December 2005 — Technology Integration

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Keeping Tech Support In Step With Technology

The Bleeding Edge
Schools hoping to provide up-to-date technology opportunities to students often face a no-win situation. As they try to encourage innovative uses of technology by students and teachers, this creativity hits the so-called “bleeding edge” of technology. Lacking sufficient bandwidth, and thus unequipped to deal with anything out of the ordinary, less imaginative, overworked technical support staff may unintentionally end up discouraging the provocative use of technology. They find themselves taking a defensive, circle-the-wagons approach to technology implementation issues simply because they have no way to cope with any deviations, even when those deviations might be educationally appropriate.

Schools continue to experiment with ways to provide that leading edge without the bleeding edge. In California, the South Bay Advanced Educational Technology Consortium (AdTech; www.adtech.org) is an organization made up of technology leaders from 14 public school districts, along with university and vendor partners. The consortium members’ approaches to technical support vary widely, yet what is uniform among them is the belief that no single method has been fully successful due to limited funding resources and lack of qualified personnel.

When tech aides gain required skills, they often leave for higher-paying positions outside of education. This frequent turnover results in continual retraining and a lack of faith within the school community that problems will be solved quickly and completely.

Part-time aides. Some AdTech districts have followed Lorenz’s model and hired part-time tech support personnel. These individuals have varied levels of expertise, including some with only an “interest” in technology. While cost-effective in the short run as a way to increase support levels, very few of these aides are certified in network administration, hardware repair, or other advanced technology. And when tech aides gain required skills, they often leave for higher-paying positions outside of education. This frequent turnover results in continual retraining and a lack of faith within the school community that problems will be solved quickly and completely.

Hiring out. In two of AdTech’s 14 districts, the decision was made to contract out technical support services. While some service has improved and out-of-pocket costs have fallen, these districts have seen an overall slower response time due to limited on-site availability. Worse, these networks have been made so secure that it often hinders teacher creativity, as they cannot install new software or adjust configuration settings without calling the outside contracted support for assistance.