Riding the Technology Wave | TASB

Futurist writer Alvin Toffler described technology as “the great growling engine of change” almost half a century ago. Not surprisingly, the engine has never stopped growling, and its effect on education has been phenomenal.

Technology in education became a hot topic after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 and sent the first human into space in 1961. In an address to the TASA | TASB Convention the next year, then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson emphasized the critical need for public education to equip young people with the “skills necessary to master the demands of an increasingly complex world.”

Another convention speaker, Texas Gov. John Connally, echoed that perspective: “The requirements of the technological age in which we live are demanding to an extreme. … What is needed are new approaches, new concepts, new dimensions in the role and scope of education in the 1960s.”

Similar words could easily be spoken today.

Public schools have done their best to keep up, but as soon as a new technology is mastered, a replacement appears. It’s a never-ending challenge, as funding for new equipment and increased training is limited.

TASB’s response from the beginning has been to help public schools address the challenges that technology brings and to serve members more efficiently by applying new technology. In looking back at TASB’s 75-year history, it would be impossible to cover everything that has hap­pened from a technological perspective in one article. Instead, we are sharing a few of the major developments — which continue to multiply.

Clearly, when it comes to technology, the only thing that has remained constant is change.

Helping Schools Address Tech Challenges

In 1989, when the Texas Legislature voted to fund technology in schools, TASB helped dis­tricts take advantage of the new money available to them.

“We had an active campaign to promote the Long-Range Plan for Technology in schools, which was part of our legislative agenda,” said Karen Strong, who led TASB Communications from 1988 to 2020. “TASB was a real leader in bringing tech into the classroom, beginning with its nationally acclaimed Texas Learning Technology Group and an early connection with TENET (Texas Education Network), an email network for educators in the state.”

The move toward technology for public schools, however, was a gradual process.

“Believe it or not, there was still a lot of distrust of technology, even among our members,” Strong said. “We did a little bit of swimming upstream to cham­pion its use, showing examples of the latest platform, like websites, Facebook, etc. It was interesting to help shape our members’ perceptions of technology and help them see how to use the tools to benefit their districts.”

Texas Learning Technology Group

Public schools were under attack in the mid-1980s for not using more effective teaching methods to improve student performance, particularly in science. Students needed to increase their technological literacy to be able to understand an increasingly complex subject, but qualified science teachers were in short supply.

TASB took the lead in helping to advance science education in Texas by introducing a technological approach through the Texas Learning Technology Group, established in 1985. The goal was to involve educational groups in the integration of new technologies into curriculum delivery systems, evaluate the effectiveness of a technology-based curriculum, and provide support to schools in teaching technology.

“TASB leadership perceived that students’ learning styles of the period were different from those of preceding generations but that teaching strategies in the classroom had not changed,” Don Sheffield, who served on the TLTG Board from 1985 to 1994, said at the time of its founding. “They strongly believed that the use of technology could achieve much-needed improvements.”

TLTG partnered with the National Science Foundation and 13 Texas school districts in its first project, described as the country’s “premier science education project” at that time. It was a complete, two-semester physical science curricu­lum for grades 8-10 that incorporated computer-assisted instruction. IBM provided initial support, and it was the first of many corporate sponsors over the years.

An integrated computer and videodisc system was chosen to present material in a new way, allowing for more student interaction. Also, TLTG worked hard to educate school personnel about the use of technology.

The physical science curriculum was followed by a chemistry curriculum, an environmental science series, and other award-winning programs.

“TLTG was a pioneer, founded at a time when effective computer-assisted curriculum and learning was limited in Texas public schools,” said Paula Brady, who had been a longtime director of TLTG when it was phased out in 1999.

“The marketplace has changed, with a number of com­mercial publishers committing to the development of cur­riculum that more fully integrates technology,” Brady added. “The landscape has changed in part through the vision of TASB and TLTG.”

Sheffield, who served on the school board at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, has praised TLTG’s innovative efforts.

“To this day, I am still proud of TASB for undertaking this proactive project rather than just sitting back and let­ting the situation rock along until somebody else made such an effort,” Sheffield said when TLTG ended.

TASBNET and Tech Services

In 1991, the Texas Education Agency established TENET to introduce Texas educators to the internet and the role of technology in the classroom. Through TENET, educators had access to online library catalogues, educational comput­er archives, public databases, and instructional hypermedia libraries. Funded through the Long-Range Plan for Tech­nology by the Texas Legislature, TENET was considered the entry ramp for Texas educators onto the “information superhighway.”

As part of TENET, TASB created a com­munications network for board members called TASBNET. The purpose was to share late-breaking legislative developments with members and provide other online services such as registrations and claims filing.

Soon, school board members were grav­itating to TENET as an early introduction to the internet and a way to cut mailing costs. Many used TASBNET to discuss district affairs with other trustees, other districts, and other states. Then in 1996, TASB began seeking board members’ “electronic addresses” to begin forming a directory.

Although TENET expanded over the next six years, the infrastructure limited access. Eventually, websites and email would become not only greatly accessible but sec­ond nature to all.

Another development in the early days of the internet was a TASB offering called TASB Technology Services. Introduced in 1990, the service offered technological support, training, and events for school districts. The help was needed, as Texas public schools had recently been required to create instructional technology plans and to use the statewide electronic infor­mation network created for communications from TEA.

Technology Services’ publications advised districts on creating long-range plans, the latest equipment and soft­ware, alternative funding strategies, and more, while a con­sulting service provided hands-on, personalized guidance. Seminars and workshops were held regularly, and events like the Great Technology Show in the early ’90s incorporated site visits with breakout sessions and exhibits. Later in the decade, the Technology in Schools Conference provided a similar experience, with attendance in 1996 tripling from the previous year.

Continuous Help with Tech Changes

TASB Technology Services eventually phased out as schools became more assimilated to technology, but TASB has never stopped providing information on technology to public schools.

Various vehicles have included the Technology Today column (added to Texas Lone Star in 1991), frequent Legal Services papers and articles, campaigns such as the “Millen­nium Bug” eradication campaign (informing districts about preparation for Y2K), and resources and training on cyber­security.

Two new TASB offerings have emerged in recent years to help members address tech challenges. The Risk Manage­ment Fund’s cybersecurity program was introduced in 2014 to help school districts reduce cyberattack threats, and just this year, TASB announced a new wireless infrastructure program, ConnectED Texas, designed to help school districts market their properties to cellular carriers to strengthen cell connectivity.

Harnessing Tech to Help Members

When TASB was founded in 1949, the Digital Revolution had just begun. The Association made a commitment early on to embrace new technologies so that member school boards and the schools they serve were never left waiting for its services.

“TASB has maintained a steadfast dedication to ongoing learning and cultivated robust vendor relationships to remain at the forefront of emerg­ing technologies and innovative concepts,” said Kathy Wetzel, TASB chief information officer.

New technology has been adopted along the way to introduce or enhance TASB services, increase training options, and expand information resources for members. Following are some examples of enhanced services.

Policy Service: Computerization of many TASB services began in the early 1980s, with a major focus on policy assistance. TASB’s Policy Service adopted mainframe computers to help handle the volume and complexity of maintaining customized policy manuals for school districts that participated in the service.

When desktop computers became common in the 1990s, Policy Online® was created to produce policy manuals on floppy disks. The product revo­lutionized policy manual maintenance and access and helped eliminate the bulky blue manuals most districts used.

“Our greatest challenge was understanding that school districts are usu­ally not ahead of the technology curve,” said Gail Ayers, who recently retired after serving as TASB’s assistant director of Policy Service Operations. “We needed to ensure we didn’t roll out technology that their systems couldn’t handle and at the same time try to bring TASB and school districts out of the paper age.”

A move to Microsoft Windows in the early 2000s enabled Policy Service to publish policies online and exchange files electronically with district staff. Several updates were made in the 2010s, and in recent years, the newly redesigned Policy Online has made it easier for school district administrators to keep track of their ongoing policy work.

“Policy Service came of age in the era of desktop pub­lishing, but the conventions and expectations of web-based publishing have evolved far from their desktop roots,” said Marvin Long, manager and business analyst in the division. “It’s critical that we deliver products and services that are polished, professional, and up to date while spending as few of our members’ dollars as possible.”

BuyBoard®: In 1998, just as internet usage was becoming common, the Local Government Purchasing Cooperative was formed by TASB, the Region 2 ESC, and the Texas Municipal League. Its customized online purchasing system, called BuyBoard, was designed to help school districts and other governmental entities simplify the purchasing process and increase purchasing power through web-based technologies.

“The introduction of the internet allowed for collabo­ration and sharing that had never been experienced prior, and cooperative purchasing fit the model,” said Steve Fisher, director of Cooperative Purchasing at TASB. Point-and-click access allowed participating school districts to easily find product descriptions, commodity codes, part numbers, and more when shopping for everything from paper clips to school buses.

“The biggest challenge in the early days was internet access (can you say dial up?) and demonstrating that cooper­ative purchasing was a viable option,” Fisher said. Along the way, improvements have been made to provide the ease and speed online shoppers of any kind expect these days. Today, BuyBoard is used by schools, municipalities, and other pub­lic entities across the nation.

“Ever since BuyBoard was founded, the technology that supports everything internet has been changing at a light­ning pace but has gotten easier to implement,” said Fisher. “As the technology continues to evolve, our challenge will be to balance what members would like to see, what direction we see the BuyBoard going, and the resources to accomplish all that.”

HR Services: Since 1984, TASB HR Services has pro­vided information, data, and guidance to human resource administrators in participating Texas schools. A key purpose has been creating custom job market reports with data that staff have collected through surveys. As technology has evolved, HR Services has evolved along with it, making sure that members can access and process data efficiently.

“We’ve been collecting and sharing salary survey data with members for nearly 40 years,” said Amy Campbell, director of HR Services. Campbell said that survey results were shared for many years in paper form via books sent to member organizations.

“In 2008, we rolled out DataCentral to members — an online reporting system for our survey data that allowed members to filter by district characteristics then run and download on-demand reports,” she said. “After many successful years sharing data via DataCentral, we introduced a new reporting system in 2020 called TASB HRDataSource™. As part of that update, we moved to fully online survey data collection, which improved response rates while sim­plifying and modernizing the experience for our members.

“We work hard each year to provide timely, actionable survey data to members to help them make critical deci­sions about compensation and staffing in their organiza­tions.”

BoardBook®: In the early 2000s, boards of all kinds across the country were moving toward paperless meet­ings. To help Texas school boards in that process, TASB released BoardBook in 2002.

The internet-based software/application was devel­oped by TASB staff to help school districts streamline meeting preparation and more efficiently create agenda packets. The product’s success eventually led to partner­ship agreements with school districts in other states, with versions created especially for them. An updated version, BoardBook® Premier, was released in 2019.

Increased Training Options

In the area of training, TASB has readily adopted new technologies to ensure that members can easily access the courses they need.

In the late 1980s, TASB offered an advanced form of training for the times: audio- and video-based distance learning classes provided through telephone conference calls. In 1994, the Association hosted its first satellite-delivered board training session. During the late ’90s and early 2000s, videos in VHS and DVD formats were produced as the technology du jour.

In 2002, TASB’s Online Learning Center was intro­duced to complement in-person events with training that members could obtain from their homes or offices whenever they wanted.

Although live training events would continue to be preferred by members, TASB added an attendance option for those who couldn’t travel in 2008: distance learning through webinar technology.

New approaches to online training reached an unprec­edented level in 2020, when COVID-19 shut down in-person events. TASB staff scrambled to provide, for the first time, virtual training events. Since then, virtual ap­proaches have become a viable option for many TASB events.

Expanded Information and Resources

The steady growth of communications technology has greatly assisted a top priority at TASB: getting in touch with members and providing the information they need.

By the late 1980s, TASB had improved its phone mail system to increase communication efficiency and had al­ready installed a rudimentary version of email, which was uncommon at the time.

With the advent of the internet, the ability to connect with members exploded. TASB’s first website launched in 1995, and gradually, capabilities for personalization grew. Now members and key audience groups automatically receive a more personalized experience when logging in on the website.

TASB has embraced new forms of communication as soon as mainstream usage has become common, including social media accounts (Facebook in 2007 and Twitter, now X, in 2009) and a podcast (TASB Talks) in 2017. An elec­tronic newsletter for members, The Star, launched in 2009, and in 2013, TASB’s member magazine, Texas Lone Star, became accessible via smartphones and tablets.

The use of new communications technology has played a huge part in TASB’s advocacy efforts, allowing members to receive instant communications about legis­lative actions and to communicate with legislators directly about important education issues. (Read more about the tools used in building advocacy to support public educa­tion in the June 2024 issue of TLS.)

“We are committed to exploring and testing upcoming technologies so that our members never have to wait for us to get up to speed,” said Tiffany Dunne-Oldfield, TASB deputy executive director. “We want to be present on new platforms and use the latest technology, even before our members are there.”