Future Ready Learning

Budgeting and Funding for Technology
Districts often are challenged financially when it comes to implementing technology
initiatives and programs. Once a vision for the use of technology is in place,
district superintendents and school leaders first should examine existing budgets
to identify areas in which spending can be reduced or eliminated to pay for learning
technologies. They also should consider all possibilities for creative funding of
these programs. The following approaches are recommended for consideration as
districts review their budgets and funding.
Eliminate or Reduce Existing Costs
As technology enables new learning opportunities and experiences, it also can
render existing processes and tools obsolete, freeing up funds to pay for technology.
Three obvious examples are copy machines (and related supplies and
services contracts), dedicated computer labs, and replacing commercially licensed
textbooks with openly licensed educational resources. In September 2015, U.S.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan challenged schools to begin this process by
replacing just one book as a first step in appreciating the cost savings and developing
an understanding of what would be necessary to implement such a change
school- or district-wide.
TURNING TOWARD OPEN: ILLINOIS SCHOOL DISTRICT EMBRACES
OPENLY LICENSED DIGITAL RESOURCES
Many schools are freeing up funds for digital resources by transitioning
away from textbooks. The state of Illinois offered Williamsfield
Community Unit School District 210 three options when tasked with
selecting instructional materials aligned with new mathematics standards:
valid and reliable outside sources of material that aligned with
standards, a mathematics model scope and sequence developed by
the Illinois State Board of Education, or a textbook series.
With a limited budget of $10,000, the district decided to forgo
traditional textbook adoption and instead began the process of
creating and using openly licensed content. The district relied on a
mathematics scope and sequence framework openly provided by the
Dana Center and used a variety of open source content through OER
Commons and Learning Registry. With the money previously allotted
for textbooks, the district purchased low-cost, cloud-based laptop
computers. In addition, leadership allocated federal Rural Education
Achievement Program and Title II funding to procure devices and
upgrade connectivity infrastructure.
Recognizing a need to build professional capacity around these new
resources, district leadership dedicated professional development
time, including pullout days with class coverage, to help teachers better
understand how to curate, collaborate, and house digital content.
In addition, the teachers are using collaborative cloud-based storage
to house their repository of content. The approach has spread beyond
mathematics instruction into other subjects as well, setting a tone and
track for the district’s growing STEM initiative.
OPENLY LICENSED
EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES
Openly licensed educational
resources are teaching, learning,
and research resources that
reside in the public domain or
have been released under a
license that permits their use,
modification, and sharing with
others. Open resources may
be full online courses or digital
textbooks or more granular
resources such as images, videos,
and assessment items.
OFFICE OF Educational Technology
45