Data from the 1:1 study and Gartner’s Hype Cycle offer guidance to school leaders for effectively incorporating new educational technologies. Gartner’s Hype Cycle can play a key role in the timing of adopting technologies. For school leaders, the Hype Cycle can ensure money spent on technology is timely. School leaders can also use the Hype Cycle to plan for and anticipate adoption issues related to new use of technologies for teaching and learning. Understanding the Hype Cycle provides leaders time to budget, write policy and procedures, and train staff for new technologies. Better anticipating technology adoption also allows school leaders to solicit buy-in from various stakeholder groups so that once technology is in hand it can fully be leveraged. Results from the 1:1 suggest there are real benefits to having a laptop computer while in high school but without careful planning, student laptops may initially cause a productivity drop. The qualitative data in the 1:1 study offered guidance and direction for school leaders to minimize implementation issues, which can be summarized in three distinct themes:
Technology initiatives in schools need to be well timed and have infrastructure to sustain them.
Technology initiatives should have clear goals and measureable outcomes. Buy in from stakeholder groups about the desired goals and outcomes are vital to maximize the value of the initiative.
Technology initiatives must include effective training for teachers prior to and during the adoption. Putting new technology in the hands of the staff before students has supreme benefits for teaching and learning.
School leaders spend considerable resources on technology initiatieves. Schools that are new to technology should move thoughtfully – and perhaps slowly – to ensure adequate short-term and long-term implementation. Gartner’s Hype Cycle provides clear insight for school leaders as to when technology adoption is a safe and value-added investment. There is much that goes into a technology initiative and schools that “jump” in without enough planning or forethought may lose many of the gains that the innovation is designed to achieve.