Building a roadmap for meaningful technology implementation in a public school district.
Distilling the vision of the district
Dynamic and technology-rich, the city of Austin is seen as a hub for innovation. The Austin Independent School District (AISD), which serves over 80,000 students, embraced that culture and sought to “reinvent the urban education experience.” With Austin’s innovation and accelerated growth, the district also needed to keep pace. As a direct response to recent voters’ approval of $39 million in bonds for technology investment, a plan and process was needed to take into account the requirements of a growing, diverse population with a wide range of academic, economic and cultural demands.
Upstream was engaged by district leaders to establish a human-centered approach to shaping the strategy to allocate the bond funds. While legacy approaches viewed such a decision as one about technology hardware, Upstream successfully re-framed the perspective to one of the future of education enabled by technology.
Engaging the community of stakeholders
To inform the model for technology-enabled education, we structured a series of six co-creation events that included stakeholders from administration, teachers, librarians, current students, community members, etc. Some events included over 50 participants, but together they provided the structured inputs on possible solutions to empower the new model.
Defining the roadmap
Inputs from co-creation events were coded to establish core pillars of the new plan. Each pillar was prioritized and tied to specific action items and outcomes that formed the basis for the new district technology plan. Assessments of cost and feasibility resulted in a time horizon that actions were plotted against, establishing an actionable roadmap.
The plan was formally presented at the school board meeting with resounding success. It was ultimately integrated into the overall district strategic plan and continues to influence the direction of the district today.
“Upstream's collaborative spirit and enthusiasm for impacting the lives of our students was infectious. It allowed us to develop an action plan where technology enriches our classrooms in meaningful ways.”
- Public School Administrator, Austin Independent School District