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Philosophy & Rationale (Cont) |
We prepare a comprehensive report of our findings and recommendations, and work with other project team members to ensure that decisions made are effectively communicated to all project team members. And, we serve as both owner's representative and advocate in the design process for educational facilities technology implementation. As such, we work hand-in-hand with architect's, engineers, pure technology consultants and equipment integrators. Perhaps our greatest contribution to the design and implementation of learning spaces with educational technology is to help our clients frame the discussions regarding project planning and design, in terms of academic and learning process goals, not merely upon making lists of the needed technology. We believe the value we add to every project, the way we earn our fee, is to fulfill the role of Technology Architect: is to improve the efficiency of the planning and implementation process, shorten its duration, ensure the right decisions get made, in a timely fashion, and make sure the investment in building architecture and equipment is maximized, during and after occupancy. EdTech Planning Group can succeed at this focused array of tasks because, as owner's educational technology representative we can keep our eye on meeting the essential academic, pedagogical, administrative and architectural goals, unencumbered by the detailed technical engineering design production activities, appropriately addressed by other design team members. |
Among other tools, we have developed an effective web-based survey methodology to collect detailed information about faculty's needs and opinions, which enables planning decisions about space utilization and budgetary planning to be made more confidently and effectively. We conduct interviews with appropriate university personnel to make sure we understand the full range of edtech facilities requirements, both those stated and those implied. And, as inevitably occurs, we highlight the competing needs of different stakeholders and help facilitate the necessary discussion and decision making to arrive at an overall consensus and go forward strategy. |