Wow, as a teacher and relative new-comer to technology coordinator, 8 years, I've been fighting this fight since the very beginning. The teacher in me gets so furious when tech decisions are based on anything that doesn't make the education of our students better, that I have a very hard time not blowing my stack with my administration. OK, I'll be the electronic janitor, but keep your eye on what we're here for. All this technology has to be used for educating, or I'm wasting my time. It has become heart-breaking for me. George, I'm glad a well-respected veteran like you validates my beliefs which have become my daily battles.
Sarah Sarah M. Freking Technology Coordinator/Computer Education Bishop Garrigan Schools 1224 N. McCoy St. Algona, IA 50511 phone 515-295-3521 fax 515-295-7739 _____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of George Tuttle Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 11:14 AM To: info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us Subject: [info-tech] forced updates Techs: Thanks for all the responses to my posting. That was my last "stirrem up" posting before retirement. As some of you know, I am retiring completely on June 30th. I will be able to spend more time driving my 30 "A" and no time worrying about "forced updates". My first computer class was on a mainframe terminal in 1965 so I've seen a lot of changes in 42 years. I assumed a part-time tech coordinator (I never did know where that title originated) role in 1980 and the rest is history. It's been a fun and sometimes stressful run. I'm kinda glad its over and yet I'm sure I will miss it. I have a couple of concerns as I pass on the baton. There are a few people left that started out as teachers and then for various reasons, became computer coordinators. The microcomputer swept through our society like a firestorm! Schools as well as society in general were caught off-guard. Schools were called on to "teach" our society about microcomputers but had no staff or hardware to do it. No standards existed. To assume the title of computer coordinator, all you needed was a little knowledge and a lot of guts. The one good thing was that most computer coordinators were classroom teachers at one time or another. Although many mistakes were made, much of the beginning work was based on educational principles. For example, applications were not taught for many years. I taught programming (anyone remember Applesoft BASIC or CP/M BASIC) and moved on to PASCAL and different versions of C. After a few years, applications such as Wordstar, Visicalc, and dBase started to dominate the commercial market. Schools were then expected to teach applications. The third year I taught Applewriter, PFS-file, and Advanced Visicalc. The fourth year I taught /// E-Z Pieces, the forerunner of Appleworks, on Apple /// computers. Here I was, a person who could hardly type 20 wpm, teaching students how to type. Fortunately that corrected itself with the elimination of typewriters and the introduction of computers and Wordperfect which ruled the business world. I moved from teaching into keeping the computer systems running that were used to teach applications. Since 1991, I have spent the lion's share of my time supporting computers and gradually shifting to the most time supporting our network. I went from the red books of Novell through all the versions of NT server, 3.5, 3.51, 4, 2000, and now 2003. Through all of these major transitions I had to keep reminding myself that supporting sound education was really my job. In other words, the schools' computer network was not there to provide me with a job but to make the school staff more effective in doing their job. Herein is my biggest concern. As the role of computer coordinator has shifted more to the technical side, I see the possibility of losing focus on the real reason we have computers and computer networks in schools. Just a caveat. Enough ranting. In the eternal words of Bob Hope, I think, "Thanks for the memories." George
