Educator or Technologist?

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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on April 30, 2008 at 8:33am

"Too often I have heard stories about a constant battle between the classroom teacher and the IT staff. The teacher is frustrated because they see an opportunity to use an available resource and their school/district network blocks it or filters it so heavily that it can't do what they had envisioned. The Educational Technologist needs to be able to articulate the vision to the IT staff so they can see the need to find a way to securely and safely allow the implementation of Twitter with in the learning context. (Twitter is just one of many possible options - feel free to replace it with the tool of your choice)"

I would add that it should also be in the scope of an EdTech Specialist to understand the technology well enough that they can also articulate to the teacher the 'real' concerns IT has with those tools. They should also be able to articulate to the teacher when the 'tool' they think they want really doesn't meet the goals they have. If the EdTech Specialist does not have the ability to walk partially in both 'worlds' then there is really little to no value to them. IMHO.

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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on April 30, 2008 at 8:17am

I agree with you, thanks for the clarifications. I do think that one of the issues we have in schools today is the focus of technology 'leaders' being solely on the 'education' piece with little knowledge about technology beyond the sound bites they get at sales presentations.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Thompson on April 30, 2008 at 8:33am

Yes, there is some truth to that. I think, however, that it is changing as the concept of an Educational Technologist, Technology Integrator, or Educational Technology Liaison develops.

I earned my MA in Ed Tech in Pepperdine's OMAET program. The program is about a 70/30 split online/F2F so you are steeped in the Ed Tech environment. I learned HTML - but not through direct instruction in the program but because I wanted to use it (needed to use it) with in the context of the learning. I also began to dabble in CSS and Javascript because I wanted to play with their functionality - but I didn't need to. I came out with some of that basic knowledge - but the program was focused on leadership, building vision, facilitating change. Little time was spent on teaching coding or languages, that occurred, primarily, outside of the course work and between the cadre members.

I think that, more and more, those who are entering the Ed Tech arena are not wooed by the sales pitch - it comes more often from actually using something and seeing the potential through the personal experience.

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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on April 30, 2008 at 8:46am

I was not commenting on EdTech programs as much as the current status of people leading technology in schools. They often are ex-teachers with admin degrees outside the scope of technology. Some have, through personal effort, learned about technology beyond the 'user' perspective, but not all of them.

From what this thread has revealed there is also a debate as to the depth an EdTech specialist needs to go and variations in programs being offered.

An EdTech leader has to know enough about the actual technology to NOT be wooed by a companies sales pitch to buy the ultimate SMS that will slice the Super's freshly baked bread every morning as well as solve all their data decisions.

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Permalink Reply by Cory Plough on April 30, 2008 at 9:07am

@indigo ABSOLUTELY- and that is a huge part of the reform that has to happen.

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Permalink Reply by Trent McAllan on April 30, 2008 at 12:41am

I agree with a greta deal of your comments above. I am in the very early stages of a Masters program in e-Learning at UTS (Sydney, Australia). I guess I am in a similar position to Cory where I want to be what we call an e-integrator. I am interested in the server/network/email side of things but don't want to be the one responsible for them.

I have a passion for education and don't want my time to be fixing stuff, my aim is to be in a role where I am educating teachers on how to best integrate tech into their lessons. I understand that there will always be times where it is most convenient for me to trouble shoot a problem, I do that now within the KLA I teach in. Most of the time it is as simple as showing another teacher which port to plug the overhead projector into...

I have read this thread until here so far with a great deal of interest and hope that it continues as it is an issue that I am deeply interested in. There are many varied and valid opinions so far, in saying that I guess I am putting myself in the camp that sees that there is a need for and I believe that it will happen very soon that more and more K-12 settings will have a demarcation between the edtech/e-integrators and the IT dept. They will need to work together and have an understanding of the work that each does but there will still be a marked difference between the two.

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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on April 30, 2008 at 4:15am

"I agree with a greta deal of your comments above. I am in the very early stages of a Masters program in e-Learning at UTS (Sydney, Australia). I guess I am in a similar position to Cory where I want to be what we call an e-integrator. I am interested in the server/network/email side of things but don't want to be the one responsible for them."

Well HTML and CSS is not being responsible for the web server; it is merely learning the tools to create a website. Being responsible for the web server would mean knowing the OS (WIndows 2003 / 2008, Linux LAMP server, or OS X 10.4/.5 server), knowing the web server (IIS, Apache, lighthppd, etc), knowing the frameworks (PHP, .Net, etc), knowing backup software, knowing routing and DNS, etc.

"There are many varied and valid opinions so far, in saying that I guess I am putting myself in the camp that sees that there is a need for and I believe that it will happen very soon that more and more K-12 settings will have a demarcation between the edtech/e-integrators and the IT dept."

I agree there is a need for IT people to lead the IT department not former teachers, but there will still be the needs for knowledge bleed-over. I do not see an IT person being able to lead the IT department of a school district without them learning about some of the educational topics they will have to mesh with. Curriculum design being one of those areas.

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Permalink Reply by Trent McAllan on April 30, 2008 at 4:35am

I agree there must be a 'bleed-over',but am yet to see a great deal of it. I am just talking about the context in which I work. The system we have for the way that schools are run in Australia is very different to the States.

The equivalent of a school district does exist but that only captures about 50% of students. I work in an independent school, that does not have the district support, where the head of the IT department is excellent at leading up the department, but leaves a lot to be desired when providing 'assistance' to teaching staff. Now I understand that is only one instance, but I have worked in other schools where locally there is an IT member on site and the IT design team is 5 people working with about 50-60 schools...

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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on April 30, 2008 at 8:37am

I think one of the problems most K-12 schools are dealing with is technology 'grew' in their schools like a weed and they are just now getting around to figuring out that they should have planned the garden.

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Permalink Reply by James Durkan on April 30, 2008 at 4:32am

G'day, Cory

In my experience the issue has been a semantic one. Initially hired as an Instructional Designer, my institute found that faculty were reluctant to accept that. When my contract was renewed, I was cast as an Education Technologist. I do encounter faculty who now find it easier to be dismissive towards me but they don't make the mistake twice. My skills are based in educational, developmental, cognitive and social psychology as well as Human Computer Interaction and usability.

This is not me blowing my own trumpet - I generally argue that a solid foundation is required in those areas since e-learning is not the same as face-to-face teaching. We have brokered a truce - I don't tell them how to teach and they respect that I have a better grounding in the science of e-learning than they imagine.

This means that I continually research technology, cascade anything I consider valuable and defend my selections with reference to the areas I listed above.

I hope your Master's is working out for you. The nature and content can vary widely from one institute to another. I am uncomfortable with the ones run by Computer Schools and Technology Faculties because they seem to place too much emphasis on the technology. My Masters course was run by the Technical Documentation department and it seems to have a more holistic view of the area; Instructional Design, echnical Documentation, Flash Development, Authorware Development, Human Computer Interaction, Pedagogy and Usibility.

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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on April 30, 2008 at 8:39am

Sounds like a good program... as you point out the 'real' question is how much of each discipline does the person in the middle really need.

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Permalink Reply by Cory Plough on April 30, 2008 at 9:00am

" I don't tell them how to teach and they respect that I have a better grounding in the science of e-learning than they imagine."

I understand what you mean about telling staff how to teach. Its hard enough just to model new tools and Web applications in front of an audience of teachers who are set in their ways and not interested in learning about those things. Thats part of what has to change about the system though. Computer technology and the Internet isn't a trend in education, its a complete shift. Its a way of life for our students so has to become extremely important to teachers. They have to make classes relevant and one of the more signifigant ways to do that is connect using the social networking tools, mobile devices, and Web 2.0 applications that our kids are using.

Still back to my original points, in a class called the Internet for Educators, why am I not learning about how to use the Internet to educate? In a position called Educational Technologist, why am I not learning how to educate teachers?

This discussion has been fantastic with many aspects being debated, but I still fail to see why the people who are responsible for bringing 21st century educational tools to their schools would need to bring html and CSS to their schools. Sure they need to know about them, but not so much that you fail to learn the tools that are truly going to help students have more success in their classes.

I

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