Trofim Lysenko (1898-1976) was a botanist and plant scientist who lived in worked in the Soviet Union. He was the director of the Institute of Genetics which was part of the Academy of Sciences within the USSR. In that position, he was able to exert political influence and he used that influence to promote a Read More
Category: Leadership
An Observation of IT in Schools
If you get bored, skip down to the end… Schools have always been information-rich places. There is a curriculum to be taught that comprises ideas, concepts, information, and skills. Learning the curriculum requires information-rich interaction between teachers and students and among students. Humans have invented technologies to facilitate interaction and information exchange for centuries, and Read More
#edtech Steering Committees
School administrators, the licensed professionals hired by school boards to implement their decisions and policies, have ultimate responsibility for all decisions in the school. Efficacious administrators understand they do not have sufficient expertise to make appropriate and proper decisions. They also understand reasonable implementation will also necessitate they make decisions about the limits to what Read More
A Little Reality Regarding Technology in Schools
I’ve spent my career working in education… well sort of. I started as a science and math teacher, then became a computer teacher which led me to becoming a technology coordinator—a position that includes many potential job functions. I have filled them all. Several hiring committees have selected me when they needed someone to sit Read More
Collaborative IT Decision-Making in Schools
Coincident with the changing nature of IT in schools, has been an increasing need for a range of IT professionals to ensure the devices are well-chosen, functional, and used for appropriate teaching. It is unusual to find educators who have sufficient technical expertise to manage the enterprise networks that necessary for school operations and effective Read More
Triaging #edtech
IT systems fail. All IT professionals (and all IT users) know this. The reality is that the “to do” list for IT professionals in schools is often too long to allow immediate resolution of failed system. Further adding to the reality is that not all failed systems can or even should be resolved. IT professionals Read More
On Customer Service and IT
“Difficult” interactions between IT users and IT professionals are not unique to schools. The difficulties can arise from users’ frustrations that IT is interfering with their abilities to do their work, the perceptions that their priorities are not receiving proper attention, and other factors. In many cases, the IT professionals contribute to the difficulties by Read More
Knowing Your Data
For the last 20 years or more, we have expected every leader to be “data-driven.” If they don’t claim to ground decisions in data, then it is assumed they are just making up what they want to do. Despite the chatter about data, I have found those who make the strongest claims to be data-driven Read More
Technology Problems vs. Education Problems
My career has been spent in the space between different populations and translating the language of one population into the language of another. The differences in language are largely the result of different types of problems and situations technologists and educators are prepared to manage and spend their time managing. Compared to the social milieu Read More
Reasonable Implementation of #edtech
School boards hire superintendents and other high-level administrators to make the ultimate decisions about what happens in the school. These leaders are charged with ensuring all decisions, including those related to appropriate design and proper configuration of IT systems are reasonable. Reasonableness is defined by: Budgets—All decisions must fall within the available budgets and the Read More