Forget ROI, the Future of Technology Investment Is All about Value: When It Comes to Technology Projects, the Value of an Investment Should Be Defined by Its Educational Return, Not Its Financial Return

Stop me if you've heard this one before. "Show me the ROI of technology in education, and then I will support your budget," says the chair of your school board. "Businesses show the return on investment for technology--why can't our district? " This has become an increasingly common question in today's challenging fiscal environment, where the "new normal" makes for tight budgets. In fact, the Consortium for School Networking's 2013 IT Leadership Survey found that 80 percent of school district IT leaders predict flat or declining IT budgets for the upcoming year. Given this crushing fiscal reality, investing in new technologies is likely to mean making tough choices. So how does a savvy chief technology officer demonstrate that a technology project is worth the investment? Perhaps the traditional ROI formula is not the best metric to use. In today% economy, according to a recent New York Times article, the value of what Americans get from digital technologies is not calculated as part of the gross domestic product. The GDP only measures the monetary value of the goods and services that Americans pay for, not the information that they gain by using technological tools. The same distinction can be made in education. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ROI is calculated by measuring benefits in dollars. But schools are not in business to make money, and should not measure success in terms of dollars. The business of schools is learning. Of course, if technology projects save money or improve efficiency, then a business-focused ROI is useful, but in general it is important to define the "value" of learning in education. School system leaders need to understand their educational goals and how technology will support those goals. In other words, they should focus not on demonstrating ROI, but what we at CoSN call the value of investment or VOI. So how do you measure investments in technology that are focused on educational rather than financial benefits? A good place to start may be at your district's long-range strategic plan, which may contain goals similar to the following: * Increasing student achievement * Increasing student engagement * Improving attendance and behavior * Attracting and retaining staff * Developing 21st century skills for students * Decreasing dropout rates for at-risk students * Engaging parents and communities Certainly, dollar benefits can be assigned to some of these goals (for example, decreasing the dropout rate can have a measurable impact on district finances) but the mission of schools is not to increase revenues but rather to use public monies wisely in producing students who are thoughtful, productive citizens and members of the workforce. That is how schools "create value" for their communities. So, even though most aspects of schools' performance cannot be measured in financial terms, there are still measurable ways that you can demonstrate to stakeholders the value of the investment in technology in terms of advancing the educational mission of the district. The 5-Step CoSN VOI Methodology CoSN's VOI website offers methodologies and tools designed to assess the costs and benefits of technology projects. The VOI approach can be used to evaluate the comparative costs and benefits of two or more projects competing for the same funding; to sell a project to stakeholders; to articulate the costs and benefits of a project to constituents; and, later, to determine whether a project should be sustained. The steps for performing a VOI assessment for each proposed project include the following: 1) Determine the Total Cost To get started, you must understand the cost of a technology initiative over the life of the project--the project's total cost of ownership (TCO). Initial purchases, training, and implementation costs must be amortized or annualized, and ongoing costs must be added in. …