--- TIC-TECH message:
I thought about responding to Peter's note to him personally, but then I
figured, he's a pretty thick-skinned guy - and heck, he's new to the
district, so here goes.... First, Peter, thanks for your addressing this
issue - and I suspect your personal interest in pursuing it. More
responses below.....
On Wed, 24 Jan 2001, Klein, Peter wrote (on tic-tech):
> It's clear that in order for technology to be used effectively in our
> schools, instructional and technical support has to be part of the school
> culture. How should this look and what can we do to help these building
> people help their school?
Yes, building support needs to be part of the school culture, but first
and foremost, it needs to be included in the school BUDGET. Half the
schools in the district have no building funded tech position. I would
suggest there also be a meeting of administrators to address the budget
issue. It's hard to help these building tech people when they don't
exist.
> A few minutes will be taken at Thursday's Tech Forum to begin this
> conversation. We are also planning on a discussion with a subset of building
> tech support people - elementary lab instructors who are interested in
> redefining their roles - to be held on February 8th at 4:00 pm at TOPS.
I think this is great! Elementary lab instructors do an incredible job in
the face of a variety of adverse and challenging situations. But - will
there also be a subset meeting of librarians who run their tech programs?
How about UWired students? Or certs in generic do-it-all "tech"
positions?
My points are:
1) Many different people run tech programs in buildings - they probably
all need redefined roles, and...
2) Redefining roles is great, but really - who defines the role of a tech
position? Who decides what they want and how much they are going to pay
a tech person? So far in Seattle, that's entirely up to the whim, luck,
and prosperity of each individual school. I maintain the exercise of
defining roles - without a new showing of direction and support from
administration - will be pointless. - Mark
Mark Ahlness
mahlness@cks.ssd.k12.wa.us
Teacher, grade three at:
Arbor Heights Elementary School
http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 24 2001 - 19:26:36 PST