What tech skills does a school CTO need?

TECHNOLOGY IS DOMINATED BY TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE; THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY DONT MANAGE; AND THOSE WHO MANAGE WHAT THEY DONT UNDERSTAND. PUTTS LAW

A (somewhat edited) question in this week's e-mail from a colleague:

I’m sitting here contemplating my fundamental inadequacy when I put my experience and knowledge up against the CoSN “Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO" framework, particularly in the IT portion (III.) which they describe as 30% of the job.  

     Where would you put yourself on this metric, and is a deep understand of network systems a critical part of doing this job well?  I have absorbed, more or less by osmosis, a good deal of understanding of how the network pieces fit together, but my expertise is on the instructional side.  I will always be dependent on the systems people for decent information.

     Should I be trying to acquire in some deliberate fashion more network design knowledge or should I depend on my management skills to help the wires & pliers people guide me to good systems-level decisions?

     Knowing you have a good sense of your own shortcomings, it dawned on me that you may be the right person for these questions.

First of all, a keen sense of my shortcomings is primarily due to my marital status. But I have always seen humility as critical in any endeavor.

To get to your questions, I feel my lack of formal technical training hasn't been a handicap in doing the CTO job competently. In fact, it may be a plus since I view perspective and empathy as critical to being a CTO, more so than hard technology skills or knowledge. I can certainly describe in plain English networking things* like packetshapers, routers, firewalls, deployment servers, thin clients, WAPs, Active Directory, DaaS, etc., what they are, what they do, why they are important, and some specs to think about when considering them, but I wouldn't know where to start in terms of their physical management. I depend on my IT folks, especially my (patient) network manager, to teach me and help make good collaborative decisions. I also read continuously and broadly in lots of areas.

But I also feel the same way about the technology integration specialists in my department - they are my teaching and learning, staff development, and application software gurus. My job it to make sure there is a realistic balance and common goals between the two sides of the equation. I depend on lots of external specialists and my colleagues in other school districts - my PLN, if you will.

One of the things about which I am very proud is that everyone in my department works together as a genuine team with very little friction. My primary job is planning, supervising, project management, communicating to staff and adminstration, policy making and budgeting. About all these things, it's critical I make informed decisions. Admitting my ignorance about both technology and education and then figuring out how to alleviate that condition has proven to be the most successful strategy I have found in my twenty years of doing this work.

I've looked at the COSN competency list and have felt it does a pretty good job of summarizing the expectations people have of me (and I have of myself) in my current position. I answer to the superintendent while I supervise the network manager, tech integration specialists, student information system people, and building technicians. I serve as the library department chair. I personally think the COSN document is perhaps a little heavy on vision and a little light on management skills.

You want an educator in charge of the tech department who is willing to learn constantly. The half-life of any post-secondary tech degree is, what, 18 months?

Here are some other thoughts about my job:

http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2010/11/16/the-changing-role-of-the-cto.html

* Why stop at networking things? How much does the CTO need to know about large data systems, LCD projectors, IWBs, every type of computing device and OS, social networking uses, one's AUP and tech ethics, applications of hardware and software in every curricular area including tech ed, collaborative purchasing programs, state and federal laws surrounding technology use, privacy, etc, E-rate, e-books and CMSs, security systems, VOIP phone systems, ... well, you get the drift.

Changes in software will cause ripples

12 Massive Changes That Will Transform the Software Industry Within 5 Years

1. Cloud computing changes how companies buy software.
2. Bottoms-up marketing tactics change which software companies buy.
3. Desktop virtualization changes how companies deliver software.
4. Windows 8′s ‘Metro’ interface will change how people use Windows.
5. The move to Web apps is breaking Microsoft’s monopoly.
6. Mobile computing changes where software is used.
7. App stores change how much people are willing to pay for software.
8. The death of the mouse changes the software user interface.
9. Open source changes how software is written.
10. Open source changes who controls software.
11. Big data changes what can be done with  software.
12. Social media changes how software is used.

To anyone who is actively involved in educational technology, these changes aren't exactly surprising. Here are some everyday ripples the changing software scene is causing in our district...

• Our software budget is a pale shadow of what it was only five years ago. We're no longer installing Office on elementary lab computers and questioning whether it needs to go in middle school labs given the functionality of GoogleDocs. Of course system software costs - student information system, data mining, payroll, etc. - continue to grow. 
• Why pay for software if a free app does the trick? Are we more mindful of what we are actually spending our software dollars on?
• When most software is cloud-based, the brand and capacity of most devices is moot. Hard drive size - who cares? Windows or Mac - who cares? Give users access to Firefox or Chrome and lock the OS down. Why buy a $1000 new desktop computer for a lab when a $500 reconditioned machine with a 5 year warrantee will do just fine? Or a $500 tablet or netbook?
• Software selection is being individualized. The special ed teacher and the PE teacher and the third grade teacher and the HS English teacher all want their own "apps" that meet their own specific needs. District-wide software adoption? I don't think so. Oh, it's the content area specialist who is the software expert rather than the district technology department - at last. We techs just help with acquisition and deployment, not so much selection. (See number 2 above - it's not just schools.)
• Labs are increasingly relics. A single lab in the elementary buildings for testing is all that's needed if there's a cart of iPads available (at about half the cost of a new lab and without real estate needed). Writing and general purpose labs in the secondary can be shut down with only specialized stations for productivity (video and photo editing, programming, CAD/CAM, business, and science applications) remaining. Any bets on how long before these move to the cloud?
• It's capacity not just coverage that's the concern for wireless access. It's one thing to provide a wireless connection for a couple devices; quite another for 30 or so. The need to upgrade the WAN and pipe to the Internet is crucial. As is reliability, as Moodle replaces the textbook, worksheets and classroom video.

 Other changes that low-cost, open source, cloud-based, user-selected software is causing in your school?

Fairness - remove it from your vocab

...fairness isn't an objective feature of the universe. It's a concept that was invented so children and idiots can participate in arguments. Scott (Dilbert) Adams

As with most districts, our technology needs and wants outstrip our technology budget. And too often the question of "fairness" comes up when allocating funds. Is such an allocation fair to the elementary program? fair to the kids at ___________ high school? fair to ________ teacher or _________ department?

Like Adams, I don't believe fairness should be a factor in making budgeting decisions. The concept of fairness is so situationally dependent, it really has no meaning at all. 

Is it fair when the slow running zebra is caught and eaten by the lion? Seems fair to the lion; not so much to the zebra.

If two classroom computers are given to a teacher who uses them well and no classroom computers are given to a teacher who does not normally use them at all, should the term fairness even enter the conversation?

Instead of asking if an allocation decision is fair, what if we asked if it:

• Creates equity of opportunity?
• Advances district-wide goals and proven learning strategies?
• Supports a proven best practice?
• Enables an experiment with a high chance of success?
• Provides children with special needs a means of success?

Remove the term fairness from your vocabulary - even if it doesn't seem fair.

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