Using the Maturity Model Benchmarks to standardize the evaluation process for technology use in schools was valuable exercise that can provided needed data about strengths and weaknesses. This should be something school districts can use to map a course towards improvement.
Unfortunately, the Morris County School District's weakness is planning. Generally speaking the culture is reactive. Fortunately for East School, they are a bit removed from district culture as they are an outlier, geographically and culturally, where they are able to rely on their community to solve problems. Being close knit allows them to cut through some of the communications barriers that exist in other parts of the district. Additionally, they have a leader in their principal who is technologically savvy, willing to take risk and lead by example. This puts East School in a position of great advantage as they have access to the abundant resources offered by the district while at the same time being relatively well equipped to overcome planning shortfalls of the district.
In completing this survey I was able to verify suspicions about district weaknesses with regard to professional development also. Teachers and students are often left out of the technology decision making process. There are such a wealth of resources that teachers and students do not typically own the technology they are given. When something breaks, the usual reaction is to just throw up hands and wait for someone to come fix it. If not, something new will come along next year. District staff need to do better job of joining these efforts to curricular objectives and demonstrating how they can make teaching more effective and efficient, rather than just adding to teacher's to-do list.
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