April 2005 — Special Reports
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Administrative Technology: NEW RULES, NEW TOOLS
A Pilot Study of Excelsior Software’s Electronic Gradebook Solution Reveals the Impact and Time-Saving Qualities of Administrative Software
Much of the focus for education technology through the ’90s was on technology equity as measured by student access to computers. While efforts to improve technology equity and access were met with wide success in the years that followed, the focus of education technology is now shifting away from such issues as new themes have started to emerge. Most of these themes focus on the question of how best to utilize technology in schools. Admittedly, we have seen an explosion in technology use for curricular delivery and enhancement in the past decade, and that trend seems likely to continue unabated.
But the passage of No Child Left Behind modified the paradigm into which technology fits in public schools. Because of NCLB, teachers must now target their efforts exclusively toward increasing the achievement of every student, regardless of whatever handicapping or disadvantageous condition a child might bring into the classroom, while simultaneously being held to higher standards of accountability for performing the teaching function. Given the scrutiny and elevated expectations that public schools now encounter, teachers face a growing challenge: Finding time in a finite school day to individualize instruction so each child can perform to his or her full potential.
Education technology - particularly computers - may hold the solution, but not in the manner in which schools have adopted technology to date. Because of the daunting NCLB requirements, schools no longer have the luxury of viewing technology as an add-on that functions at the periphery of instruction as a curricular enhancement, an enticement to student engagement in learning, or an occasional frill that “makes learning more fun.” Instead, schools must adopt and embrace technology so that it restructures the way they are managed and administered. For most schools, this is a whole new world.
Lessons in History
Although there are many critics of the business-model approach to school reform, there is much to be learned from the private sector’s experience with technology adoption and integration. La Porte (2001) argues that the widespread adoption of computing technologies by businesses was driven by the unique ability of computers to collect and organize information. The resulting productivity increase was essential to their survival; they had no choice but to undergo a fundamental organizational restructuring. On the other hand, schools have “skipped the productivity lesson” in their adoption of technology, while focusing almost exclusively on technology equity (i.e., student access to computers) and the impact that technology has on service quality (i.e., delivery of the curriculum).
However, it won’t be enough for schools to simply increase their productivity. Johnson (2004) distinguishes between technology that automates and technology that “informates.” For example, electronic gradebooks automate the process of calculating grades and exporting them to the student information system. But when a gradebook is accessible to parents on the Web and enables real-time monitoring of student progress, that’s informating. According to Johnson, it’s in this direction of informating that schools should be heading.
