Managing Technology In Our Schools

Schools are now at a boiling point for change, about to incorporate technology as never before in our nation's classrooms. For this to happen, the input of savvy business managers is required. Managing Technology in Our Schools is for those who will not only be responsible for managing and financing technology budgets, but for providing the leadership to govern. The book reflects on the last thirteen years of schools' roundabout progress and uses the lessons learned to identify best practices for managing and financing the next wave of technology purchases and application. It highlights the perseverance and persistence that adopting technology required from the beginning and what is needed today as using technology matures from a hyped-up dream into an established, solid support and tool for teaching. To do this, the book will explore schools' political, economic, physical, and staff realities that business management must address in order to continue the process of educating the next generation of technology savvy, intellectual, and problem solving workers. The thoughts in this book are from the perspective of an observer, watching schools and teachers as they pioneer electronic curriculum. These observations show the complexity and the need for forward-thinking management that can be mediators amongst stakeholders, fostering technology as a tool not the mythical silver bullet. It also shows that the next large purchases in technology will be electronic curriculums and deliver a wide variety of materials that employ different teaching techniques.

There have been many books about managing technology in education, but none have discussed the progressing role of the business manager to guide the school towards governing technology_until now. Managing Technology in Our Schools is for those who will not only be responsible for managing and financing technology budgets, but for providing the leadership to govern. The book reflects on the last thirteen years of schools' roundabout progress and uses the lessons learned to identify best practices for managing and financing the next wave of technology purchases and application.

Betsy Price is associate faculty at the University of Texas at Brownsville.