It can be difficult to overcome the history of simply tech troubleshooting. At first it seems like you might be doing less for teachers when they’re in a panic about why they can’t add a widget to their blog, but once you can demonstrate the power of collaborative planning and teaching in order to meet their goals, all the tech troubleshooting just fades into the background. Considering this is my first year at this particular school division, I’m going through those same growing pains as well.

@Leigh

Thanks so much for the article summary! I’d love a copy via e-mail!

@Allen

I think you’ve addressed a lot of the challenges in the public school system. In international schools, funding is usually not as big of an issue, but even so (and even with highly trained teachers in facilitation roles) we still struggle with getting to the point where “technology integration is about improving instruction, not how to push buttons in a wiki.” It become more about the immediacy of “my technical problem” than the long term focus of improving student learning. For me, the challenge is trying to help build understanding about the focus on student learning along with the need to build basic technology skills so that teachers are capable of focusing on student learning (and not panicked about making that wiki work).

@Clint

So true! All of those groups overlap in some ways, but they’re certainly not the same. I think the way that we’ve brought our library, IT, and educational technology departments together at ISB (into our ISB21 team) has helped us start defining those roles better – and helped us simply understand how and where we overlap and how we can help each other.

@Tod

Absolutely. We definitely need a technology continuum. It’s been part of our ISB21 team discussions for the past few months and we’re just beginning to get started working on it. Once we’ve created something that works for our school, we’ll be able to share it with teachers so that they can place themselves along the continuum as well. That would be a great way to begin individual reflection about what is truly important and how to move forward. Have you already designed something for IST? Would love to see what you’ve come up with!

@Nancy

Absolutely. Growing pains, getting our foot in the door, meeting people where they’re at all true. I also think demonstrating the power of collaboration with a focus on student learning can help move past the initial tech support focus. Sometimes I think teachers don’t realize how much we can offer because of the history of the position being solely tech support.

My experience has been that I’m viewed as tech support- meaning someone to go to set up your Outlook Calendar or learn how to set up transitions in a slideshow. I see that also as part of this position; when specific tasks are embedded in a relevant project or activity. I do constantly communicate the curriculum/learning core to my position, while engaging in support of many types to “get my foot in the door” with colleagues. To me it’s the growing pains in any school or on a campus that hold change back- and education has historically been slow to make changes. We also have to meet colleagues where they are to progress, just as with students in the classroom.

Unlike maps, there is no tech continuum that can guide all of us. We need to customize one to match our school’s circumstances and approaches to teaching and learning. A continuum gives us a bird’s eye view of scene so that we can easily see where we’ve been and effectively plan where we are going. If it’s not already part of the role, I would add mapping out a technology/information literacy continuum to the tech facilitator’s role.

Cheers.

To answer one of your questions, I find the largest undefined area to be how my role fits into the inter-play between various groups on campus: the Tech Department (am I tech support?), the IT faculty (do I teach ‘computers’?), the Library (am I a media specialist?), te Counselors (do I handle parent meetings and teach advisory/life skills classes?) and Learning Support (how do I support teachers/students in the classroom?).

In my previous school we had a “Technology Integration Coach”. This person attended many ed tech conferences, was great at solving tech support issues, helped teachers navigate different web applications, provided technology workshops, yet did not hold a bachelor’s degree or teaching certification. I always wondered whether someone with no teaching degree and no formal knowledge of pedagogy, should be teaching teachers about educational technology integration. In my mind technology integration is about improving instruction, not how to push buttons in a wiki, or Word. Technology is not the focus. Student learning is the focus.

The other white elephant in the room is funding. I think many schools would love to hire a top-of-the-line teaching professional who can handle the teaching, coaching, and occasional emergency tech support issue, but they just don’t have the cash. Hiring a paraprofessional and placing the focus on tech support and ed tech “button pushing” is much cheaper than hiring a teacher trained in pedagogy, educational technology theory and practice.

Overall, I think this debate has been going on for years in the reading, literacy, library media arenas. (If you don’t function under a fixed schedule, your job is open to interpretation.) Looking to the professional literature in these areas may help. Maybe “Technology Integration Specialist” (teaches students and teachers), “Technology Integration Coach” (teaches teachers) and “Technology Paraprofessional/Assistant” (tech support or non-certified staff) are where we should start? Keep it simple? Maybe I’m way off base…

There is a great article about “learning technologists” written by Martin Oliver a few years ago that may add some resources to your first question (What is still undefined in our conception of the role of a technology facilitator/coach/coordinator?) If you do not have access to the journal, let me know and I am happy to email it to you.

Martin Oliver. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. London: Nov 2002. Vol. 39, Iss. 4; pg. 245, 8 pgs

SUMMARY
Learning technologists – who represent one example of the ‘new professionals’ currently emerging in higher education – are a rapidly growing group whose practices are little understood, even within their own community. In this paper, the questions of who learning technologists are, what they do and, perhaps more importantly, how they do it will be considered by drawing upon work undertaken through a SEDA small grant for research. This has shown that learning technologists may undertake any of a diverse range of activities, including staff development, research, management and technical support. What they have in common is that they work with small groups or with individual academics on sustained curriculum development activities. The paper will include an overview of the research, but will focus on the process through which these collaborations are initiated and structured, and will provide an insight into the values and strategies that guide their activities.