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The Technological Transition

Digital technology is everywhere in education, and it’s ingrained in virtually every aspect of the planning, operation and management of America’s 130,000-odd schools. It would be ridiculous to think of designing a new school construction without taking the needs of digital technologies into consideration, from networking and wireless to audiovisual equipment to physical security.

Or to think of managing staff and resources without ERP.

Or to think of daily classroom activities without taking into consideration mobility and new technology-driven teaching modalities.

We’ve also been thinking along these lines here at 1105 Media, which is School Planning & Management’s parent company. Previously, our education publications were divided into two groups — the Ed Tech Group and the Spaces4Learning Group. But we recently merged these two operations with the idea of bringing expanded technology coverage to School Planning & Management (SP&M) and our sister publication College Planning & Management (CP&M).

The new group, simply called the Education Group, now consists of SP&M, CP&M, Spaces4Learning, THE Journal, Campus Technology and STEAM Universe, with me as editorial director.

One of the unplanned parts of that move was the retirement of longtime SP&M Editor-in-Chief Jerry Enderle. As our readers are well aware, Jerry had done a fantastic job with SP&M over the years. It now falls on me, as editorial director, to keep up the work he had been doing so well for so long and to move that forward with expanded technology coverage and a new emphasis on technology in our own publications.

More on that in the coming months.

For now, I ask that you, our readers, work with me the way that you worked so long with Jerry, offering your expert input, your ideas, your writing, your support. I’ve met many of you in this sector already at trade shows, and the experience so far has been extremely positive. I look forward to meeting many more of you in the coming years. Please reach out to me at [email protected]. I hope to talk with you soon!

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management July/August 2019 issue of Spaces4Learning.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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