Jackie, Okoboji has a Tech Team and we meet nearly every week on Tuesday unless something comes up. I lead those meetings and the members are our superintendent, our media specialist/technology integrationist, our .5 time tech, and our school board president. When we do think about using new or different technologies, we usually have a test group of teachers. Those teachers then share their experiences with either just us or the entire staff.
I do understand the frustration with committees, but I feel they are important so that everyone has a chance to share their ideas. Once in a while I am like Kurt, and go off on my own, create something, and then present that to the team and say how about this. I do absolutely hate going in circles during a meeting. In fact I recently requested to be removed from a committee that constantly went in circles. It drove me nuts! So, by leading the tech team, I do my very best to not go in circles during our meetings. This doesn't always occur, but mostly it does. I think that the most successful meetings are those that have a preshared, editable (we are using Google Docs for this now) agenda that by meeting time is set. Then there is a task master making sure the meeting stays on track. Tangent can kill a meeting. If you've made it this far, I appreciate you listening to my rant. Chad Frerichs Director of Technology Okoboji Community Schools -----Original Message----- From: Jackie Fonley [mailto:jfon...@algona.k12.ia.us] Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 7:03 PM To: Info Tech Subject: [info-tech] technology advisory board Hey, all! Do any of you have technology advisory boards? How do they work? How often do you meet? I feel I need a "buy in" of staff who see us moving forward. I have been rolling out some great things with resistance (and i know that happens) -- but wondering if an advisory group who also agrees helps the rollout process. My counter to some have been "would you visit a hospital with outdated procedures/technology?". But just curious in what others are doing. Thanks-- and happy holidays to everyone. I hope you enjoy your break! Jackie --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus on the server aea8.k12.ia.us] --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us/ --------------------------------------------------------- --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus on the server aea8.k12.ia.us] --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/info-tech@aea8.k12.ia.us/ ---------------------------------------------------------
