Background

System designs are a powerful means for determining what to do and in what order. Most people get a comfortable feeling then they hear their car or dress was created by a great designer. But few have experience in bringing designs to fruition.

Fortunately we are still living in the automotive age. Everyone is familiar with roadmaps. Most of us are pretty good at using them to get around in a strange city. Our eSATSi team came to the realization that our system design for eLearningi transformationi of Arizona K-12 education while absolutely critical, is not sufficient on itsi own. Thousands of Arizonans are going be engaged in the next ten years doing their part to implement the transformation. A road map is needed to garner their hearts and minds and to engage them in implementing the system design.

We could have gone to our friendly cartographer or Google/Yahoo/Mapquest Maps for help. But, it was time to use the civic entrepreneur’s lever – “borrow” a roadmap framework and embed the eSATS system design into it.

In 2002 the biotech folks and the Flinn Foundation invested a few hundred thousand dollars with the Battelle Memorial Institute to craft “Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap.” It is a great document. We believe if it is good enough for the biotech folks it ought to be good enough for eLearning and K-12 education. Lets take a look at their sections and sequence:

Vision is 10 years: K12 eLearning is not a one time expenditure or effort but must be a major commitment with adequate resources to ensure success over the long haul.