Introduction & Overview

This is the third in a series of five briefs published by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology on the key considerations facing educational leaders as they work to build and sustain core digital infrastructure for learning.

What Are We Working Toward?

1. Digital infrastructure should be adequate and future-proof. 
2. Digital infrastructure should be defensible and resilient. 
3. Digital infrastructure should be privacy-enhancing, interoperable, and useful.
4. Digital infrastructure should be accessible to individuals with disabilities and multilingual learners. 
5. Digital infrastructure should enhance student digital health, safety, and citizenship skills. Digital infrastructure should be designed to protect and improve the digital health, safety, and citizenship skills of the people within that system, including the privacy of their data.

Whose Job Is It?

Building and maintaining safe, accessible, resilient, and effective digital infrastructure is a whole-of-community challenge requiring whole-of-community solutions. While every person has a role to play, the following groups play key roles:

• District Leaders
• District Technology Leaders
• Educators 
• Students and Families 
• State Leaders
• Vendors and Service Providers

Key Considerations

Key considerations within this brief include:

• Privacy 
• Usefulness
• Interoperability
• Compliance with federal and state privacy laws
• Data equity and visualization

PART 1 OF THIS SERIES “K-12 DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE BRIEF: DEFENSIBLE & RESILIENT” can be found here.

PART 2 OF THIS SERIES “K-12 DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE BRIEF: ADEQUATE AND FUTURE PROOF” can be found here.