2004 CoSN Compendium

2004 CoSN Compendium

The second edition of CoSN's Compendium includes eight monographs, which focus on:

What it Takes: Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO - The job of overseeing a school district's technology program has grown exponentially in recent years as computers, the Internet and other technology applications have become essential to the daily operation of schools. What does today's district-level technology leader need to know in order to keep up with the challenge of ever-changing technologies and ever-shrinking budgets?

The Great Race: Collaborating Around Data to Improve Student Achievement - For school administrators today, few tasks are as important as those involving the collection, management and analysis of data. Using the Western States Benchmarking Consortium as an example, a relatively new phenomenon in the area of data-driven decision making is examined: the formation of consortia to share benchmarks and collaborate to measure progress in key areas of education.

Rational Spending: Taking a Closer Look at Total Cost of Ownership - A growing number of school leaders are approaching annual budget challenges with help from a detailed analysis of the total cost of ownership for their districts' technology programs. A new tool for assessing operating costs - as well as broader awareness of the issues involved in planning and budgeting for technology - is helping schools get smart about spending.

Cyber Security: Protecting Your District's Mission and Assets - The most important mission of a school is to facilitate learning. But making learning possible requires paying attention to other things as well - one of which is security. An appropriate approach to security combines technology, policy and people-oriented activity aimed at creating a "community of trust."

Virtual Learning: Classrooms and Schools in Cyberspace - Excerpted and modified from a report by Eduventures, Inc., successful approaches to teaching and learning online for those schools considering building or tapping into virtual classes are explored. Six districts have already adopted virtual learning to meet needs ranging from reaching geographically remote students to providing individualized instruction for participants at varying levels.

[Executive Summary] (PDF)

Contemporary Literacy: Redefining the Basics - Keeping up with the information explosion that is having such a profound impact on our lives can only be accomplished through the development of a new set of skills. Many organizations have set out in recent years to define an array of "literacies" for the digital age to prepare today's students for life beyond the classroom.

Highly Qualified: Professional Development in the No Child Left Behind Era - With No Child Left Behind mandating that, by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, all public school students should be taught by "highly qualified" teachers and that all federally-funded professional development should comply with specific content and delivery requirements, educators are faced with many questions. What is "highly qualified?" What does high-quality professional development look like? How does all this relate to planning for and supporting school technology programs?

[Executive Summary] (PDF)

Building Bridges: Assistive and Universal Technology for ALL Students - In a surprising number of K-12 settings, communication between administrators in charge of special education and those overseeing the district's technology program is extremely limited. Yet working together is essential in order to harness the power of technology to meet the needs of students with disabilities, and of every other student who can benefit from the flexibility provided by universal design.

CoSN members, access a free PDF through MyCoSN