As I read the text I thought about the early days of my job at the private boarding school where I work. When I was hired we were using MacIntosh G3 desktop computers in the computer labs and our library had PC machines. Over the course of about 3 years there was a push from both our IT department who wanted to streamline things a bit more and the parents of our students who often wondered why we were still using MAC computers when their office used PC. So we made the decision to switch and become an all PC school. Around this same time the expectations that teachers would integrate technology into their courses posed a problem for our teachers because they did not all have technology. The school needed a plan that would work to help solve both challenges. What we decided to do with the technology dollars that were available was to lease our computers for 3 years, because we would not own them outright we also had enough money in our budget to also lease a laptop for each full-time teacher.
In our text it speaks about comprehensive planning and how schools need to be sure that before they make such a large financial commitment that they take many different factors into account. I am reminded of the multiple meetings that I attended that involved the IT Director, Chief Financial Officer, Division heads and myself, as the school's Computer Department Chair. We each brought our own concerns to the table as it related to the switch in technology and the distribution of laptops to the faculty. Questions like was there enough electricity in the buildings to handle more technology, there had been many power surges at the school due to our window air conditioners so we knew that power was in short supply. We were also in the process of doing some major building and renovations to our school it was decided that additional electricity capacity must be priority. This demonstrates the level of collaboration that was necessary and we even added our facilities director once the power question was added.
The chapter spoke about a commitment that was necessary to ensure a plan's success. Our administration had to make the commitment to provide technology support for the computers as well as training for the teachers. This commitment came in the form of lunchtime learning workshops that the teachers could attend to learn about their machines. We increased the size of our IT department to a number that allows us to better handle the increased support demands. One of the IT members was responsible mainly for the network then another was responsible for hardware support problems and printers while my job was to help with technology integration.
The last piece is continuity, our plan began back in 1998 and has grown and gotten better each year and today we are still supporting technology within the classroom and offering technology support for our teachers and staff. We are now fully wireless and over the past couple of months I have had to set up log in passwords for members of our dining hall and support staff so that they can access our on campus communications which are filtered through Gmail. In order to use the fastest wifi connection they have to have a system log in and password. It is great that our staff now is involved in technology but it adds another layer of support and assistance necessary to keep our technology and our community up to date with the ever changing world.
References
Picciano, A. G. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology. Prentice Hall.
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