What we did on our summer "vacation"

It's the Friday of the first full week of kids being back in class. And with only a few execeptions, it seems like most of the technology fires have been doused - or at least controlled.

It seems to have taken longer this year to get everything running smoothly for some reason. We were short a full time technician for most of a month. We had late tech shipments and some fairly new staff who were learning the ropes. 

This summer, our little department:

• set up 160 new teacher computers
• trained those teachers how to use them
• facilitated the installation of 50 voice amplification systems
• wired and configured 105 new wireless access points
• set up and configured 180 new lab computers
• set up and configured 40 new iPads and four sets of IPad carts
• planned and participated ina tech integration conference for 160 teachers and administrators
• responded to 1,195 HelpDesk tickets (between June 1 and September 14)

Here’s a little something I'm asking my staff to think about. In the past five years, our district has added:

• IWBs and projectors in every instructional area
• Voice amplification systems in grades K-2 (and a lot of other places)
• 1200 VOIP telephones throughout the district
• 300+? wireless access points throughout the district
• Implemented InfiniteCampus (replacing SASI) and Parent/StudentConnect
• 300 iPads
• 14 additional computer labs
• 40 more teachers per year in computer and training rotation (120-160)
• MAPS, MTELL, and MCA online testing
• Naviance
• GoogleApps for Education - staff and students
• Moodle
• Destiny library and textbook management software
• Mackin Via e-books
• a new elementary school
• a print management system
• a helpdesk

And we’ve increased our building tech staff by a .6 position.
And decreased our district tech staff by a 1.0 position, adding a 1.0 tech integration specialist.
And decreased our secondary media specialists by 1.5 positions.

If people were less happy this year with how long it took to get technology problems solved, there may have been a couple reasons. First, tech staffing has not grown to keep up with demand as evidenced above. Despite working smarter and harder, the demands are simply ballooning. 

But I also think that the technology itself has become so integral to many teachers' practice that to be without it for even a short period of time puts a real cramp in their teaching style. As I've walked through the halls of our schools this fall, EVERY projector and EVERY IWB are in use. EVERY computer is turned on. EVERY teacher is wearing their microphone bling for the voice amplification systems. 

I sometimes joke that I spent the first 10 years in the district trying to get the technology ball rolling - and the second 10 years trying to keep from being run over by it.

This year, we're running faster then ever... but ball is gaining.

Comments

[Jeff]

Doug, I don't know anymore than what you have posted above but I am curious how, in your district with your advocacy, did 1.5 media specialists get cut?I wouldn't think that would happen with such a strong advocate. I am hoping your schools cut from two to one professionals and didn't eliminate the position. Did the LMS take over the tech integrationist position? If it happens there, is there any hope in other places where there is no one advocating? This is not an indictment but rather a curiosity.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Jeff,

About the only (public) reason I can give is that our district faced some severe budget cuts and the building administrators saw the library as a place to cut. In retrospect, as a library "advocate" I should have been doing more in helping building librarians create means of demonstrating their value to the building's instructional programs.

Our library media specialists really are our tech integration specialists at the secondary level. We don't have positions in the buildings with that job title - only at the district level.

The best "hopeful" observation I can make is that a dedicated librarian can help ensure his or her own position by collaborating with building leadership to make sure he or she is integral to the success of the building's goals.

Doug