THE Journal

A COSN WORKSHOP LOOKS AT WHAT TRENDS WILL MARK THE FUTURE OF K-12 TECH LEADERS.

THE CONSORTIUM FOR SCHOOL NETWORKING advises educational technologists on how to apply technology strategically, so there's no better organization to address the expanding role of the district CIO. This was the thinking behind CTO 2012, a half-day workshop offered in early March as part of CoSN's annual K-12 School Networking Conference.

The workshop, slated to revolve around a panel composed of leading K-12 technology thinkers, was designed to help district technology leaders understand the critical trends that will change the job of the K-12 CIO over the next three to five years. Discussion topics were scheduled to include:

• How key trends begun by CIOs in other industries change the role of the K-12 technologist
• How initiatives such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and emerging tools such as Web 2.0 impact leadership roles
• Understanding the growing importance for technology leaders to demonstrate value to the instructional leadership
• Balancing the emerging roles of key technology strategist, diplomat to other district departments, information steward, integrator, and enterprise designer
• How to communicate successfully with other educational and administrative leaders to garner support and funding for technology
• Making the case for how technology can be transformative to learning

Keith Krueger, chief executive of CoSN, adds that another big challenge for present-day K-12 technologists is simply understanding what's possible-developing a vision for IT and formulating a strategy to implement the tools and services that can bring that vision to life.

"Too often, we're simply automating things we've been doing for years, which is a process that can be helpful but more often is inefficient," he says. "In my opinion, the biggest challenge for a CIO in today's world is standing back and asking, ‘What is it that would really make a big difference and be transformative? How might technology enable that in some new and profoundly better way?'"