Future Ready Learning

Recommendations
Establish clear strategic planning connections among all state, district, university, and school
levels and how they relate to and are supported by technology to improve learning.
Although some of these efforts are supported by summits organized at the federal level by Future
Ready Schools, state and local authorities are uniquely suited to understand the needs and
resources available within their local education ecosystems. Broad, coordinated strategic planning
requires a commitment from all parties involved to collaborate consistently across organizational
boundaries. These conversations and connections need proactive champions who will invest in
working at this level and who can take advantage of existing state and regional conferences to
further this work.
Set a vision for the use of technology to enable learning such that leaders bring all stakeholder
groups to the table, including students, educators, families, technology professionals, community
groups, cultural institutions, and other interested parties.
Although not all parties will be responsible for the execution of a vision for the use of technology
to enable learning, by making certain all involved stakeholder groups are part of the vision-setting
process, leaders will ensure better community support and the establishment of a plan for learning
technology that reflects local needs and goals.
Develop funding models and plans for sustainable technology purchases and leverage openly
licensed content while paying special attention to eliminating those resources and tasks that
can be made obsolete by technology.
Rather than viewing technology as an add-on component to support learning, leaders should take
stock of current systems and processes across learning systems and identify those that can be
augmented or replaced by existing technologies. During the planning process, they also should
identify systems and processes for which no replacement currently exists within the district,
school, or college and set goals for developing more efficient solutions.
Develop clear communities of practice for education leaders at all levels that act as a hub for
setting vision, understanding research, and sharing practices.
Building on the model of the education innovation clusters, state, district, university, and community
organization leaders should establish cohesive communities of practice—in person and
online—to create virtuous cycles for sharing the most recent research and effective practices in the
use of educational technology.
OFFICE OF Educational Technology
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