| Maximizing The Educational ROI Of Your District's Technology Program |  |
| This presentation discusses how to determine and maximize the ROI for technology implementations. |  |
| Gauging Technology: Costs And Benefits (PDF) | |
| This article offers strategies for calculating technology costs and assessing value. It stresses that the CTO needs to know the costs associated with technology, they need to understand the consequences of tech purchases, and they need to be able to measure the benefits of techn so that they can make informed decisions. | |
| Does Technology Pay? Investing Wisely Takes Discipline | |
| This article notes the importance of identifying and tracking the specific changes that a district may be making, to see if the district is getting a high return on it's investment. The author talks about the fact that technology needs to add value - it has to do something new, and it has to do something better. The author also discusses the difficulties faced when trying to measure ROI, and some important points to think about before investing in new technology. At the end of the article, there are links to additional ROI resources. | |
| The Learning Return On Our Educational Technology Investment | |
| This resource is a paper for people who want to learn aobut how to make their technological investments wisely. It summarizes research and draws out implications for getting a higher return on your technological investment. | |
| Dear Public: Can We Talk? | |
| This article identifies some key worries that many people are experiencing about public education. The authors then discuss "authentic engagement" - substantive give and take between those who have a vested interest in the decisions being made. Authentic engagement is an alternative to traditional approaches used for engagment in public education, which the authors believe is an expert-driven process. This article provides an approach to authentic engagement, as well as examples. | |
| Community Engagement | |
| Chapter 5 of this report provides general information on what good community engagement looks like, and then details many case studies where districts have engaged the community using many different technologies and methods. Also provides a list of resources and sites at the end. | |
| The Business/Education Partnership Forum | |
| The Business/Education Partnership Forum is a resource for anyone involved with or interested in building successful partnerships between business and education. The Forum offers a directory of resources, list of organizations active in the field, and regular updates of news and announcements through its free monthly e-newsletter. | |
| Community/School Partnerships: A National Survey (PDF) | |
| This survey offers insights into how school/community partnerships are structured, and what kind of relationships schools and districts have established with external stakeholders. | |
| Guiding Principles For Business And School Partnerships | |
| This is a resource that is designed to "help educators and business leaders develop relationships that support mutual goals and that offers long-term, sustainable benefits." The document includes the guiding principals and case studies. | |
| What Works? Seven Strategies For Success In School Business Partnerships | |
| This tool takes the user through "7 strategies" of creating successfull school/business partnerships,and puts focus on what has worked in examples. CTO's can get tips and ideas for many of the 7 strategies. The website also identfies best practices through case studies, "Success tips" in the areas of program development, partners, communication, evaluation, and samples, and it provides examples of potential barriers and how to overcome them. | |
| Crafting Service Level Agreements, Part 2 | |
| Two school technologists offer advice and strategies for crafting successful service level agreements. | |
| 14 Tips For Negotiating Software Agreements | |
| A short article that provides information on how to successfully negotiate contracts with software vendors. | |
| Smart Budgeting (PDF) | |
| "We have to get smarter with our technology purchases," says Sally Bair, a district technology facilitator. "We aren’t going to keep seeing those huge increases in funding that we saw in the 1990s." | |
| Smart Budgeting With Total Cost Of Ownership (PDF) | |
| At the advent of the 21st century, schools are devoting more and more financial and staff resources to incorporating technology into the classroom to support teaching, learning and the management of school business. But as schools purchase computers and link them together in local and wide-area networks, totaling the dollars spent on hardware is merely the beginning of the total dollars needed for the effective use of the technology purchases. And it is but one small part of the expenses schools can expect in subsequent years if they are going to effectively use those technology-based resources. | |
| From TCO To TVO (PDF) | |
| In the business world, there is a temptation to judge value by only examining profit and loss. However, such attempts do not take into account the multiple facets of any technical solution to a business challenge -- for example, failure to set the proper goals for the technology intervention or judging the value based on inflated expectations. Similarly, educators often fall into the trap of trying to draw a direct causal link between IT and student achievement, without taking into account such variables as teacher skill or preparation, adequacy of technology support, or the unique characteristics of a particular group of students/learners. | |
| CoSN Case Study: Scott County (TN) Schools - Rural, 2700 Students (PDF) | |
| Though limited by size and funding resources, this district has an administration and school board that recognizes the critical role of technology in teaching in learning and has supported a technology team focused on realizing best use of technology investments. Creative use of varied funding sources, grants and access to E-rate funds has resulted in a robust set of hardware and software applications as well as a sophisticated phone and paging system. The district has demonstrated a proficiency to spend money wisely and actively shared success stories through focused PR and communication activities. | |
| Internet2 (PDF) | |
| The majority of U.S. states now offer K-12 schools access to the new, high-capacity network via a partnership with the colleges and universities that started it. What is Internet2 and how can schools benefit from the connectivity being offered? | |
| Telling The Technology Story: PR Strategies For School Leaders (PDF) | |
| Public relations is a critical component of a district's successful technology implementation -- and it involves communicating on an ongoing basis with the range of stakeholders inside and outside the district. | |