Susan Patrick, new head of the federal Office of Educational Technology (OET), is calling on schools to adopt a more integrated approach to technology across all facets of their operation--from classroom instruction to front-office administration.

In an interview with eSchool News, the country's top ed-tech administrator said she is not interested in pursuing "technology for technology's sake," but in looking for ways technology-driven solutions can contribute to the broader goal of helping all students learn.

To do that, she said, will require a culture of communication and an open-mindedness about learning that encourages all stakeholders--including students--to speak their minds about the direction of educational technology in America's schools.

Education Secretary Rod Paige on March 26 tapped Patrick, an agency veteran, to head the OET, part of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Patrick had served as acting director since Feb. 2, when she succeeded former director John Bailey, who left to join the reelection campaign of President Bush.

Patrick is charged with coordinating technology programs and policies to further the mission of the department and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), including virtual education and eLearning, student data management systems, online assessments, and the national ed-tech plan.

Technology is becoming the adhesive that unites formerly disparate parts of the education enterprise, she indicated. Unlike the paper-based environments of old,

where every facet of education--from classroom teaching to student assessment and front-office administration--existed as its own separate entity, Patrick said the technology-infused schools of today require a more integrated approach, where one institution cannot be expected to survive without the others.

"Every administrative system, in a sense, becomes an instructional system," she said. For instance, if a school uses Geographic Information Systems technology to plot its bus routes, and those buses show up 15 minutes late for school because of a mistake traced back to improper training, the mix-up no doubt affects the administrator who made the error, but it also has consequences for those students who missed out on valuable class time.

The same can be said for a student information system that collects volumes of personal data, but provides no means for educators to extract those data in a meaningful way that can aid in instruction, and so on.

Research and best practices

To address these concerns, Patrick said one of OET's goals going forward will be to reduce the complexities of data management and student assessment systems and to help educators locate solutions that best fit the needs of their students.

To do this, Patrick says her office will continue to build on ED's What Works Clearinghouse, an online repository of systematically evaluated research to help educators more easily identify scientifically proven teaching methods and instructional practices as required by NCLB.