Technology planning for blended learning means more than just choosing between laptops, tablets, operating systems, and content providers. It includes making sure that all of the pieces and parts fit nicely together, won’t detract from teaching and learning, meet expectations for academic rigor, and will be easily sustained over time. When making our choices, we increase our success if we use a well-defined and strictly followed process.

I know it sounds trite…and we’ve heard it far too often, “We don’t need another committee.” However, implementing blended learning technology effects every aspect of the district from curriculum/instruction, to staffing, to guidance, to federal programs, to IT. Including representatives from all areas helps us make sure that we have not overlooked something that could derail the whole program.

Use a subset of the team to research the potential options and weed out those that don’t fit with the implementation model and blended learning goals. This review saves everyone time. It also means that we don’t end up wasting testing/piloting time on products that don’t run our chosen platform. This also ensures that selections fit with current models or frameworks like RtI, PBIS, and ESL.

After selecting a given tool, resource, or online product, piloting or testing is crucial. Preferably, this effort can be done with a small subset of students or one specific program. Again, the blended learning technology team needs to make sure that we get as many “tires kicked” as possible. Remember, during sales presentations vendors show us their best or favorite stuff. Only when we dive deeply into an evaluation project will we see whether their sales pitch holds up throughout the whole product.

Once the selection passes the pilot or testing phase, always walk through implementation planning and professional development options with the provider. Their careful attention to this process is directly proportional to the level of support you may or may not receive after initial training. Ask for sample agendas, evaluation results, and a written, detailed implementation plan.

Once the product has been thoroughly reviewed and tested, a final best practice is to have each department represented on the team to formally sign-off on the purchase. Product management/development teams often call this the “go, no-go” decision. To move forward with the purchase and implementation requires approval from everyone. Over the last twenty-plus years, I’ve seen many technology implementations get derailed or fizzle completely due to lack of a formal review process. I’ve seen:

• Purchases of content that won’t run on a specific operating system
• Training dates that occurred before hardware was even ordered
• Product purchased without consideration to rigor and therefore, replaced the following year

Save yourself some grief and angst. Define your selection process, the involved departments, and always require a pilot and an official sign-off process.