Examining Technologies Used in K-12 School Districts: A Proposed Framework for Classifying Educational Technologies

Abstract

K-12 schools utilize a growing number of technologies to operate effectively, ranging from technologies for learning to technologies that manage student and personnel data. We share findings from an analysis of 23 school district websites for technologies used in a number of K-12 school districts surrounding a public, research university in a southeast region of the United States. In addition, we also share findings on technologies used in K-12 school districts from interviews with 12 technology directors. We propose a technology classification framework including educational technologies, management technologies, support technologies, networking technologies, and security technologies in addition to identifying various technologies that are currently used by school districts based on this framework. This framework has implications for K-12 technology adoption and clarifying the roles of school technology personnel.