Technology Departments

This year I have had the pleasure to attend some wonderful conferences. FETC, MACE, and our very own KCTechNet.

FETC was one of the best technology conferences I have attended, and in my opinion it rivals the ISTE conference. The FETC had wonderful workshops on iPads in the classroom, new gadgets, and Web 2.0 tools. Leslie Fisher (lesliefisher.com) was a delight and had a lot of great ideas. One particular device that I would highly recommend is a PogoPlug. The PogoPlug plugs into your home router and up to 5 external hard drives can be attached. This allows access to files securely anywhere there is Internet access. This has come in handy more than once. I paid $45 for mine through Amazon.

MACE and KCTechnet were local conference with practitioners presenting. Mike Ramirez and I presented on 10 Reasons for Google in the Classroom. Many good ideas were presented at both of these conferences with the theme to enhance instruction with the integration of technology.

The time for change is in the leadership of technology departments in education. Many teachers at the conferences were excited with the possibilities but were quickly deflated with any further idea of using what they had learned because, "the technology department won't let us". The question I post for all in educational leadership is, "why should technology be driving what teachers use?" Most technology people are not educators and have no clue about what is needed in the classroom. Isn't it time for a paradigm shift in who makes these decisions? Technology department's role is to provide a secure network, filter inappropriate material, and provide support to users, teachers and staff, so they can do their jobs with every possible tool available to them.