Wearable Technology Spending

Abstract

Very little research has examined the applications wearable technologies can have in education despite industry experts forecasting major growth in the global market for these innovative devices (Futuresource Consulting, 2015). Notwithstanding this profound challenge, in the next 3 to 5 years school districts will need to make multimillion-dollar investments into supporting these technologies as they begin to enter the learning environment. Given this gap in the research literature, this chapter explores the potential decision-making challenges school districts and their leaders will have to face when wearables become more commonplace in education. Using the Strategic Model for Technology Acquisition (Ribeiro, 2015), the author outlines both the innovative opportunities and potential problems wearables pose for both school leaders and stakeholders in the near future. Moreover, this chapter is meant to serve as an informative resource for education leaders and presents strategic and research-validated approaches for procuring and supporting wearable technologies.