In college, I was a Computer Science major. My intention was to become a Computer Science teacher at the high school level. Having taken over 10 years to get my degree, that never materialized. I ended up getting technical training and started working as a computer technician. Eventually, I ended up working for a school district in the IT department. It seems my two different career paths intersected. I was working in education as a technology professional. Ultimately, I want to be a Chief Information Officer or a Technology Director.
One of the most interesting things to me is to be able to build systems from the ground up. Technology is always changing and with those changes come new ideas and products. In the eight years I've been with Colonial School District, I have been personally responsible for the planning and deployment of at least three separate systems. I want to eventually be the individual that is able to choose what systems get built rather than just be the one doing the work.
I have a very technical background. I have had years of training including several industry certifications (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, Cisco Certified Network Professional, Novell Certified Administrator) and a BS in Computer Science. I have been in this industry for over 10 years, eight of which were in education. I started as a basic technician and have progress to an acting Technology Coordinator. I have seen the various aspects of educational technology from many different perspectives.
The biggest challenge I have found is a lack of understanding about what is required to keep technology running. We are a hands on district that does not outsource any of our work. In the last three years our PC count has increased by nearly 900 units. Our servers have increased from about 15 to almost 40. In this time, we have only increased staff by one person, a Technology Staff Developer. I have found that many administrators don't account properly for maintaining the equipment we have and the effects of adding more.
2 comments:
What an interesting road traveled leading up the place you are today. I enjoyed this post and continue to value the diverse perspective you add to these topics. It is very interesting to hear this reflection from someone who is actually experiencing the obstacles tech coordinators encounter first hand.
I do realize that each school district will be different in the way they approach, support, and use technology. BUT I think you brought up an interesting point in your final paragraph and one that I would like to learn more about. I wounder if other tech-coordinators are experiencing difficulties related to the growth of the sheer numbers of technology (they are in charge of) and the correlating support services they are provisioned.
I agree with your thinking about the equipment maintenances. I have worked in a high school technology center for a while in China. We outsourced most of computing infrastructure works to a company. We technician mainly provide desktop support to students and teachers. Since there were two network systems (Novell and Windows NT), we had to spend extra time on the training, supporting and troubleshooting to the end users. The technology center hired more three stuffs to meet the increasing maintenance demanding. So with more and more computer using in classrooms, there are probably more job opportunities in our educational technology field.
---Lifang
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