From the Gartner newsroom…

Having read some previous press releases form Gartner, I chose this report to critique as I feel they are a trustworthy source of information in the IT field. Being a techno-junkie and in my role with my board, it is only fitting that I take on this type of report as it is quite valuable in outlining trends and tendencies in Information Technology (IT) and how they affect business, and eventually education.

Be it the ‘curse’ of education, or perhaps in the case of IT, a ‘blessing’, the adoption of IT is typically a few months if not years behind the business world. This is often bemoaned by early IT adopters in education, but for the administration of an educational institution, it can give a significant ‘heads-up’ of where the institution ‘needs to go’ with respect to IT planning, purchasing and pedagogical planning.

This particular report is interesting in that it presents the jargon and in every one of the 10 cases, describes precisely what the technology being discussed is about. This is terrific for administration that wants to get up to speed on the ‘latest technologies’ all the while not making it too tedious or lengthy of a read. The report serves administration, specifically IT leaders very well, as a resource to justify planning, demonstrate tendencies and informational research. This being said, the report for the most part will be out of the reach of teaching personnel and even the administration of K-12 schools. This is not meant as a slight to teachers – it is just that the report does not correlate these technologies to pedagogy or classroom integration. The concepts of ‘Internet of Things’, ‘Big Data’ and ‘In-memory computing’ will mean little to educators, however, ‘Cloud computing’, ‘Media Tablets’ and ‘The Social User experience’ are very relevant to education. The trick here is for the IT leader to distinguish which items are noteworthy and significant to educational planning. The IT leaders will need to bridge that with the pedagogical leaders and planners and the report will serve somewhat as a ‘crystal ball’ for educational planning. It should be noted as well that the report highlights trends in a summary fashion – the IT leader would need to delve deeper and research further to use this information for planning purposes with educational leaders.

IT specialists will certainly benefit from such articles as would venturers – be it for informational purposes to build a solid background, of for opportunities to the venturer, such articles are useful in validating trends and tendencies.

In my role with my employer, future versions of this report would be highly beneficial as it discusses these trends in a 5 year window. Our board’s strategic plan is based on 5 years, with interest in basing the next version of it over 3 years. Reports such as the Gartner report are invaluable to assist with planning and assisting administration with establishing a solid IT ‘vision’ for its schools, based on data drawn from the business world that is well researched.

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