As educational professionals, we have unusual access to computer systems and data. We are likely to be users of many computing devices. At work, you have classroom computers, computer rooms, library computers, and mobile devices that you and those around you use. These are the devices that are most tightly secured. There are sophisticated firewalls, Read More
Category: Tech for Educators
What Computers Do
Perhaps the most impressive capacities of computers are those related to information manipulation and analysis. Computers can remember with precision and longevity, and computers can follow algorithms at billions of steps per second. The keyboard strokes that become digital displays that humans recognize as words and sentences are actually a series of digital signals. Those Read More
Let’s Diversify Computer Education
I heard through the grapevine—one comprising trusted individuals—that a former student was interviewing for a job as an IT professional. My name came up in their conversations as members of the interview team know me and knew the candidate had been my student. The message I got through the grapevine is that my former student Read More
Some Observations of Generative AI
Generative AI has been a “thing” for more than a year. My colleagues in education seem to be surviving despite the warnings that “the sky is falling.” Some are working to integrate it into their instruction; some are avoiding it. I was a student when handheld calculators became ubiquitous, I was a teacher when computers Read More
Elevator Pitch: School IT Decisions
It is important for all IT professionals who work in school to understand the nature of the users and their specific needs. Every decision made and every action taken by IT professionals (regardless of their role) affects end users either directly (by providing troubleshooting, training, and other support) or indirectly (by installing and configuring systems Read More
On Computer Mediated Communication in Schools
The events I recorded in the papers I wrote as an undergraduate student and in my journal kept during my first few years working as a teacher and the few surviving lesson plans and resource folders from my pre-Internet years (recall that I entered the teaching profession using an Apple IIc computer in 1988), all Read More
Where the Rationale for School IT Breaks Down
In my experience, that last point is where school IT decision-making breaks down. Organizations have different strategic goals, and they accomplish those goals by setting different priorities and adopting different strategies. IT professionals who have learned their craft in organizations other than schools are often unfamiliar with the urgency of malfunctioning academic systems. During my Read More
Special Use IT in Schools
In addition to the fleets of computers maintained for populations such as students and teachers, schools are places where special purpose computers and peripherals are found. In makerspaces, science laboratories, studios, workshops, and other special teaching spaces, there are computing devices necessary for specialized educational activities. Examples include:
IT Tradeoffs in Schools
School users are also well-known for trading reliability for functionality and ease. IT professionals know that systems can be configured to perform many more functions than are typically used. Further, many users will use only a fraction of the tools and features available in the applications they use. Of course, using these tools and features Read More
Edtech for IT: Learning Management Systems
Virtual classrooms took on particular importance to teachers and students with the quick pivot to remote teaching necessitated by the COVID pandemic. Even before that, however, virtual classrooms were being managed by school IT professionals and teachers were using them to extend their classrooms and enhance information sharing and interaction. Like other cloud-based infrastructure in Read More