schools

This resource provides a range of information on assistive technology, assessment and selection of tools, examples of best practice and classroom success stories, and a list of built-in access features for various operating systems.

Assistive Technology Policy Checklist

The items on this checklist can be used as a framework for guiding the development of assistive technology policies. The checklist also can be adapted for use in analyzing existing assistive technology policies or obtaining feedback from stakeholders about the appropriateness of such policies.

NATRI

Assistive Technology Services in Shawnee Mission School District: Shawnee, Kansas

This brief case study describes how one school district moved away from a referral-based system for student assistive technology needs to a student-centered, team-based solution.

Learning Point Associates

Bellingham Public Schools Technology Plan

This example of a technology plan from Washington's Bellingham Public School system shows how the district is aligning instructional goals with technology, professional development, and evaluation. The technology plan begins with a vision for student learning, a statement of beliefs, and a rationale for creating and continuing to build networked learning environments. It continues with a detailed explanation of professional development strategies, benchmarks and timelines for learning goals, long-term funding strategies, and measures for assessment and evaluation.

Bellingham Public Schools

Best Practices: Downers Grove School District 58

District 58's teamwork serves nearly 5,000 students in grades K-8 living in Downers Grove and portions of Oak Brook, Westmont, and Woodridge, IL. Collaboration across IT, AT, and other departments has helped ensure that assistive devices and software are available to special needs students, and that special education teachers have appropriate technology training. Over the years, the level of collaboration has increased as AT devices are integrated more frequently into Individual Education Plans.

Accessible Technologies for All Students

Best Practices: Macomb Intermediate School District

Collaboration at the intermediate school district level is as important to efficient operations and student achievement as it is at the local level. Intermediate school districts can support local efforts by providing professional development opportunities, amplifying technological and instructional support, and managing pilot projects that renew and improve curriculum and instruction. IT and AT collaboration in the Macomb Intermediate School District is providing all three of these services through Begin With ME!, a project that illustrates the value of shared vision, embedded professional development, and constant communication.

Accessible Technologies for All Students

Building a Partnership for Success

This article tells the story of one district with a wide area network (WAN) in place for administrative purposes, but no such infrastructure for the instructional side. As a result, teachers and administrators were forced to shut their computer systems down, unplug them from jacks for the administrative WAN, plug them into jacks that connected to instructional servers, and reboot their machines. In this district, a superintendent and technology director collaborated to connect the instructional needs of a district with its technology, while creating a model for other superintendents to cultivate top technology talent.

Scholastic

Closing the Gap: AT Resources for Children and Adults with Special Needs

Closing The Gap highlights hardware and software products appropriate for people with special needs, and explains how this technology is being implemented in education, rehabilitation, and vocational settings around the world.

CoSN Ed Tech Resources

Search The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) site for products and services to support and nurture leadership development, advocacy, coalition building, and awareness of emerging technologies.

The Consortium for School Networking

CoSN Small District Technology Leadership Wiki

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) is a voice for K-12 education leaders who use technology strategically to improve teaching and learning. The objective of this wiki is to provide a space for collaborative work around topics regarding effective planning for and use and implementation of technology.

Creating a Tech-Infused Culture

This article provides 22 tips on how to effectively integrate technology into schools and school culture.

techLEARNING

Creating an Effective Virtual School Program

This article explains how administrators can turn their ideas into reality and implement virtual schools. The article lays out the initial choices that must be made, and delves into important topics such as accountability and finding the right teachers for virtual schools. 

District Administration

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