Unnecessary apprehension. That's about the best way I know to sum up the prevailing predisposition of school administrators toward technology. For some reason (and I have some guesses), school administrators think that technology, particularly the Internet, is a legal blackhole. That lawsuits will ensue immediately if they ever let the Internet in.
No. This is the wrong disposition.
Nothing in the law requires you to have that kind of predisposition against new things. In fact, in the area of technology, the law is actually very accommodating toward change. People frequently think because there is no written statute or regulation for/against doing something that there is no law. That's not correct. The absence of law is a law. In situations where there are no written policies, the law typically relies on the discretion of officials. For us, that means teachers, principals and superintendents using their best judgment in moving schools forward.
So, not only is this not a legal blackhole, but broadly administrators are the law. And, if those teachers and administrators stay within those broad legal guidelines, the courts will back them.
Here is what I think is the real hard part of that ... it's hard making the law. It's hard to build coalitions. It's hard to come up with new policies. It's hard to get community input. It's hard to do the background research. And, finally, it's hard to take the risk.
But, those things (building coalitions, writing policy, talking to the community, background research) are exactly the kinds of things that leaders do. The reason we (the law) give you that legal authority is because we expect you to do those things. If you don't, you shouldn't be a leader. In situations where we give administrators discretion, we are doing that because we know there is risk and uncertainty. That's the whole point of giving you the discretion. If it were not risky or uncertain, a politician in the state capitol would do it and put it in statute. The courts know this. And, because of that, there are protections built into the law to protect school officials.
So, let's lose the unnecessary apprehension out there. Don't blame the law for avoiding the hard work of integrating and navigating the uncertainty.
*This post is a follow up to my presentation in Western Kentucky at the first Green River Regional Education Cooperative conference in Bowling Green today.