Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Technology Coordinator
I'm wondering what your definition of "Technology Coordinator" is? I have my idea, but in my district, I'm apparently wrong. I've introduced my colleagues to so many new things (thanks in large part to the UF classes I've taken), but my coordinator seems more like a repairman that gets mad when you have a question, even though you follow the new procedure for stating the question, emailing it to the proper location and waiting patiently for days to get a reply, which usually shows no personality or care for you as a person. Is this typical, or am I just SOL with who I have? Check out my post on my other blog Hoppy's Melon to see a little of what I deal with at work as I try to make more use of new technology. Sometimes it's just so difficult to make basic use of computers at my school.
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5 comments:
It sounds like you may have our guy's brother! I really shouldn't be to hard on our tech guy, but he is semi-retired ("49%" here in GA and not really worried about staying on top of what's new except at his own leisure) and his standard procedure for fixing our problems is to do a wipe of our work station hard drive! He really doesn't get mad, but he will sometimes "forget" to take care of some things!
Your plight reminds me of some of what I read in Todd Oppenheimer's book The Computer Delusion. Many school districts' computer/software testing, adoption, purchase, installation, training, and implementation have not kept up with the torrid pace of technological advancements. No doubt, the tech guys fall into this pot as well. Overcoming the bureaucracies that seem to keep many of us a step behind in some cases can be maddening. But as long as we are technically a governmental entity, it will be difficult to ever shake completely free and catch up. My fingers, however, are crossed!
Hi Mark, this is Joe (TA)
I’m sorry to hear that your tech coordinator is so difficult. It sounds like they don’t provide enough resources to adequately maintain technology at your school, much less provide the training necessary to make sure technology is used appropriately.
I’m more familiar with schools in the Tampa area than anywhere else in Florida. Pinellas and Pasco counties do a good job. There are lots of in-service trainings with generally high numbers of attendees. In Pasco the job title is Instructional Technology, and there is one full time at each school. In large (1000+) schools, there are additional positions. On the flip side, in Hillsborough the tech coordinators also teach classes, so they essentially have two full-time jobs. The positions that don't involve teaching aren't considered professional positions, and they are paid accordingly.
We have two tech coordinators. They basically handle repairs (though not very well! I waited three months for my printer to get fixed before finding out it was "unfixable" and being told to buy my own new one. One man then added, "But we won't make repairs on your self-purchased machine if it happens to break at school." After such headache, my department felt bad and dished out the new one for me.) They are both nice guys, but don't have educational technology training whatsoever. Working in a school, I think they should be required to take at least a class or two about how tech is used in schools and how it increases learning and performance. I think a tech coordinator should be someone we could go to with questions like "What do you think about me using _______ to teach about ________?" At least it seems we're all in the same boat on this one.
Well, our IT lady of 20+ years left during the later half of last school year. While some did not get along with her because she may not have been the friendliest of coworkers (she was to me though, common interest in tech I suppose), she was very organized and got the job done. Most importantly, she knew we were a school, and did care about our students.
Forward ahead a year, and it's been about two months since her replacement has been fired! He was a 20 year old "kid" that knew his stuff, but was the least bit sociable and unorganized person you'll ever meet. He was not concerned that students were dependent on our equipment to be functioning properly.
Now, we have a para/teacher's aide working/training to be our IT. She's been here a long time and actually cares what happens around here. So a lot of it has to do with their personality and their connection to a school environment and its students.
You have to understand that most IT people that come into schools are non-instructional. They see what you're doing as a teacher, but are not involved in the learning process. Their job, is to fix problems from a technical standpoint. There were some lean months when I put that hat on while we were looking for a new IT person, ouch!! But that's why I enjoy building my knowledge on both sides, it comes in super handy when you're using technology in the classroom.
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