NCREL Policy Issues
Issue 15, January 2004
Policy Analysis
18. State Educational Technology Plan
Ideally, a district has an education plan that integrates technology; less optimally, a district may have an educational technology plan that provides a strategic perspective even if it is separated from documents that delineate the district's educational objectives and approaches. Many states, even though they frequently preach the ideal model of technology planning for districts, do not practice this model in their own policy formulation processes. In the North Central region, a number of states—Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin—do have some form of educational technology plan, but no state has an education plan that fully integrates technology. For example, Illinois provides a five-year K–12 technology plan. State technology plans often aggregate technology initiatives across a number of sectors beyond K–12 (e.g., higher education, libraries, economic development), so the ideal policy option would be to have both a state K–12 education plan that integrates technology and a state technology plan that interrelates K–12 initiatives with technology activities across other types of state activities.
Resource
Digital-Age Learning: Illinois K–12
Technology Plan
www.isbe.state.il.us/learn-technology/ltc/pdf/Tech
Plan Revisions _11-07-02_1.pdf
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