First and foremost, I would like to apologize for this post being late. I did not receive the book until very recently (it was being shipped). From my review of the chapter I have gathered that being a successful technological leader in a school district requires the ability to instruct teachers in various software and hardware that can be found in the classroom. From personal experience I have gathered that this is more complicated then it sounds. Nobody likes to be talked down to, therefore it is best to introduce the teachers in a more intimate setting, not a large gathering. This way, each individual can be given the amount of help and attention s/he may (or may not) need. There are many programs available for the classroom, most of them can not be taught to people in lecture format, but by experimentation by the individual (a classic example would be Microsoft Word). Some programs need a general run down of how various component and functions of the program work (think about the equations option and absolute/relative cell addressing in Excel). There are even programs that may introduce an entirely new set of issues that the individual may have never seen before (such as the query language in Microsoft Access). A relaxed atmosphere, interesting tasks, and receptive to questions I can help facilitate the learning process for the various teachers. Having a background knowledge in computers helps me to quickly learn how to use various programs and navigate through their innerworkings. It will also help figure out the basis of an issue that may be occurring, find, and implement a solution.
A technology coordinator faces many issues in his/her day to day life. Everything grade processing to ergonomics, virus protection to budget issues are things the tech coordinator must face. As a computer nerd, I spend a lot of time sitting in front of one, this lends me some understanding into the hows and whys of ergonomics. It also gives one insight into the necessity of security. But a surprising amount of problems boil down to budget. There might just not be enough money in district's tech budget. This will create a lot of problems. You can clean all of the unnecessary files and programs out of a computer, you can clean out the fans and defragment the hard drive, but that will not change the fact that older computers do not have the memory or speed available to efficiently run certain software. You can get many, many programs open source (basically means free public domain), but that does not mean the computers at your disposal can run them well. (An example would Blender, which is 3D design and animation software. Personally I probably wouldn't ever try to render even a ten second animation on my dual core laptop. There is just too much complicated information to process and compile.) Another issue is resistance to change, there is little one can do about that but be patient and jovial.
Hello Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you ideas of not talking down to teachers as well as talking to the teachers in small groups. No one likes to be talked down to and never being condescending should go along with you communications skills. As far as putting teachers in small groups this could be done according to subject mater or technology literacy level.
The budget is always a problem I am sure you are going to face. From what I have gotten out of talking to technology directors it is all about knowing when to take the leap when you can get the best deals on new technology and holding off on new technology as long as you can until it needs to be replaced. I think open source is a great thing to mention as there are a lot of resources out there that are free. As for computers you are right a slow computer is a slow computer no matter what you do. It is inevitable that computers have to be updated due to the growing complexity of software. Software makers want to help computer sales just like anyone making every program more and more complex, take up more space, and more convenient at the same time.