By Steve Young, CIO Advisor
Last week, thousands of IT leaders descended on Orlando for Gartner Symposium. This was not a conference about the nuts and bolts of IT as much as it was about trends, strategies, and the new reality of the impact of everything and everyone becoming digitally connected. While the conference was not focused on education, it was abundantly clear that K-12 education is lagging behind many industries in transformational uses of technology. Gartner Senior Vice President Peter Sondergaard's keynote termed what is happening globally as "digitalization," saying, "Every budget is an IT budget. Every company is an IT company. Every business leader is becoming a digital leader..." The message was that all industries are being dramatically altered and technology is the common thread behind massive transformation. Sondergaard insisted that industries and leaders need to understand and harness the innovative power of that technology.
While technology in education has been a key ingredient in innovative classrooms as demonstrated in numerous classrooms, schools, districts, and the Project Red study, there are many examples of poorly implemented technology in schools. For schools to be truly transformed by digitalization, they will need to leverage technology to educate every student with customized learning content and feedback supplemented and supported by well-trained educators. The learning model itself at some point probably needs to change, lest many schools will continue to be only marginally impacted by technology.
What are your thoughts? Have we truly transformed education through technology, or do we have a long way to go? What are you doing to start your transformation? Your comments are welcomed below and at CTO Technotes.
Steve Young is CTO of Judson ISD in Texas and founder of the San Antonio Area Technology Directors group. He blogs at CTO Technotes, where this is cross posted. Follow him on Twitter as @atemyshorts.
