As a leader in emerging technologies...

As a leader in education  in educational technology, I can help make emerging technologies valuable to others, while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity by not only valuing my human resources and informing other leaders in my Professional Learning Network of the emerging technologies listed in the NMC Horizon Report (Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada, and Freeman, 2015), but also encouraging change agents to remember that learning does not occur through osmosis when technology is introduced to students (Willen, 2014). There must be continuous training, professional development, and utilization of all human resources before technology is given to students to avoid disaster technology rollouts such as that seen in a Los Angeles school district that rushed into an iPad grant that later turned into a disaster (Kamenetz, 2013).

William Gibson famously quoted that “the future arrived; it just wasn’t equally distributed” (Laureate Education, 2014d). However, the grass is not always greener on the other side. Because “education is one field that receives far more attention than funding,” when districts and schools do receive funding, they rush their spending without initially considering the end goal of the purchase (Thornburg, 2013d, pg. 3). Schools that lack technology seem to rush into incorporating technology once they receive grant funding without considering the ongoing technical support and training that is needed throughout its usage. Unfortunately, this was seen in a Fort Bend school district that was forced to “shelve a $16 million initiative to integrate thousands of iPads into the classroom” due to damages to the devices, lack of training for teachers and students, liability concerns, and inappropriate use by students (Lee, 2013). Another issue experienced during the LA school district’s disastrous technology roll-out was that “students were not old enough to understand that there is a difference between your home life and school life and what is acceptable in each place” which does require instruction to differentiate the two on a continual basis (Willen, 2013).

To conclude, although it is necessary to create educational opportunities and provide financial support to accommodate different student populations who have access to technology, it is more important to value the human resources and provide training to both educators and students (Laureate Education, 2014b). The goal of using the device, evaluation of technical support, continual training and professional development, and online etiquette expectations must be considered prior to the actual purchase and continued after the incorporation. By doing so, students would be trained as valuable human resources when the same technology is applied to the future workforces. 

References

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf

Kamenetz, A. (2013, September 30). The inside story on LA schools' iPad rollout: "a colossal disaster" - Digital. Retrieved August 10, 2015, from http://digital.hechingerreport.org/content/the-inside-story-on-la-schools-ipad-rollout-a-colossal-disaster_914/

Laureate Education  (Producer). 2014d. Soloway, E. The digital divide: leveling the playing field [Podcast]. Retrieved from waldenu.edu

Laureate Education (Producer). 2014b Thornburg, D. (2009). Diversity and Globalism. Laureate Education, Inc.[Video file] Retrieved from waldenu.edu

Lee, R. (2013, October 3). Fort Bend school district shelves iPad program. Retrieved August 10, 2015, from http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Fort-Bend-school-district-shelves-iPad-program-4867456.php

Thornburg, D. (2013d). Red queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Willen, L. (2014, May 21). Why all screen time isn't created equally - Digital. Retrieved August 10, 2015, from http://digital.hechingerreport.org/content/screen-time-isnt-created-equally_1466/