A district or school can organize itself for the learning and technology planning process, and identify who may serve on each committee, and assign tasks to each committee member. If committee members are to be able to accomplish their tasks, they need to be provided with crucial information.
Some of the most important information includes the most current research on technology and learning and information about the existing conditions of technology and learning in the school community. The planning committee, also, will need to acquire a specialized knowledge base in order to make sound decisions about the technology infrastructure, resource allocations, professional development, and successful systemic changes.
The most important tasks of the planning committee are defining a vision, establishing goals, and defining a strategic plan that will result in a blueprint for implementation. An early task is determining where your community would like to be and where it actually is in the technology implementation process at this time. Defining the implementation plan is the essence of planning efforts.
The implementation plan must provide all involved, including community members, with the details of what is to be done and why. The implementation plan also must specify when the work will occur, what order components of the plan will be implemented, and who will do the work. Finally, the committee needs to determine how the efforts will be evaluated and refined to obtain maximum benefit with limited resources.
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The districts or schools, who participated as demonstration sites, organized themselves for learning through technology planning according to the following criteria. These participants first defined who served on each committee and the tasks of each committee. Most of them used a structure of subcommittees that did much of the work. In some cases, the membership of the subcommittees was limited to members of the full committee.
In other cases, additional people with specialized expertise supplemented the membership of the subcommittees. The general consensus was that the following people and considerations were critical when establishing a district-wide planning committee charged with designing a plan to implement technology and engaged learning methods into the curriculum:
1. At least one person who is an advocate for special populations;
2. At least one person who has responsibility for staff development;
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3. At least one person who has responsibility for technology support;
4. Attention should be given to membership that is representative of the populations in the district; and
5. Attention should be given to gender balance.
Any plan must have the support of the administration and the teachers. The support of key administrators and influential teachers is so crucial that until these two groups provide significant support, virtually no plan can be implemented. Administrators are especially crucial for facilitating systemic planning. Teachers are essential in designing and actually implementing a plan that affects the classroom. Teachers and administrators are most responsive to three powerful reasons for incorporating technology into schools. Those reasons are to:
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1. Help teachers and administrators become more productive and make their work load more manageable;
2. Help students become well and more efficient learners;
3. Help prepare students with necessary technology literacy and higher-order thinking skills for their future.