The leaders of all organizations take steps to protect them from liabilities and damage resulting from the inappropriate use of IT systems. At the highest levels, the organization’s governing body (school board are generally responsible for adopting policy) will adopt policies to protect the organization by ensuring they comply with relevant laws and regulations, and Read More
Category: Leadership
#edtech for #edleaders: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been law in the United States since 1998. The intent of the law is to protect the privacy and the personal information of children, thus is requires the publishers of web sites that collect user information to have parental consent for those under 13 years of age. Read More
On Innovation in Organizations
The diffusion of innovations has been studied in both formal and informal populations. Among the examples that Rogers used often in his books were farmers. Innovations in farming practice tend to diffuse through social systems of farmers who grow similar crops in similar environments, and adoption rates are affected by many both market factors and Read More
Another Take on Wicked and Tame Problems
In the 1970’s two professors of planning from California published ana important paper in which they defined “tame” and “wicked” problems. While each can be challenging, the two are differentiated by the how we approach problem and judge if they have been solved. Technology problems are typically tame problems, while teaching is a wicked one. Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been law in the United States since 2000. The intent of the law is to protect the privacy and the personal information of children. In general, this is the law used by social media and other companies that restrict access to their platforms to individuals under 13 Read More
#edtech for #edleaders On Network Permissions
IT professionals know the danger of using computers when logged on with an account that has administrator permissions. When logged on with an administrator account, users have access to controls to change configurations, install software, and manage other users. All of these have potential to be set improperly. Most IT professionals have two accounts; they Read More
Layers of Educational Technology
This comes from Technology in Schools: Its Not Like this in Business, the book I recently released under a Creative Commons license. When looking at information technology in schools, we can break it into five levels (see table 1). As one proceeds from “IT Systems” to “Students and Teachers Using IT for Teaching Tasks,” each Read More
Comparing IT and Education
When framing a problem, we define what we believe its cause to be along with the conditions that will indicate the problem has been solved. When attempting to solve problems, we take actions to reduce its effects and to prevent it from returning. When working with IT in schools, it becomes obvious there are differences Read More
Thinking about IT Professionals and Technology in Schools
This is part of the introduction to my book Technology in Schools: It’s Not Like This in Business which was recently released under CC-BG-NC-SA. “The technology systems installed in schools support all many educational and operational functions.. These are seriously complex systems. In the vocabulary of IT professionals, they are enterprise systems (or perhaps business Read More
On Supporting Teachers
Computers intruded into the world of education starting in the 1970’s. Sure, “intrusion” may not be the appropriate verb, but the arrival of the devices meant educators, administrators, staff, and students were forced into new ways of teaching and learning and managing the institution’s operations. New infrastructure was added to buildings, new personnel had to Read More