Vol 4 . . . No 1 . . . September, 1993

Contents Page

1. Monthly Comments

2. Barriers to New Technologies, Part One: Staff Balkanization by Bard Williams

3. Barriers to New Technologies, Part One: Staff Balkanization - Reprise by Jamie McKenzie

 

----- Monthly Comments ----

 

The state of Washington is caught in an uncomfortable taxpayers' rebellion which threatens to shut down state funding in November, but technology seems to speed along for now with great enthusiasm and vision. It has been a pleasure to return to the "trenches" in a real school assignment once again as Director of Technology for the Bellingham Schools. We are hopeful that our own voters will pass a $6 million bond program this February to fully network every classroom of our 17 schools and connect us with Internet. I find myself working with a great group of people forming wonderful visions of how they and their students might wish to travel this electronic highway. Each staff is busily completing site plans to translate the district tech plan into building realities. The key questions are staff development and program integration.

Although previously committed to Windows, Dos and various clones, the district sees the various platforms converging and the software becoming difficult to distinguish. As price differences narrow, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain or defend a single vendor policy and each staff finds itself freed to make its choices based upon program, curriculum and software.

 

Barriers to New Technology

Part One: Staff Balkanization

Breaking Down the Barriers

Barriers to New Technology-Part One: Staff Balkanization - Reprise by Jamie McKenzie

Conclusion

Stages of Mastery of Technology*

Survival Stage

Mastery Stage

Impact Stage

Innovation Stage