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Enhancing consensus-building through technology.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

The authors led two teams who developed Georgia high school standards and curricula for Law Enforcement in 2003 and for Private Security and Protective Services in 2004. Although both projects were similar, the methods used were different. This paper compares two methods of conducting focus group meetings with stakeholders, a low-tech "Post-it" notes method used during 2003 and the use of Smartboard technology to help facilitate the process in 2004. While both methods yielded positive results, the Smartboard technology elicited more interaction between group participants.

Introduction

Developing high school curricula and standards requires involving stakeholders, such as teachers, administrators, and industry representatives, in the process and achieving consensus among diverse groups (National Education Goals Panel, 1991; National Council on Teachers of Mathematics, 1989; U.S. Department of Education, 1994; Georgia Department of Education, 2003). In the spring of 2003, we began developing a High School Public Safety curriculum that focused on Law Enforcement for the state of Georgia. The following year we began developing a second portion of the High School Public Safety Curriculum that focused on Private Security and Protective Services. While the dual goals of developing a curriculum and standards and of achieving broad-based stakeholder participation and consensus were the same in both years, the methods for achieving these goals were significantly different. Several different models of consensus building have been used in developing high school standards and curricula, using techniques such as phone, mail and internet questionnaires such as found in the Delphi model (Pollard & Pollard, 2005), to extended face-to-face meetings, to a combination of multiple methods as found in the National Science Foundation model (1997). The model utilized for the development of both of the curricula in Georgia attempted to foster both individual and collective participation from all stakeholders, while developing a sense of empowerment to make positive change through this participation, and giving individuals a chance to reflect and comment on the work of the group at a later point.

The development of the Law Enforcement Curriculum was decidedly low tech and focused on face-to-face meetings, except for a web-based survey instrument used at the end of the process to validate the curriculum and standards. With the Private Security and Protective Services project, we used more advanced technology in hopes of enhancing the consensus-building process and compensating for budget cuts and a shortened time flame to host focus group meetings, which limited the number of stakeholder meetings that were feasible. The idea was to incorporate technology that added value to the sessions while not overwhelming or overburdening the facilitators and participants. This paper will compare both approaches and discuss the expected and unanticipated benefits of...

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