Technology in Schools

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Schools are multidimensional workplaces shaped by political, regulatory, and hierarchical forces where IT professionals must support diverse educational needs that often contradict both their personal school experiences and their technical assumptions.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Public schools serve all students: Unlike private or charter schools that select students, public schools enroll all students in a service area and provide comprehensive curricula, creating unusual diversity challenges for IT work.
• Your school experience biases your assumptions: Adults who work in schools tend to assume everyone's experience matched theirs, but IT professionals must avoid imposing their own educational memories on technology decisions.
• Schools are multidimensional organizations: They function simultaneously as political entities (elected boards, tax-funded), regulated institutions (state/federal oversight), hierarchical structures (age and position-based authority), and organizations requiring diverse expertise.
• Common confusion—teaching models: The "Standard Model" (teacher lectures, students sit in rows) is familiar but increasingly outdated; modern teaching is interactive and dynamic, requiring different technology than a simple projector setup.
• Special legal protections for children: FERPA, COPPA, and CIPA impose strict privacy, data security, and content-filtering requirements that IT professionals must understand and implement.

🏫 The nature of public schools as workplaces

🎯 What makes public schools different

Public schools: institutions that enroll students in kindergarten through grade 12 in the United States, typically serving ages 5–18 (some special-needs students until 21).

• Comprehensive enrollment: Public schools are prepared to enroll all students in the service area (except those with very intensive special needs).
• Broad curriculum: They provide a comprehensive curriculum intended to prepare students for a wide range of educational or vocational opportunities.
• Diversity as a defining feature: The diversity of the student body and the breadth of the curriculum make schools unusual places for IT professionals to work.
• Contrast: Private, charter, and trade schools select students or serve specific programs to specific audiences; public schools do not.

🧒 Children are everywhere and affect every decision

• Schools are places where children are present—lots of children reflecting the social, racial, ethnic, and other characteristics of the local population.
• Ostensibly, decisions are made to support student learning, but the reality is questionable.
• Example: Ample evidence shows high-school-aged people benefit from late-morning start times, but few schools have adjusted schedules.
• Don't confuse the stated goal (academic learning) with other functions: schools also provide reliable childcare for large parts of the population, which influenced debates during the COVID pandemic.

🚫 Why your school experience doesn't matter

🧠 Everyone's experience was different

• When humans have important experiences (such as school), those experiences bias beliefs about others' experiences.
• Common mistake: assuming everyone's experience in school was like yours—it was not, even for classmates.
• Adults often pursue work in schools intending to replicate the structures and instruction they experienced, but that may not be what all students need.

👥 Two groups shape school policy

Group	Characteristic	Advocacy tendency
Liked/succeeded in school	Positive school memories	Advocate schools that reflect their experience
Did not like/succeed in school	Negative school memories	Advocate different organizations and teaching types; often form strong relationships with students

• Both groups value school enough to work there and support students.
• The perceptions of individuals who never return to school are silent in school design.
• Example from the excerpt: The author earned a "D" in 4th-grade math, became a math teacher, and was frequently told by students they were among the best—but had conflicts with other math teachers because the author challenged traditional approaches.

🛠️ Implications for IT professionals

• Your education deserves no special consideration: IT professionals are often asked to build systems that don't make sense to them because the requests contradict their expectations.
• Educators are the stakeholders who should decide: Teachers decide what technology they need and what they must do; IT professionals ensure it functions as expected.
• Avoid telling teachers what to use: IT professionals should not tell teachers what technology to install or how to use it in classrooms.
• Example: An IT team rejected a science educator's request for "computer pods" (computers connected to wall-mounted displays and hubs for group work), reasoning "students can just turn their laptops." This adversely affected the teaching environment and alienated the teacher.

📚 The changing reality of teaching

🎓 The Standard Model of Education is outdated

Standard Model of Education: the assumption that we know exactly what teachers should teach, how they should teach it, and how to measure it; typically involves a teacher standing in front of seated students (in rows) telling them what they need to know.

• For IT professionals, this is a familiar and comfortable classroom: give the teacher a computer, projector, web access, and a presentation application.
• Why it's changing: Educators are listening to cognitive and learning scientists who are discovering how human brains really work.
• Key insight: "Telling and testing is not teaching."

🔄 Modern teaching is interactive and dynamic

• Many educators now realize they need much different arrangements and technology capacities than the Standard Model requires.
• Example: A science educator requested computer pods—each comprising a computer connected to a 40" wall display and a hub for students to connect their own devices. Groups of five students could view the same display from any connected device, affording several options for group work and collaboration.
• Don't confuse: The familiar lecture model with the interactive, group-based models increasingly used in classrooms.

🏛️ Schools are multidimensional organizations

🗳️ Political organizations

• Schools are funded by taxes levied by state and local governments.
• Citizens serve on elected school boards that govern local schools.
• Because officials are elected, school governance is open to partisan politics.
• Participants are not bound to evidence and reason in the same manner as scientists and scholars; any decision can be justified.
• Example: A school board voted to replace a mascot interpreted as racist; the board composition changed and reversed the decision; the next election brought in members who did not support the reversal. This issue distracted the board from supporting students and teachers.

📜 Regulated organizations

• Governmental agencies (taking direction from legislation) define policies local school boards are expected to adopt.
• They approve qualifications for licensed teachers/administrators and approve teacher education programs.
• The U.S. federal government did not exert much influence until the Department of Education was founded in October 1979.
• Since then, the federal government influences decisions through grants and programs, but most regulations and decisions are made by state and local agencies.

👔 Hierarchical and authoritative organizations

• Teachers have authority over students; administrators have authority over students and teachers.
• This authority is not absolute but influences decisions and actions.
• Authority is grounded in:
  • Age: Teachers are adults; students are children.
  • Position: Administrators have more responsibility than teachers.
  • Expertise: Teachers are experts compared to students; ostensibly administrators have greater expertise than teachers.
• Even in classrooms where students are adults, a hierarchical relationship exists.

🔧 Organizations requiring diverse expertise

• Early in desktop computing history, tech-savvy teachers managed small numbers of unconnected classroom computers.
• Few educators today have training to configure and manage enterprise and business-class IT systems.
• Executive leaders responsible for IT are licensed educators who began as teachers but may not have been in classrooms for years when technology was primitive.
• Result: Many initiatives are proposed without complete consideration of technology implications; conversely, IT professionals often undertake initiatives without complete consideration of educational implications.

⚖️ No exclusive decision-making authority

• Because schools are multidimensional, no person has exclusive authority to make decisions about their work.
• Schools are like other regulated and board-governed organizations, but they lack the financial success measure found in other organizations.
• Political, regulatory, and authoritative factors contribute to decisions (even if they seem unreasonable to those implementing them).
• Students are often unaware of these competing influences.
• Example: A university project had education students spend time in schools early in their studies after faculty realized a small fraction discovered during student-teaching (just before graduation) that they did not like working in schools as adults.

🔒 Special legal considerations for IT professionals

📋 FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)

FERPA: U.S. law intended to safeguard sensitive information about children in schools; details who is allowed access to information and conditions under which it can be stored.

• Who has rights: Students and their parents (if under 18).
• What it protects: A wide range of information, including that which school employees learn accidentally.
• Enforcement: Violations can be reported to the U.S. Department of Education; legal action is possible.
• Training: Most schools require all employees (including IT professionals) to attend training and acknowledge receipt of policy.

🔍 What FERPA protects

• Example of a violation: A school employee sees a friend in a store and says, "I saw Johnny get in a fight at school today and he was suspended." This identifies a student, shares information about behavior and consequences, and the recipient was not entitled to it (nor were others who may have overheard).
• IT professionals have unusual access to classrooms and data:
  • When sitting at a computer in a classroom, they are "a fly on the wall"; teachers and students proceed as if no one else is there.
  • They have access to data systems containing protected data.
• Example: A teacher may ask for help while logged into the student information system and working in the gradebook.

⚠️ Responsibilities for IT professionals

• What one observes in data systems, classrooms, and schools must be kept confidential.
• If a teacher shows their gradebook to an IT technician, the teacher has violated FERPA.
• The technician who does not share that information or treat the student differently has not violated FERPA; they have minimized damage and liability.
• Exception: IT professionals have the same responsibility as any adult to prevent and report unsafe or potentially troubling situations.
• Example: Projectors connected to teachers' devices may accidentally display gradebooks when turned on. One technician always asked before turning on a projector: "What is going to be on the screen when I turn this on? I'm not going to give away the winning lottery numbers, am I?" This prevented exposure and served as a reminder.

👶 COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act)

COPPA: U.S. law (since 1998) intended to protect the privacy and personal information of children; requires publishers of websites that collect user information to have parental consent for those under 13.

• This law motivated social media companies to restrict children from accessing their platforms.
• Age restrictions are difficult to enforce, but terms of service and privacy statements reflect the law's requirements.
• Impact on schools: Most schools (especially those enrolling students younger than 13) have procedures for identifying online platforms teachers can use.
• Teachers may not be allowed to have students log on to an interesting new tool until terms of service are reviewed and school leaders conclude it aligns with local policy.

🛡️ CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act)

CIPA: U.S. law (2000) intended to protect children from indecent information on the Internet and prevent personal information about students from being available online.

• Requirements for schools receiving e-rate funds:
  • Install and maintain filters to restrict access to inappropriate content.
  • Take steps to protect youngsters using email, chat, and similar tools.
• Filters can be disabled when only adults are using the network, but this is rarely done because children are hardly ever absent when adults are present.

🔧 IT professional responsibilities under CIPA

• Participate in planning to ensure compliance.
• Review policy and procedures to ensure:
  • Internet filters are configured and operational.
  • Email and chat are available only to permitted users.
  • Firewalls are managed.
  • Children using school IT systems are protected.
• Planning is especially important when updating systems or replacing older devices.
• Monitor systems to ensure they are functioning; define steps if they fail.

📺 Advertisement-driven sites

• Many online information sources used in schools are funded by advertisements:
  • Mainstream media and journalism sites.
  • Sites of professional organizations and edited periodicals.
  • Social media sites (like YouTube).
• When students access these sites, they are exposed to advertisements.

🚫 Objections to student exposure to ads

Reason	Explanation
Commercialization of students	Students are required to attend school and have little choice over materials; directing them to ad-rich sources may exploit them
Unsuitable products	Some products may be unsuitable for children, especially in school; ads may lead to distractions or inappropriate situations

🛠️ IT professional role

• May be asked to minimize students' access to advertisements at school.
• This may include installing and configuring software or web browser extensions that block advertisements.
• May be asked to support faculty as they embed media in virtual classrooms or otherwise minimize exposure.

🔐 Other privacy and security considerations

• All IT professionals are familiar with network and data security, but in schools actions must align with decision-making hierarchies and accepted policy.
• Common issues:
  • Passwords on sticky notes attached to computers (becoming less common but still more common than it should be).
  • Teachers keeping lists of students' usernames and passwords (ostensibly to reduce troubleshooting, but there are safer strategies).
• In some schools, IT professionals are encouraged to remove sticky notes, but only with administrator knowledge and support.

📖 Example: Springfield Middle School password incident

• Teachers insisted students provide passwords for the school network.
• One teacher kept the list taped inside a cabinet door next to her desk.
• Students noticed the door left open, memorized some passwords, and logged on to others' accounts to send emails.
• An IT technician noticed suspicious behavior, investigated, and traced the emails to the school's IP address.
• The student whose account was used was on a trip with a sports team.
• Students admitted they had sent the messages.
• Question: To what degree was the teacher responsible?
  • Students were old enough to remember their own passwords, so there was no reason for the teacher to have them.
  • If the teacher did have a reason (which seems dubious), they were negligent in not keeping them more secure.

💼 Working conditions in schools

📊 Lack of a clear bottom line

• One of the biggest differences between schools and business/industry: the lack of a clear and unambiguous measure of success.
• In business, financial measures serve as a "bottom line."
• In education, test scores are attempted as a comparable bottom line, but many educators find them a weak proxy for learning.

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Note: The excerpt ends mid-sentence in the "Working Conditions" section; the content above reflects all substantive material provided.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Schools are unique workplaces for IT professionals where the absence of a clear bottom line, unionized structures, and educational priorities create different working conditions and IT roles compared to business and industry.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Lack of clear bottom line: Schools have no unambiguous measure of success (unlike profit in business), which reduces IT-related stress but changes how urgency is perceived during outages.
• Pay and benefits trade-off: IT professionals earn less in schools than in other sectors, but historically received better benefits (though this has declined in recent decades).
• Union contracts shape work: In unionized schools, positions (not individuals) are covered by master contracts that define pay, benefits, working conditions, and grievance procedures—providing predictability for both workers and management.
• Common confusion: IT professionals are often expected to solve any technology problem regardless of their specific role or expertise; clear job descriptions are inconsistent across schools.
• Diverse IT roles: Schools require roles found in other organizations (technicians, system administrators) plus education-specific roles (technology integration specialists, data specialists) that support teaching and learning.

🏢 Working conditions in schools

📊 The missing bottom line

In schools, there is no "clear and unambiguous measure of success"—no financial profit equivalent.

• Educators attempt to use test scores as a proxy for learning, but many find them weak measures.
• Why it matters: This changes the nature of IT urgency. Teachers can continue educating students (short-term) without IT; during power or IT outages, classes may proceed with different lessons.
• Contrast with business: When a business experiences IT outages, the bottom line is "directly and adversely affected." In schools, IT professionals respond with urgency, but the stress level is lower.
• Example: A school power outage may shift lessons to non-digital activities; a retail business outage halts sales immediately.

💰 Compensation realities

Aspect	Schools	Other organizations
Pay	Lower for IT professionals (and most professions with similar education)	Higher
Benefits	Historically among the best; now declining	Variable; public schools often required to provide health care
Post-COVID uncertainty	Significant turnover; pay and benefits adapting to new realities	Similar turnover across industries

• Don't confuse: "Better benefits" was a past advantage; recent decades have seen erosion aligned with changes across all industries.

🤝 Union structures and master contracts

Master contract: an agreement between governing bodies (employers) and employee associations that defines pay, benefits, working conditions, supervision, and evaluation for specific positions (not individuals).

• Who is covered: The position is included in the contract, not the person. Joining the union is a personal choice, but all employees in covered positions must comply with contract terms.
• What contracts specify: Pay scales (no individual negotiation), benefits (management cannot withhold them), working conditions, supervision, and evaluation procedures.
• Predictability benefit: Both workers and management know what to expect; reduces arbitrary decisions.

🛡️ Grievance process

• When contract terms are violated (by management or workers), individuals can file a grievance to resolve disputes.
• Example: A worker in a unionized position cannot voluntarily accept lower pay—this protects other members from coercion into pay cuts.
• Example from excerpt: A principal tried to deny a teacher's contract renewal, claiming poor performance but violating multiple contract articles (no prior notification of unacceptable performance, no improvement plan, missed deadline). The teacher kept her job because the principal failed to follow the master contract.

🏫 Multiple unions in schools

• Different employee groups belong to different associations with separate contracts:
  • Teachers (licensed professionals)
  • Teacher assistants, administrative assistants, custodians, IT staff (often a different association)

🔄 Change initiatives and conservatism

• The irony: School leaders often tout changes, but schools are "very conservative organizations" compared to businesses.
• Many initiatives are superficial: committees form and make recommendations, consultants present workshops, but "nothing is implemented."
• IT professional involvement: Expected to participate in initiatives even if not directly related to IT work—deemed appropriate by school leaders.

📚 Curriculum changes

• Educators constantly review what they teach; regulatory agencies and professional organizations update curriculum expectations.
• IT role: Participate to ensure existing IT meets new technology tool requirements, plan updates, support digital document management, and facilitate curriculum planning.

🌈 DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives

• Diversity: composition of the community—more racial, ethnic, gender, disability, socioeconomic identities represented.
• Equity: all identities given the same opportunities to participate in all activities (as students or employees).
• Inclusion: ideas, opinions, and desires of more individuals (representing the diversity of the entire population) are heard.

• Purpose: Remove barriers to full participation for all individuals in the school.
• Misunderstanding to avoid: DEI is not about excluding majority populations; it is about removing barriers, which may mean those previously privileged have less privilege after barriers are removed.
• Obligation: As public institutions, schools must ensure no individuals face barriers to participation.
• The excerpt states: "Those who disagree with this goal are ill-suited to work in schools."

🧠 Trauma-informed practices

Trauma-informed practices: strategies to support students who have experienced trauma (inside or outside school) or long-term exposure to stressful environments.

• Why it matters: Trauma affects developing brains—students may have decreased attention capacity, decreased ability to make sense of situations, and less emotional control.
• IT professional role: Indirect—support colleagues who have direct responsibility; foster a culture where all students can learn.
• Direct involvement: May participate in remediating situations where students misuse IT devices. Trauma-informed approaches favor positive relationships and inclusion over the default exclusion approach.
• COVID impact: The pandemic has affected school-aged children and families; trauma effects are emerging and will require ongoing response.

🛠️ IT roles in schools

🎯 General characteristics

• Similarity to other sectors: Devices (LANs, internet access) are the same as in business/industry, so many IT roles are similar.
• Unique to schools: Several types of IT work not found elsewhere.
• Under-staffing reality: IT departments are often under-staffed, so individuals play multiple roles and gain experience in new areas—making schools "excellent places to start an IT career."
• Common confusion: Stakeholders often do not differentiate technology roles. Any "IT" person may be asked to troubleshoot problems outside their expertise or authority. IT professionals must tactfully explain priorities, skills, or authority limits.

📋 Overview of roles

IT role	Function	Primary audience
Chief Information Officer (CIO)	Advocate and manage entire IT system	All stakeholders
Technology Integration Specialist	Design and support teaching with technology	Teachers and students
Data Specialist	Generate reports for decision-making and compliance	School leaders and regulatory agencies
Technician	Repair end-user devices	Students, teachers, leaders, staff
System Administrator	Configure and manage network infrastructure	LAN and internet connections
Web Master	Publish and post content	External audiences

• Warning: Titles are very inconsistent across schools. A "technology coordinator" may be a CIO in one school, a technician in another. Clear job descriptions are essential.

👔 Leadership and management roles

🎖️ Chief Information Officer (CIO)

• Position in hierarchy: Part of the senior leadership team (c-level executives) working in the central office, responsible for multiple schools in a district.
  • CEO: Superintendent of schools
  • CFO: Business functions
  • CAO: Teaching and learning
  • COO: Facilities management
  • CIO: All aspects of information technology systems

🗣️ Advocacy and decision-making

• Dual responsibility: Advocate for IT needs within the leadership team, then implement decisions within the IT area.
• Key responsibilities: Advise top leaders on existing technology, maintenance steps, and potential improvements; install/upgrade information networks; secure networks (critical due to sensitive data); advocate for financial and human resources; supervise IT professionals.

🔄 Historical shift

• Past practice: A single individual decided what technology to buy and how to install it, with little regard for teaching and learning effects—often leading to ineffective technology and conflict.
• Current trend: CIOs integrated into decision-making have shifted towards making technology decisions "for teaching and learning reasons," though not yet systemic.

🎓 Qualifications

• Advanced degrees and years of experience managing technology.
• Provides direction and leadership more than hands-on configuration or troubleshooting (though will assist in IT emergencies).
• Ideally has school experience, but many hiring committees prioritize technology experience over school experience.
• Example from excerpt: A colleague observed after a CIO search meeting, "We want a good manager" (not just technology expertise), but the advertised salary was insufficient.

🔧 Technical support roles

🖥️ Technicians

Technicians: the "face of the IT department" to most members of the school; responsible for troubleshooting and repairing end-user devices.

📱 Day-to-day work

• Repair desktop computers, laptops, Chromebooks, printers, and other peripherals.
• Interact with teachers (often in stressful situations due to malfunctioning computers) and frustrated students.
• Essential skills: Excellent customer service skills; comfort interacting with teachers and students.

🤝 Collaboration and knowledge-building

• On staffs with multiple technicians, the group is "very interdependent"—they collaborate on solving problems and share what they learn.
• Documentation: By recording repairs (ideally in a ticketing system), technicians contribute to emerging knowledge of the IT system and help identify devices needing replacement.
• Early warning system: As professionals who observe users interacting with IT the most, technicians are first to identify emerging problems and unmet needs for the CIO to address.

🎓 Qualifications and development

• Hired with a wide range of qualifications; expertise can be developed outside traditional higher education.
• Many are hired while completing education or earn industry credentials while working.
• CIO support: Good CIOs ensure technicians receive professional courtesies, ongoing support, mentorship in technology knowledge, customer service skills, and professional dispositions.

🎓 Education-specific IT roles

👩‍🏫 Technology Integration Specialists

Technology Integration Specialists: licensed teachers who model and co-teach technology-based lessons in classrooms with students and teachers present.

🔄 Shift in professional development model

• Traditional approach: Teachers removed from classrooms to be trained in how to use computers and teach with them—missing the dynamics of engaged, learning students.
• Current approach: Technology integration specialists support colleagues in real classrooms with real students and real curriculum.

🎯 Primary responsibility

• Support colleagues to become "competent, confident, and independent users of and teachers with technology."

🚧 Three common obstacles

1. Part-time role: In smaller schools, may have other teaching responsibilities, creating scheduling conflicts.
2. Teacher dependency: Some teachers become dependent on support and will not use technology if the specialist is unavailable.
3. Troubleshooting distractions: Often the first contact for initial troubleshooting help (leading to quick repairs and teaching opportunities), but this directs them away from primary mentoring responsibility.

🤝 Additional mentoring role

• Support IT professionals as they develop experience creating systems for unfamiliar educational needs.
• Advocate for teachers' and students' needs when IT professionals design/configure systems.
• Interpret educational users' experiences so IT professionals understand unmet needs and systems perceived as too difficult or ineffective.

🎓 Qualifications and supervision

• Almost always licensed teachers who began as classroom teachers, then pursued additional training/certification.
• Must maintain teaching licenses; most could return to the classroom.
• Supervision challenge: Viewed as part of IT staff and work closely with IT professionals, but it is inappropriate for a CIO (who is not a licensed educator) to supervise and evaluate licensed educators.

📖 Example from excerpt

• In 2017, a librarian and colleague found an old "Oregon Trail" CD (Windows 98, copyright 1998) and successfully installed it on Windows 7. A middle school teacher excitedly took it: "My students are so going to write journals of their trips, just like I did!"

📊 Data Specialists

Data Specialists: professionals who manage sophisticated databases, prepare and run queries, and create reports to support decision-making and meet regulatory reporting requirements.

📈 Why schools need data specialists

• Schools store "vast amounts of data" in sophisticated databases (demographic, health, behavioral, academic, and other information).
• Regulatory agencies have increased data reporting requirements since the beginning of the 21st century, accompanying calls for accountability.
• The amount of data and sophistication of databases has increased.

🔍 Work involves

• Creating scripts that produce tabular and graphic reports used by school administrators and teachers.
• Answering questions about correlations and performance.
• Meeting regulatory reporting requirements.

🔮 Educational data analytics

• Data specialists represent "one of the first ventures into the field of educational data analytics by schools."
• Goal: Apply data science methods to predict student needs and performance.
• Caution: Advocates argue these methods hold promise for improving education, but "those claims have not been documented and observed by scholars in the field."
• Trend: Regardless of actual impact on teaching decisions and learning outcomes, schools are expected to gather and use data, so the need for data specialists is expected to increase.

🌐 Infrastructure management roles

🖧 System Administrators

System Administrators: professionals who ensure computer networks remain operational and functional after installation and configuration.

🔧 Core responsibilities

• Listen for network problems by attending to user reports and monitoring system logs.
• Resolve identified problems and take steps to ensure continued health of the local area network (LAN).

📋 Specific tasks

• Ensure users and devices can access network resources.
• Configure software to backup files and check backups are created as expected.
• Upgrade operating systems and driver software on servers.
• Maintain network hardware and software.
• Manage users (often includes ensuring single sign-on systems are connected and functioning, especially as cloud-based systems have become more common).
• Plan for and deploy software and hardware upgrades, paying attention to potential conflicts.
• Work closely with technicians to ensure end-user devices are properly configured to access LAN and internet.

🎯 General rule

• "If changes are made to a device that contains or manages local area network traffic, it is the system administrator who performs the task."

🎓 Qualifications

• Most have completed an undergraduate degree in information systems.
• Likely to hold credentials awarded by IT vendors and professional organizations (requiring effort and understanding comparable to graduate certificates or degrees).

🌐 Web Masters

Web Masters: professionals responsible for managing the school's web presence, which serves as an important venue for sharing information with internal and external audiences.

📰 Content typically posted

• Most important: Cafeteria lunch menu (according to the excerpt).
• Curriculum information, staffing, athletic and extracurricular events (practices, rehearsals, meetings), governance, school activities.

🔄 Evolution of classroom web presence

• Past: Teachers maintained classroom web pages.
• Present: Replaced with Google Classrooms (or full learning management systems) or pages integrated into student information systems.
• These spaces provide resources, assignments, grade reports, classroom news, and announcements.
• Once configured, school IT professionals (including web masters) usually do not post information on classroom spaces.

🔗 Integration with other platforms

• Many schools integrate other platforms (e.g., interscholastic athletic league platforms for schedules).
• Schedules can be embedded in school web pages; changes made by athletic directors automatically appear on the school site.
• Usually only one or two individuals need access to post to these sites.

📸 Challenge: managing student images

• Risk: Once images are posted to the web or social media, the person who posted loses all control.
• Legal vs. ethical: Some maintain that parental consent is sufficient for posting images for any purpose. While this may be legally defensible, the excerpt argues children cannot give consent and are most at risk, so all adults should be very cautious.
• Example from excerpt: In November 2021, the author posted a tweet maintaining it is inappropriate for teachers to post images of students on Twitter, motivating over 70 replies (some agreeing, others challenging). The author later reflected on the post and replies in a blog post.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Schools rely on diverse computing devices, robust wireless networks, and cloud-based data systems to support teaching, learning, and operations, requiring IT professionals to manage familiar technology in unfamiliar educational contexts.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Device diversity: Schools use a mix of Chromebooks (dominant in one-to-one initiatives), full-OS computers, special-use devices (robots, 3-D printers, assistive tech), and personal BYOD devices.
• Network criticality: Because Google Workspaces and cloud systems are essential, secure and reliable wireless infrastructure with multiple SSIDs (for students, teachers, guests) is vital.
• Cloud-based systems: Schools have shifted from on-premises servers to SaaS/PaaS platforms (Google Workspaces, student information systems, learning management systems) for productivity, data, and instruction.
• Common confusion: IT professionals find the hardware and networks familiar, but encounter unfamiliar educational needs, special-use devices, and localized technology environments shaped by budget and personnel expertise.
• User management complexity: School IT must manage dynamic organizational units (students moving grades/schools annually), interoperability between systems (LMS ↔ SIS), and permissions that vary by role and age group.

💻 User devices in schools

💻 Chromebooks and one-to-one initiatives

Chromebooks: notebook computers that connect to the Internet with all functionality—from user authentication to productivity applications—provided by web-based applications.

• Why Chromebooks dominate: Much lower price than full-OS computers, lower software licensing costs, and easier management.
• Trade-off: Lower computing capacity; robust wireless networks become essential because devices are mobile and require constant Internet connectivity.
• One-to-one models: Some schools allow students to take devices home; others keep them on campus. Chromebooks are common for one-to-one, with full-OS computers available in shared spaces for high-capacity tasks.
• Example: Students write and edit newspaper stories on Chromebooks, but use desktop publishing software on full-OS computers for final layout.

🖥️ Desktop and laptop computers with full operating systems

• Where they're found: Computer labs, business/administrative offices, specialized teaching spaces (newspaper layout, video editing, STEM labs).
• Why they persist: Some educational tasks and business functions require applications that need full operating systems; some users prefer them due to ease of use, effectiveness, or habit (technology acceptance factors).
• Not either-or: Schools often provide both Chromebooks (plentiful, low-capacity) and full-OS devices (fewer, high-capacity) to match tasks.

🔧 Special-use computers and devices

Schools contain specialized hardware for particular educational activities:

Device type	Purpose	Example use
Arduinos	Microcontroller boards for design/programming	Makerspaces, student digital device projects
Robots	STEM education, competitions	Elementary toy-like robots to technical PLC devices
3-D printers	Additive manufacturing	Makerspaces, STEM classrooms
Science apparatus	Digital data collection, microscopy	Real-time temperature graphing, high-res microscope images
Assistive technologies	Individual student access needs	Exclusive use by students with disabilities

• Printers: Most printing is high-volume/low-quality via network photocopiers; limited color printers for instructional materials and digital arts; desktop printers rare except for special education teachers and nurses handling sensitive data.
• Local management: Faculty in specialized areas (librarians, science teachers, art teachers) often have accounts to configure and manage their own devices, minimizing IT support demands.

📱 BYOD and personal devices

• BYOD initiatives: Some schools encourage students to bring their own devices to minimize one-to-one costs; raises security and equity concerns (not everyone can afford devices or may have lower-capacity ones).
• Guest access: Even without formal BYOD, students and teachers bring personal devices; schools may provide guest SSIDs with Internet-only access (no local network resources) and limited bandwidth.
• IT policy: School IT professionals typically do not support devices they don't own, but may recommend strategies (e.g., installing Google Workspace apps on personal devices to upload media to school accounts).
• Risk example: A student connected a school computer to a phone hotspot to bypass the Internet filter, exposing the computer to malware and pornographic content.

🎯 Interactive whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards: when connected to computers, they function as input devices allowing users to control the computer by tapping the board and to draw/markup documents.

• IT perspective: Notoriously difficult to troubleshoot, unreliable, expensive, few user-serviceable parts, often used past end-of-life → unplanned expenses and disruptions.
• Educator concerns: Placed at the front of classrooms, displacing regular whiteboards; may encourage lecture over more effective instructional methods; some teachers prefer alternatives (e.g., iPads for special education).
• Don't confuse: Strong advocates vs. detractors exist among both teachers and IT professionals; not universally valued despite widespread installation.

🌐 Network infrastructure

🌐 Why networks are vital

• Dependence on cloud: Google Workspaces and cloud-based data systems are used for all teaching, learning, and operations → secure, robust, reliable networks are essential.
• IT professional responsibility: Network configuration (IP address management, routing, DHCP servers) must be entirely left to IT professionals, not decided by stakeholders.

🔒 Security and protection

• Unified threat management: Hardware/software systems providing Internet filters, firewalls, malware protection to secure the network and data.
• Compliance: Schools must protect data under FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act)—requirements that may be unfamiliar to IT professionals from other sectors.

📡 Wireless networks and SSIDs

• Multiple SSIDs: Managed access points provide different service set identifiers for different user groups (student devices, teacher devices, administrator devices, public/guest).
• Traffic control: Parameters restrict types of network traffic by SSID (e.g., chat allowed for teachers/administrators, disallowed for students).
• Guest SSID: Open to public users, provides Internet pathway only (no local area network resources), limited bandwidth to avoid impacting school-owned devices.

👥 User account management

• Organizational units (OUs): Users grouped into OUs with appropriate permissions, just like other enterprises.
• Dynamic nature: Unlike other organizations, school OUs are highly dynamic—large groups of students move into new OUs at the end of each school year, especially when transitioning between school types (e.g., middle school → high school).
• Ongoing changes: Adding/deleting users as they join or leave, plus annual mass transitions.

☁️ Cloud-based data systems

☁️ Shift from on-premises to cloud

• Previous model: IT professionals configured physical on-campus servers for file storage, print management, and installed applications on individual hard drives.
• Current model: Configure virtual servers and manage user accounts on cloud-based systems; software as a service (SaaS) for productivity, education, and business; platforms as a service (PaaS) for configurable systems.
• "Cloud-based" descriptor: Users connect to a virtual space on the Internet; specific location uncertain (SaaS) or virtual location clear but physical location not (PaaS, e.g., Amazon Web Services).

✅ Benefits of cloud systems

Benefit	Explanation
Security	Cloud providers employ legions of security professionals; SaaS minimizes insecure configurations; PaaS secures data centers but subscriber responsible for software security
Scalability	System administrators can request additional capacity in minutes via dashboard (increases fees)
Redundancy	Data/systems easily duplicated; systems restored immediately if service interrupted; automated backups
Minimize capital expenses	No need to build, maintain, secure expensive data centers with extra capacity, air conditioning, etc.; "spin up" servers without purchasing hardware

🔑 IT professional responsibilities

• User management: Manage users and organizational units; ensure only current students, faculty, staff can access systems; identify which tools/features available to different OUs.
• Interoperability: Manage connections between systems (e.g., learning management system connected to student information system so grades automatically transfer); requires vendor programmers initially, then local admins manage.
• Not hardware-free: While SaaS/PaaS remove hardware from school data centers, system administrators still manage users and applications.

🌍 User experience of cloud systems

From the user's perspective, using cloud-based systems involves:

1. Connect to the Internet: Cloud systems available on every Internet-connected device.
2. Point browser to URL: Schools often provide a portal with links to SaaS/PaaS platforms (network locations vary by domain configuration and vendor naming).
3. Log on: Requires an account; system administrators may create "customer keys" and "shared secrets" so users can use Google Workspaces credentials to log on to other platforms (single sign-on).
4. Access permitted tools/data: After authentication, users see data and tools they have permission to use.

Browser compatibility challenge: Different web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari) handle code differently → systems may function differently or fail on some browsers; mobile devices may lack full capacity, but vendors provide apps.

Virtual desktop option: Less common in K-12 (more in higher education); user points browser to tool that launches a virtual computer with full OS and applications.

🔵 Google Workspaces

🔵 Dominance and evolution

• History: Introduced in 2005 as "Google Docs," made available to schools at no cost a few years later; underwent continuous upgrading, updating, and renaming; called "Google Workspaces" in 2022.
• Basic service: Includes productivity tools, file storage, email, calendaring, and other tools; provided to educational institutions at no cost.
• Enhancements: Can be supplemented with paid version; capacity enhanced/extended by add-ons (some free/freemium, others require subscription).
• IT responsibility: Manage available tools, add-ons, and integration with other school systems.

⚠️ Challenges and concerns

• Consumer vs. education versions: Features/operations similar, but consumer version has advertisements and data tracking disabled for school users.
• Familiarity problem: Many educators have personal accounts → complaint "but I can do this on my personal account" when school version restricts features.
• Expected expertise: Almost every IT professional hired in schools expected to have expertise using Google Workspaces to create/manage information and managing users, OUs, and configuring services.

🔍 Ethical considerations

A 2021 technoethical audit by Krutka, Smits, and Willhelm raised concerns:

• Scant criticism: Little scrutiny in educational technology literature despite widespread use of Chromebooks, browsers, apps, search engines in schools.
• Concerns: What Google takes from students (personal data), how it targets them (advertising, product familiarity), where it directs them (search/recommendation algorithms).
• Conclusion: "Schools should not be places where educational technology titans exploit students, test new products, or reimagine education through their own techno-corporate ideals of personalization, efficiency, and profits."
• Don't confuse: Authors do not suggest taking a stand for or against use, but raise questions about ethics, unintended consequences, and limitations educators accept.

📊 Student Information Systems (SIS)

📊 What the SIS is

Student information system: databases designed to collect, store, and report information associated with students' school experience.

• Contents: Large database with multiple tables for students' attendance, course enrollments, academic performance, health, discipline, and other records; many include scheduling tools.
• Access: Because many SIS are cloud-based, parents and others can access them.
• Importance: In many ways, the most essential IT system maintained by school IT professionals.

🔧 IT professional roles for SIS

• Network reliability: Ensure robust, reliable, secure networks for uninterrupted access.
• User accounts: Ensure accounts are accurate; configure and secure single sign-on tools.
• Data accuracy: Work with registrars to ensure data accurately entered when students register and sent to other schools when students leave.
• Reporting: Write scripts and set controls to ensure data available and analyzed for regulators and internal audiences.
• Vendor variety: Multiple vendors provide SIS; not unusual to find systems used for many years; IT professionals asked about experience with the one in use.
• Modifications: Some schools replaced traditional grades with "standards-based report cards," necessitating SIS modification.

🎓 Learning Management Systems (LMS)

🎓 What LMS provides

Learning management system: cloud-based virtual classrooms used to recreate classroom functions, extend classrooms, and enhance information sharing and interaction.

• Importance surge: Took on particular importance during COVID pandemic's pivot to remote teaching; used before that to extend classrooms.
• Access control: Restricted to enrolled teachers/students (or other roles); different permissions by role (e.g., students can upload assignments but not see others' submissions).

🛠️ Core LMS features

Every LMS provides features to allow:

Feature	Purpose	Details
Sharing information	Distribute materials	Word docs, multimedia, audio, video, PDFs; create pages with links, embedded media; WYSIWYG HTML editor with equation/chemistry editors
Interact	Replicate classroom interaction	Discussion boards, wikis, blogs, chat; asynchronous nature changes dynamics
Administer tests	Online assessment	Many question types; auto-graded questions; labor-intensive setup but can be shared, edited, remixed, reused
Collect assignments	Digital drop boxes	Students upload files; avoids lost assignments or disputes
Record grades	Gradebook	Auto-record test/assignment grades; add offline items; organize by categories, set weights, add calculated columns, set display conditions; notoriously complicated due to unfamiliar language

🔵 Google Classroom vs. full LMS

• Google Classroom: LMS integrated into Google Workspaces; adopted due to Google's dominance and integration with productivity suite.
• Limitation: Teachers with experience using full LMS (as student or teacher) find Google Classroom too limited.
• Full-feature LMS options: Open-source (Moodle) and proprietary (Blackboard, Canvas, Desire 2 Learn, others).

🎯 LMS selection considerations

• Cost: Moodle is free, but installing on a server (school or cloud) introduces unanticipated costs.
• Familiarity: Increases perceived ease of use for teachers and LMS administrators.
• Support capacity: Most important—the degree to which IT professionals, technology integration specialists, and instructional leaders are prepared to provide support, training, and design guidance.

🖼️ Managing student images

🖼️ Special concern for schools

• Loss of control: Once images posted to web or social media, the person who posted loses all control.
• Legal vs. ethical: Some maintain that parental consent allows posting for any purpose; may be legally defensible, but children cannot give consent and are individuals most at risk from information/images shared on the Internet.
• Caution needed: All adults should be very cautious when posting images of students.

💬 Debate example

• A November 2021 tweet maintained it is inappropriate for teachers to post images of students on Twitter.
• Motivated more than 70 replies, some agreeing, others challenging the position.
• Reflects ongoing debate in education about student privacy and social media use.

Don't confuse: Parental consent with student consent—children cannot give informed consent even if parents have agreed.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Effective IT support in schools requires standardization, strategic triage based on school-specific priorities (especially student impact and one-time events), and customer-service-oriented communication that accounts for educators' diverse technology needs and limited technical vocabulary.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• School IT has lower financial impact than business IT: While malfunctions are disruptive, schools lack the extreme financial losses common in business outages, and valuable teaching can occur briefly without technology.
• Triage priorities differ from business: Safety and legal issues come first, followed by problems affecting large numbers of users, one-time student events, and direct student impact—not necessarily administrator requests.
• School users fall into extremes: Some attempt fixes they shouldn't (creating workarounds that reduce efficiency), while others call for help with every minor issue.
• Common confusion—cold vs. warm closure: Relying solely on automated ticketing emails ("cold closure") often fails in schools because educators may ignore system-generated messages or misunderstand whether the problem is truly resolved; personal confirmation ("warm closure") improves perceived service quality.
• Standardization is critical but evolving: Large numbers of similar users require identical device configurations, though cloud-based systems (like Google Workspaces and Chromebooks) have reduced the complexity compared to older imaging and freezing methods.

🛠️ Standardization and device management

🖥️ Why standardization matters in schools

• Schools enroll large numbers of users with similar technology needs.
• Example: A middle school with 500 students providing one device per student must prepare 500 identical devices.
• Teachers must plan for all students to have similar capacity and be able to support them uniformly.

🔄 Traditional methods: imaging and freezing

Imaging: A technician configures one computer as needed, makes a copy of the hard drive, and deploys that image to similar devices in the fleet.

• After imaging, technicians update device names for remote management and ensure software is properly licensed.
• Cloud-based systems have reduced the need for custom installations for different teachers.

Freezing: The system is configured as intended, then put into a frozen state; whenever the computer restarts, it returns to that state and discards all changes (except some documents if properly configured).

• This approach reduces maintenance demands but has become less common.
• Still used in some circumstances to manage fleets of computers.

☁️ Modern simplification with cloud systems

• Widespread adoption of Google Workspaces reduces the need to license and configure many types of software.
• Updating Chromebooks requires only a few mouse clicks—far less work and much quicker than updating a full operating system.

🚨 Triage: deciding what gets fixed when

🎯 Core triage principle

• IT systems fail; the "to do" list is often too long for immediate resolution.
• Not all failed systems can or should be fixed; teachers are often reluctant to abandon old but familiar systems.
• Balancing reactive repairs with proactive improvements: time used for one is not available for the other.

🔐 Highest priority: safety and legality

Safety

• If threats, bullying, or other unsafe situations require IT expertise to document, investigate, or remove, give immediate highest priority.
• Example: An assistant principal used a code phrase ("help fix the color printer in his office"—he had no color printer) to request immediate help during a serious cyberbullying investigation without drawing attention.

Legality

• IT can present legal liability (human resource issues, data security, action documentation).
• These also receive highest priority.
• No IT professional should work on safety or legal issues without school administrators participating in decision-making; ideally, administrators are present and directing the work.

📊 Other triage factors

Factor	Why it matters	Example / Notes
Large numbers	Fix the problem that gets the most users back up	Standard rule of thumb applies in schools as in other organizations
One-time events	Field trips, guest speakers, video conferences cannot be easily rescheduled	These represent very valuable opportunities for students; give high priority when scheduled
Students	Schools are hierarchical, but student impact should be prioritized	Whenever a problem has direct impact on students, it goes to the top of the priority list (though not all administrators agree with this)
Beginnings and ends	Transition between school years and marking periods require specific information tasks	Ensuring student information system is functional and accurate (class rosters, attendance, grades) is highest priority at these scheduled times; minimize other high-demand events during these periods

🔍 Identifying "the complainers"

• One of the most important early tasks in a new IT support position.
• These are people who:
  • Give the best feedback on system functionality
  • Raise concerns immediately (unlike others who try to manage with suboptimal technology)
  • Use systems the most and for the most purposes
• Satisfying this group leads to being perceived as responsive and effective.

🎫 Ticketing and scheduling systems

🎫 Help ticketing systems

Ticketing system: An online platform where users report technology problems, which are then routed to the IT department.

Advantages

• Improved communication from users to IT: Users can report malfunctions with little effort; managers place links in multiple frequently visited places (school web page, LMS, portals) or create an email address to accept tickets.
• Better triage and assignment: Technicians can override user-assigned priorities; repairs affecting more users or restoring critical systems get higher priority; different IT staff have different skill levels and access, so the correct person can be assigned.
• Device history maintained: Troublesome devices requiring repeated repairs are identified; similar problems throughout the fleet can be tracked (especially helpful for design or hardware/software problems affecting the same model).
• Inventory management: Ticketing systems provide a database to keep inventory up to date, helping IT professionals understand their fleet and leaders plan and budget for replacements.
• Performance tracking: Total number of repairs and time spent can be recorded, used to assess efficiency and effectiveness, refine systems, and support IT staff.

Difficulties

• Processing time: If a teacher needs immediate help (e.g., malfunctioning projector), submitting a ticket that doesn't result in immediate response is unlikely to be done; such requests interfere with scheduled work and decrease efficiency.
• Network access problems: If the problem interferes with network access, users may not be able to submit the ticket, contributing to excessive frustration.
• Email overload: Some systems generate too many email messages, leading users to complain "there are so many emails, I just ignore them."

📅 Scheduling shared resources

• Prior to one-to-one initiatives, most computing resources were shared (computer rooms, presentation spaces with projectors).
• One-to-one computing has reduced this need, but shared resources still exist—increasingly human resources (e.g., technology integration specialists) rather than computing resources.

Effective scheduling tools

• Make schedules public and viewable on the internet without logging on.
• Mobile-compatible for quick checking.
• Allow users to log on to add reservations but not edit others' reservations.
• Each account has specific permissions (e.g., only those trained on the 3-D printer can schedule it).

Challenge: unusual time increments

• Many scheduling tools are designed for 15-minute increments common in business.
• Schools break days into various chunks; different days may have different chunks.
• Some schools have multiple bell schedules (e.g., grades 7–8 on one schedule, grades 9–12 on another).
• IT managers should configure tools to allow users to select time blocks corresponding to the school's daily schedule blocks.

🤝 Customer service in school IT

🗣️ Reporting the problem accurately

The communication challenge

• Users often do not accurately describe problems—particularly acute in schools due to:
  • Much more variable systems than business systems
  • Teachers and students use IT for diverse activities
  • Use of vernacular, inexact, or inaccurate language
• Example: A teacher reported an iPad app "won't take." The technician called for details; the teacher repeated "it just won't take," leaving it unclear if the app was installed or if the student couldn't log on. The technician asked where the iPad was and when students needed it next, then indicated they would "take a look" before the next use.

Best practices

• Video conferencing allows users to connect and share screens with remote technicians, ensuring both accurate understanding of symptoms and user confidence that the technician understands.
• IT professionals should confirm to the reporter that the problem exists and is worth solving—when users believe technicians agree the computer isn't working as expected, they sense good customer service.
• Be an active listener; in many cases, observe the difficulty the user is experiencing.
• Once the difficulty is accurately identified, assume responsibility and give an approximate timeline.
• Example: "It needs more toner, I'll be right back with it" or "The power supply failed, this printer needs to be replaced" is better than simply "Yes, it's broken, we will take a look at it"—even bad news allows teachers to make alternative plans.

🛠️ Resolving the problem

• Keeping systems functioning requires understanding from three perspectives: teachers and students (what is appropriate), school administrators (what is reasonable), and IT professionals (what is proper).
• Many IT problems in schools are unfamiliar; teachers and students are diverse in interests and needs, so resolution steps are often unique.
• Requires adaptability: recognizing needs as unique and worthy of solving, plus being knowledgeable and creative in solving problems.

Don't blame the user

• IT professionals have a long history of "blaming the user."
• While some malfunctions result from users not knowing what to do or expect, blaming them damages customer service reputation.

🌡️ Avoiding cold closure

Cold closure: The practice of resolving IT problems and closing the ticket without communicating to the individual who reported it (or the larger audience) that the problem has been resolved.

Why cold closure is problematic in schools

• Most ticketing systems send an email when a ticket is "closed," but:
  • If the system generates multiple messages, the closure message may be ignored.
  • Educational populations have difficulty managing email; those who submit multiple tickets are especially likely to ignore messages.
  • Tickets are often resolved but not closed (overworked technicians focus on resolving problems rather than managing tickets); tickets may stay open for weeks or months, contributing to the sense that "IT never responds," or old tickets are cleaned out all at once, generating irrelevant messages.
• Miscommunication about the nature of problems between educators and technicians makes this especially problematic.

Warm closure: better customer service

• The metaphorical "temperature" of closure is based on:
  • Nature of communication: More personal (ultimately in-person) is warmer than automated.
  • Degree of confirmation: Confirming the issue is resolved (ultimately by observing the teacher use the operational system) is warmer than no confirmation.
• Cold closure: relies on technology to communicate, no confirmation.
• Warm closure: personal communication, confirmed resolution.

The closure message matters

• When the technician believes the issue is resolved, make sure the user is clear it has been fixed.
• If there was inaccurate or incomplete understanding of symptoms, the IT technician may perceive the problem as fixed, but symptoms may remain for the user—the user may assume the problem has not yet been resolved.
• Good customer service: close repair jobs by telling the user, "This has been fixed; if it comes back, let us know immediately."

📚 Learning management systems (LMS)

🏫 What LMS platforms offer

• Teachers can post assignments with associated grades (automatically recorded for those items).
• Teachers can add columns to the gradebook to record items done offline.
• Further organization: assign grade items to categories, set weights to categories, add calculated columns, set display conditions for items.
• Gradebooks are notoriously complicated, often because the configuration language is unfamiliar to teachers.

🌐 Google Classroom

• The LMS associated with Google Workplaces.
• Many adopt it due to Google's dominance and integration into the productivity suite used by teachers and students.
• Some teachers with experience in full learning management systems find Google Classroom too limited to accomplish what they want.

🖥️ Full-feature LMS options

• Multiple full-feature LMS's available: both open-source and proprietary packages.
• Examples: Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas, Desire2Learn, among many others.

Selection considerations

• Cost: Moodle is often chosen because it is available for free, but installing it on a server (in the school or a virtual server on the cloud) can introduce unanticipated costs.
• Familiarity: Can increase perceived ease of use for both teachers and LMS administrators.
• Most important consideration: The degree to which IT professionals (technology integration specialists and other instructional leaders) are prepared to provide support, training, and design guidance.

🏫 School IT context and unique characteristics

🎓 Why schools are different for IT professionals

• The same factors that make schools unfamiliar places for IT professionals designing and managing technology systems also make them unfamiliar for providing IT support.
• The role is to keep infrastructure operational for students, teachers, and other users—this may seem obvious, but schools are unfamiliar places for many IT professionals.

📉 Relatively low impact of malfunctioning IT

• One of the most important differences between school IT and business/industry IT.
• While IT is essential to teaching and schooling, and no IT professional wants systems to be "down," circumstances differ from business:
  • Many valuable teaching lessons can occur for short time without IT.
  • The extreme financial loss common during business outages is absent in schools.
• Low impact nature notwithstanding, IT support is still an important aspect of IT professionals' work in schools.

⏰ Last-minute help requests

• School users are notorious for waiting until the last minute to get help.
• Example: If a teacher calls asking for help getting a YouTube video to play through the classroom projector, assume there is a classroom full of students awaiting the video.
• Triaging such situations can be difficult; the teacher may be very anxious, and no IT professional wants to seem unresponsive.

🔧 Extremes of user self-sufficiency

• School users are notorious for being on either extreme of the need for support:
  • One extreme: Students and teachers who believe they can resolve many problems and are willing to try; they often resolve many problems themselves, but they can also attempt to resolve issues they should not, and they often find workarounds that decrease their efficiency.
  • Other extreme: Users who will not attempt any troubleshooting and call for technicians whenever anything goes wrong.

🎯 Preference for reliability over advanced functionality

• School users are well-known for trading reliability and ease of use for advanced functionality.
• Many school users use only a fraction of the tools and features available in the applications they use.
• IT professionals know systems can be configured to perform many more functions than are typically used, but such configurations can increase complexity and make systems less reliable from the user's perspective.
• Teachers often prefer IT systems that are less complex and provide fewer features if what is provided is:
  • Very reliable: Always available
  • Robust: Reliable even when many users are connected
• Recognizing this can help IT professionals avoid using time and resources to deploy and train users on features that will not be used.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

School IT users differ fundamentally from business users because they have emerging competencies, diverse and unpredictable needs, and periodic skill changes, requiring IT professionals to prioritize flexibility and active listening over standardized system design.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Core difference: Business users have stable, task-specific needs and basic competencies; school users (especially students) have emerging skills, interest-based needs, and periodic turnover.
• Teachers' unique challenge: They cannot articulate IT needs accurately until they use systems with students at scale, requiring IT professionals to iterate and adapt after deployment.
• Perceptions drive acceptance: Users' subjective beliefs about performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, and facilitating conditions determine whether they adopt technology—not objective system quality.
• Common confusion: IT professionals trained in business settings assume users are competent, stable, and task-focused; in schools, these assumptions fail because students have emerging literacy, teachers need flexibility, and needs change yearly.
• Warm vs. cold closure: Closing support tickets with personal confirmation (warm) improves perceived customer service far more than automated messages (cold).

🎫 Ticket Management and Customer Service

🎫 The ticket closure problem

• What happens: Technicians fix problems but fail to close tickets in the system because they focus on solving issues rather than administrative tasks.
• Why it matters: Open tickets accumulate for weeks or months, creating the perception that "IT never responds," even when problems are resolved.
• Batch cleanup issue: Closing old tickets all at once sends irrelevant messages to users who reported problems long ago, reinforcing negative perceptions.

🌡️ Cold vs. warm closure

Cold closure: Relies on automated technology to notify users that a ticket is closed, with no confirmation that the issue is actually resolved.

Warm closure: Uses personal communication (ultimately face-to-face) and confirms resolution by observing the user operate the system.

The spectrum (from cold to warm):

1. Automated reporting (coldest)
2. Email or voicemail
3. Phone call
4. Face-to-face conversation
5. Meet with user and watch them use the system (warmest)

• Why warmth matters: Personal confirmation increases perceived customer service quality, especially in schools where educators and technicians often miscommunicate about problem symptoms.
• Best practice message: "This has been fixed; if it comes back, let us know immediately" clarifies that the technician believes the issue is resolved and invites follow-up if symptoms persist.

🤝 Interaction skills for IT professionals

Empathy without patronizing:

• Users want technicians to understand and take problems seriously.
• Over-scripted statements like "I'm sorry that happened" feel insincere and harm perceived customer service.

Not taking criticism personally:

• Frustrated users may direct unwarranted criticism at the technician who is present to help.
• The best IT professionals recognize this as situational frustration, not personal attack.
• Don't confuse: Workplace bullies exist and require intervention from school and IT leaders, but most user frustration is temporary and context-driven.

Clear and professional communication:

• Active listening: Ask clarifying questions; repeat back what you hear to confirm understanding.
• Users often lack language to describe symptoms accurately, so listening actively helps both parties.
• Explain in appropriate language: Describe the problem, solution, and timeline without excessive jargon; most users don't want all the details.

Calm and approachable tone:

• When users believe IT professionals are pleasant and won't criticize or ridicule them, they perceive better customer service.

👥 Comparing School Users to Business Users

🏢 Five fundamental differences

Characteristic	Business users	School users
Competence	Competent in basic literacy and digital skills	Students have emerging competence; primary students are learning to read and type
Needs	Clear, specific, task-based	Diverse, interest-based, unpredictable; same hardware may serve accounting software one period and video editing the next
Flexibility	Task-oriented; accounting staff don't need video editing	Must support interest-based exploration; teachers can't always predict what they'll need until they try it with students
Selection	Self-selected (applied) and employer-selected (hired); can be removed if unable to use systems	Attendance is compulsory; schools must educate all students regardless of IT skill; denying access may violate educational rights
Stability	Relatively stable skills and needs over time	Periodic change: students gain skills during the year, then are replaced by newcomers; curriculum and teaching methods evolve

Example from the excerpt: A technology coordinator candidate said, "We set user devices up in the summer, and if they don't tell me before we start, then it has to wait until next year." That candidate was not hired—schools require responsiveness to unanticipated needs.

🔄 Variability as the core challenge

• In non-school organizations, IT professionals can predict user skills and needs within narrow bounds.
• In schools, IT professionals must serve a diverse population with diverse interests and unpredictable IT needs.
• Don't confuse: This is not about "difficult users"; it's about the inherent nature of educational work, where learning goals and methods evolve continuously.

👶 Students as IT Users

👶 Youngest students (primary grades)

• Emerging literacy and numeracy: Many cannot yet read instructions on screens.
• Physical limitations: Hands too small for full-sized keyboards; not yet typists.
• Curiosity and prescribed use: Eager to learn but rely heavily on teacher direction; often use websites for academic skill practice or activity centers.
• Teacher caution: Many primary teachers limit IT use because other foundational skills (social, motor, basic literacy) are priorities at this age.

Example from the excerpt: A technology coordinator upgraded active directory servers without changing password complexity requirements. Primary students were prompted to create passwords with eight characters, capitals, numbers, and special characters—a task unmanageable for children just learning to read and type. Students were effectively locked out.

🎓 Oldest students (high school seniors)

• Adult status: Most turn 18 during senior year.
• Independent projects: Engaged in self-directed work; need professional-grade software.
• Creators, not just consumers: Produce information, complete internships, and may work alongside IT professionals to learn entry skills.
• Diverse post-graduation plans: IT needs depend on college plans, career goals, and elective coursework.

Example from the excerpt: One IT professional taught first and second graders (many non-readers) in multimedia and coding projects, then taught calculus-based physics, then managed multiple servers—all in the same school of 350 students (K–12).

👩‍🏫 Teachers as IT Users

👩‍🏫 Teachers' diverse IT needs

Work-related tasks:

• Create instructional materials (worksheets, presentations) using productivity suites (increasingly Google Workspace).
• Manage student data via student information systems (e.g., mark attendance online).
• Use learning management systems to extend lessons with virtual classrooms.
• Access HR systems, requisitions, and operational documents.

Professional tasks (allowed by acceptable use policies):

• Complete courses for recertification or advanced degrees.
• Participate in professional organizations.
• Engage in personal learning.

Personal use of school-owned devices:

• IT professionals may be reluctant to "save my pictures before you reimage my computer," but no one wants to delete personally important files.

🗣️ Communication challenges

Teachers lack IT language:

• Cannot accurately describe what they want or need.
• Cannot accurately describe malfunctioning systems.

Example from the excerpt: A third-grade teacher said, "There is no voice on the computers in the lab." The IT coordinator thought she meant voice-to-text software. After five minutes, he realized she meant speakers—she wanted students to hear animated characters in a reading program.

IT professional response:

• Listen carefully and actively.
• Repeat back what you hear.
• Ask the teacher to demonstrate the problem.

🔬 Testing at scale reveals unanticipated problems

• Teachers cannot tell if systems function as anticipated until used with students.
• In business IT, use cases are well-known, so testing closely resembles production.
• In schools, students introduce unanticipated circumstances that cause carefully planned systems to fail "in the wild."
• IT professionals must be prepared to redesign systems after educators discover issues during actual use.

Example from the excerpt: An IT coordinator said, "I built what they asked for; if they asked for the wrong thing, that is not my problem." This attitude wastes money, time, and effort when systems remain underutilized. Careful listening and iterative design are essential.

🔄 Teachers need flexibility

• Many teachers vary classroom physical organization during the year (e.g., centers, seating arrangements, unit-based changes).
• These changes are rooted in valid teaching needs, not whim.
• IT professionals must accommodate flexibility even though it can result in less reliable and less secure systems.

⚖️ Tension between teacher and IT goals

Teachers need	IT professionals prefer
Flexibility and adaptability	Reliable, secure systems (which require standardization)
Changes after the school year begins	Summer upgrades when demand is low
Quick turnaround on requests	Time to plan and test

Resolution: IT professionals must engage in discussions, adopt reasonable timelines, and make changes with less notice than they would like—but not every requested change must be made.

🏢 Business-like Users in Schools

🏢 Task-oriented systems

• School operations (financial management, HR, student information, library databases) resemble business IT.
• These systems are task-centered, so they can be designed and tested like business IT.
• Many have transitioned to cloud-based systems accessed via web browsers.

Examples:

• Accounting staff access cloud-based bookkeeping and invoice processing.
• Administrative assistants report to regulatory agencies via online systems.
• Athletic schedules managed online.
• Building information management systems control HVAC, fire alarms, security alarms.

🌐 Cloud transition changes IT work

• IT professionals spend more time managing networks for secure, reliable connections than managing on-site data centers.
• Configure single sign-on or manage individual user accounts on cloud systems.
• Ensure browsers and extensions are properly configured.
• Ensure data access is limited to authorized users.
• Vet systems for compliance with school policy and the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA).

🌍 Public Users

🌍 When the public connects to school networks

Low-demand events: Audiences at athletics, concerts, performances don't expect wireless access.

Valid reasons for guest access:

• Consultants from service agencies at IEP meetings or providing student services (need internet-based testing or instructional materials).
• Trainers from vendors (e.g., student information system vendor) at workshops.
• Educators at professional meetings or conferences held on campus (need email or Google Workspace access).
• Students from other schools at educational events (e.g., robotics competitions; may need software updates).
• Faculty, staff, and students bringing their own devices for personal or auxiliary classroom use.

🔒 Risk and mitigation

• Devices not owned or configured by the school pose a risk (may introduce malware).
• If the network is improperly configured, threats can spread.
• Skilled system administrators can minimize risk by proper network segmentation and guest access policies.

🔄 Users' Perceptions of Change

📚 Education's relationship with technology

• Whenever new technology arrives, some teachers perceive it as an intrusion.
• Why resistance is reasonable:
  • New technology forces reassessment of practices, changes, and abandonment of familiar methods.
  • Teachers may interpret this as an accusation that their prior work was deficient.
  • Even open teachers face decisions about what to include in limited curriculum time.

Responsibility: Educators must adopt technologies that facilitate learning and prepare students to use information technologies needed for societal participation.

📊 Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers, 2003)

Diffusion of Innovations: A framework identifying types of users based on the rate at which they adopt innovations.

• Early adopters: Introduce new technologies into schools.
• Laggards (last 25%): Adopt only when other options are untenable.
• Reasons for reluctance: perceived effort to learn, need to abandon recently developed methods, social unacceptability.

Implication for IT professionals: Innovators will request frequent changes; laggards will resist as long as possible.

🧩 Factors affecting adoption

Factor	Description
Relative advantage	When educators believe new technology improves performance, they are more likely to adopt it
Complexity	Complicated systems are less likely to be adopted
Compatibility	If the system aligns with what the user believes they should be doing, adoption is more likely
Trialability and Observability	Users are more likely to adopt systems they can see "in action"

Key insight: Several factors depend on individual perceptions, not objective reality. Users may initially reject an innovation but adopt it later when perceptions change.

Example from the excerpt: Wikipedia was blocked by many school IT professionals (including the author) in the early 2000s due to perceived unreliability. Over time, perceptions changed as educators and IT professionals recognized it is as reliable as other encyclopedias and offers advantages (wider collection, frequent updates). Blocking Wikipedia is now unusual.

🎯 Technology Acceptance (UTAUT)

🎯 Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)

UTAUT: A research framework defining factors associated with users' decisions to use technology, introduced in 2003 by Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis.

Four direct factors:

1. Performance expectancy
2. Effort expectancy
3. Social influences
4. Facilitating conditions

Indirect factors (clarified in UTAUT2, 2012):

• Age, gender, experience
• Enjoyment, price value, habit (added in UTAUT2)

Critical insight: It is users' perceptions that determine acceptance, not objective system quality. Perceptions may be contradictory (IT professionals vs. users; different users vs. each other).

🚀 Performance Expectancy (PE)

Performance Expectancy: The extent to which an individual believes the technology system will help them do their job well.

• Higher PE → more likely to use the system.
• Rooted in outcomes and relative advantage.

Challenge in schools: Outcomes vary by teacher, curriculum, student, and even within the same teacher's goals.

Example from the excerpt: A math teacher may want a web-based platform for basic computation practice (specific system requirements) and multimedia tools with scripting for exploring fractals (very different requirements).

Relative advantage: If educators believe they can achieve goals more quickly or improve learning with IT compared to other options (or no IT), PE increases.

🛠️ Effort Expectancy (EE)

Effort Expectancy: The individual's perception of how easy the IT system is to use.

• Perceived ease of use strongly influences decisions after initial training but before high familiarity.
• During initial learning, remembering steps interferes with ease of use → importance of training when deploying new systems.

Critical point: Users' perceptions matter, not IT professionals' perceptions.

Example from the excerpt: IT professionals may configure systems for efficient management, but these efficiencies may make systems harder for users. If IT believes a system is easy but users do not, the users' perceptions determine acceptance, and systems must be modified.

👥 Social Influences (SI)

Social Influences: The individual's sense that important others expect them to use the IT, combined with cultural experiences and the social status gained (or lost) by using (or not using) the technology.

Complex and contradictory:

• A CIO with little teaching experience recommending a platform may face negative SI.
• Educators may advocate for systems similar to colleagues' in other schools (positive SI).
• New educators influenced by teacher education programs may encounter different systems in their first job.
• Younger educators may have different cultural acceptance of IT, dismissed by older colleagues (weak association between age and acceptance; stereotypes recognized).

Three types of social influences (from social psychology):

1. Compliance: Obligated to act to gain reward or avoid punishment (e.g., required to use online grading system but not advanced features).
2. Identification: Strong identity with an individual or group leads to modeling their actions (stronger than compliance).
3. Internalization: Social influences become perceived as natural; individual holds same expectations of others (strongest).

🛠️ Facilitating Conditions (FC)

Facilitating Conditions: Technical and organizational factors that contribute to an individual feeling supported in their use of IT systems.

For educators, FC includes:

• Financial resources
• Troubleshooting and repair expertise
• Training opportunities
• Perceptions that they can influence technology decisions

When educators perceive all these areas are sufficiently provided, they are more likely to use technology.

⚠️ The challenge of inaccurate perceptions

• Users' perceptions can be "wildly inaccurate."
• Teachers may quickly label systems as "broken" and reject support perceived as taking too long.

Improving perceptions requires:

1. Improve device functionality: Update and replace older devices.
2. Train users in basic troubleshooting: If users can resolve simple problems without IT intervention, they return to productive use more quickly (without posing risk to the system).
3. Ongoing communication and collaboration: Ensure expectations are known; identify, repair, or replace malfunctioning devices before they harm perceptions.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

IT professionals in schools must support four distinct approaches to technology use—teaching about, by, via, and with technology—while understanding curriculum standards, testing requirements, and the diverse tools educators use to deliver instruction and assess learning.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Four approaches to technology in teaching: teaching about technology (e.g., digital citizenship, coding), teaching by technology (e.g., test-prep software), teaching via technology (e.g., video lectures that don't change pedagogy), and teaching with technology (e.g., integrating tools that adapt the lesson itself).
• Standards and testing: IT professionals support standards-based instruction (e.g., ISTE Standards) and manage high-stakes and diagnostic testing systems, including network capacity, user accounts, and data reporting.
• Multimedia and video: Students and teachers create slide shows, edit video, and use video conferencing; IT must support web-based and installed editing tools, accessibility checkers, and privacy protections.
• Coding and makerspaces: Schools teach programming (e.g., Scratch, AP Computer Science) and use makerspaces with 3-D printers and robots; IT professionals configure these tools and ensure network security.
• Common confusion: Teaching via vs. teaching with technology—via means the lesson could be done without technology (e.g., projecting student work instead of writing on a board), while with means technology changes how students engage with the material (e.g., interactive graphing calculators that allow real-time variable manipulation).

🎓 Four Approaches to Technology in Teaching

🖥️ Teaching About Technology

Teaching about technology: lessons in which the systems themselves are the curriculum.

• Originally called "computer literacy" when computers first arrived in schools; focused on naming components and setting up systems.
• Today includes digital citizenship, cybersecurity, and coding lessons.
• Also includes training users to operate specific systems (e.g., Google Workspace, student information systems, library databases).
• IT professionals often deliver training and create how-to articles or videos for students, teachers, and other users.

🤖 Teaching By Technology

Teaching by technology: software-driven instruction in which algorithms determine the student experience after educators define the lessons.

• Examples: test-preparation platforms, skills-building websites, typing tutors, "edutainment" games.
• Teachers create class lists, select content, and set variables; students log on and work through lessons; teachers review dashboards showing progress.
• Limitations: useful only for fact-based questions with clear answers; relies on algorithms (including programmed errors and designer biases); does not accommodate nuanced learning.
• Vendors seek economy of scale, so platforms address general curriculum goals and may influence curriculum decisions to create markets for their products.

📹 Teaching Via Technology

Teaching via technology: lessons that could be done with or without technology; IT may increase efficiency but does not change what students do or how they think.

• Example: projecting student work with a document camera instead of copying it onto a chalkboard—the math experience is unchanged.
• Video content is another example: students watch lectures for homework (flipped classrooms) or on-demand, but the presentation is still lecture-style and cannot provide clarification.
• Advantage: students can access video explanations at the moment they need them (e.g., during homework).
• Don't confuse: this is not the same as teaching with technology, where the tool changes the lesson design.

🔧 Teaching With Technology

Teaching with technology (also called technology integration): teachers incorporate technology into lessons and adapt the lesson based on the tool's capacity.

• Teachers make planning decisions based on available tools and vary the lesson depending on technology capabilities.
• Example: using an online graphing calculator allows teachers to introduce more sophisticated graphs quickly, create sliders to show how variables affect plots, or let students explore functions interactively.
• Key difference: this approach requires the greatest adaptability from educators and flexibility from IT professionals; goals and needs may be uncertain, and students customize products to demonstrate learning.
• Simulations are an effective method (especially in math and science), allowing students to participate in otherwise unavailable experiments.

📏 Standards and Curriculum

📚 What standards are

Standards: documents published by professional organizations or government agencies that define what students should know at each grade level.

• Curriculum (what teachers are supposed to teach) is difficult to define outside the context of school; for example, "eighth-grade reading level" means "most 14-year-olds can understand this."
• Subjects are artificially divided in schools; real-world problems require understanding many concepts taught in isolation.
• Since the late 20th century, organizations like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) published standards; since 2010, the Common Core State Standards have been widely (but not universally) adopted in the U.S.
• Reality: teachers cannot reasonably teach all published standards; the number of organizations publishing standards has increased beyond what is feasible.

🎯 ISTE Standards

ISTE Standards: technology standards published by the International Society for Technology in Education for students, educators, leaders, coaches, and computational thinking.

• First published in 1998 as National Educational Technology Standards; updated twice and expanded to multiple stakeholder groups.
• IT professionals should understand these standards because school and curriculum leaders use them to plan technology-based instruction.
• Core principles promoted by ISTE:
  • Active learning: students construct knowledge by solving complex problems, not just recalling information from lectures.
  • Citizenship: ethical use of technology and applying technology to important problems.
  • Collaboration: learners and problem solvers work together and incorporate diverse perspectives.
• Job tip: Be prepared to answer "How will you support achieving the standards?" in interviews; visit https://www.iste.org/ to become familiar.

⚖️ Criticisms of standards-based education

• Do standards reflect what students should learn? Employers and higher education care more about "soft skills" than content knowledge, yet standards focus on content.
• Do tests accurately measure what they claim? Tests are proprietary (written by publishers awarded state contracts), so independent review of validity and reliability is not possible.
• Do tests predict success? "Career and college ready" was the Common Core mantra, but claims were made before graduates entered careers or college.

🧪 Testing and Assessment

📊 Standard testing: two types

Type	What it measures	How results are reported
Standardized	Individual's score compared to all others who took the test	Percentile (e.g., 50th percentile = half scored higher, half lower)
Standards-based	Individual's performance compared to what they were expected to learn	"No evidence," "almost meeting," "meets," or "exceeds" the standard

• Neither type is inherently better; each has its own purpose.
• For IT professionals designing systems to administer tests, there is no difference: devices must establish reliable, secure connections to servers; user accounts must be created; testing conditions managed.
• Data specialists may use different strategies for reporting results depending on the test type.

🎯 High-stakes testing

High-stakes tests: tests associated with standards adopted under No Child Left Behind and Common Core State Standards; originally, schools that did not make "adequate yearly progress" toward 100% pass rates were sanctioned.

• The term "high-stakes" comes from the sanctions imposed on schools that did not meet impossible statistical goals.
• Testing requirements have generally expanded to include more subjects and more students than originally.
• IT implications: In the mid-2010s, schools upgraded network capacity and purchased devices to meet test system requirements; today, technology generally outpaces test requirements.
• School leaders may reserve technology resources during testing: IT professionals may be present to troubleshoot, public SSIDs may be disabled, or YouTube may be blocked to ensure network capacity.

🩺 Diagnostic testing

• Testing protocols incorporated into curriculum programs; rationale is that all decisions must create measurable changes in students.
• Many educational theorists reject this assertion; evidence that more data leads to "smarter" students is dubious.
• IT role: manage access to cloud-based testing systems, add browser extensions, manage users, configure networks.

📁 Electronic portfolios

Electronic portfolios: collections of artifacts (images, video, etc.) that document student learning, organized around competencies the curriculum promotes.

• Used in schools with project-based learning, internships, and other authentic learning methods; students demonstrate skills and knowledge beyond what tests measure.
• Portfolios are organized around broad outcomes (e.g., "effective communicator," "skilled problem solver") rather than narrow learning objectives.
• Widely used for students preparing for specific fields (e.g., art, health care).
• Process: educators create a template; students capture artifacts of learning; students reflect on the meaning and importance of artifacts.
• IT implications: facilitate students' use of personal devices to document learning (open SSID for phones/tablets, ensure cloud services allow large file uploads), configure learning management systems to integrate submitted work into portfolios.
• Don't confuse: the purpose is for students to describe their own perceptions of meaningful work, not for teachers to prescribe specific assignments; the more prescribed, the less meaningful.

🎬 Multimedia and Video Tools

🖼️ Slide shows

• Created with PowerPoint, Google Slides, or web-based tools; very widely used by teachers (to support instruction) and students (as projects).
• Originally stored on local drives; now shared and embedded in virtual classrooms.
• Accessibility requirement: schools must follow the Americans with Disabilities Act; multimedia must be accessible (e.g., video closed-captioned, slides have unique names, images have alternative text, flashing content avoided).
• IT professionals support accessibility checkers (built into applications or installed as add-ons) that identify missing metadata, navigation aids, alternative text, etc.
• Some aspects (e.g., color contrast) cannot be checked automatically; IT must support other tools.

🎥 Video editing

• Teachers create video to supplement instruction; students create video to demonstrate learning or capture performances.
• Many underestimate the time needed to produce acceptable video and overestimate the need for professional-quality editing.
• Web-based options: YouTube provides some editing capacity for uploaded video; challenges include application limitations and the need to transmit video to the platform.
• Installed software: iMovie (default on Macintosh), professional video editing software (for high schools teaching sophisticated editing with multiple tracks, filters, etc.).
• IT reality: a single video editing tool is unlikely to meet all users' needs; middle school students may use web-based platforms, while the theatre department may need professional applications.

💻 Video conferencing

• Became vital during the 2020 pandemic for remote teaching; long-term use is difficult to predict.
• Likely to continue for professional development, meetings, and enhancing in-person classes (e.g., students record discussions or presentations, then share recordings).
• IT roles: provide user devices with cameras and microphones, ensure sufficient network capacity, recommend platforms, provide training and troubleshooting resources.
• Privacy considerations: educators may want students on screen, but it can threaten privacy; schools have adopted procedures to minimize uninvited guests joining and disrupting meetings.

💻 Coding and Pre-Professional Courses

🧑‍💻 Coding in schools

Coding: teaching students how to write computer programs; has a long history in schools dating back to BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Code) invented in 1964.

• When computers first arrived, programming was how students created on computers (multimedia, word processors, and spreadsheets were not yet developed).
• Today, coding can be its own subject (e.g., AP Computer Science), incorporated into other lessons (e.g., Scratch in middle school math), or the focus of special events (e.g., Hour of Code).
• Rationale: programming can teach thinking skills (evidence is not strong) and demystify technology by giving students experience controlling it; regardless, many students enjoy learning to program.
• IT professionals support web-based coding platforms and integrated development environments installed on hard drives; exact requests depend on instructor preferences.

🐱 Scratch

Scratch: a popular platform to introduce students aged 8–15 to coding, released in 2007 by the Media Lab at MIT; related to Logo programming language developed by Seymour Papert in the 1960s.

• Scratch 2.0 (2013) introduced the online version; most "Scratchers" log on to the online project editor to select control blocks, set variables, customize sprites, and design projects.
• The editor allows Scratchers to publish and share projects so others can use or edit them.
• Scratch Junior targets students aged 5–8.
• Especially valuable knowledge for those interested in working in elementary schools; explore at https://scratch.mit.edu/

⏱️ Hour of Code

• Schools host events where students participate in coding activities; normal classes are cancelled for special instruction, guest speakers, and coding focus.
• Popular times: Computer Science Education Week and Grace Hopper's birthday (Hopper was a programming pioneer); local organizers may schedule events to fit school schedules.

🎓 Pre-professional courses

• Many high schools (including vocational/trade schools) offer computer science, digital media, or business applications courses where students develop advanced IT skills.
• Specifics depend on department history, popularity, and local business community (e.g., if an art teacher has digital photography skills, the school may offer a course).
• Advanced Placement (AP) courses: designed to prepare students for College Board exams; promoted as equivalent to college courses, but colleges increasingly reluctant to grant credit for passing scores.
• Reality: students are unlikely to pass professional licensing exams after these courses, so they are best described as pre-professional.
• School leaders strive to replicate professional computing environments: computers with full operating systems and professional software are generally necessary.
• Challenging situation: courses teaching network management must be taught on networks isolated from the school's main network.
• Job tip: Be prepared for questions like "Would you be interested in helping our robotics team?" Answer positively but cautiously: "Yes, but only if meetings fit with my other duties." Even if not interested, ask "Do your students compete in programming or robotics competitions?" to show interest beyond the position.

🛠️ Makerspaces and Assistive Technologies

🏗️ Makerspaces

• Introduced into many schools in recent decades; in some schools, replaced wood shops; in others, supplement traditional industrial arts.
• Students are encouraged to build solutions to problems; depending on age and teacher interests, can include 3-D printers, robots, and coding.
• Faculty hired to teach in makerspaces typically have expertise in configuring devices; they work closely with IT professionals to ensure necessary technology is available, managed so as not to interfere with student use, and that the network is secure and reliable.

♿ Assistive technologies and accessibility

Assistive technologies: devices necessary for students with disabilities, including Braille printers, specialized keyboards, specialized displays, assistive listening systems, and other devices.

• IT professionals collaborate with special education teachers, leaders, and consultants to select, install, configure, maintain, and manage these devices.
• Many devices are needed only by specific students; selection and configuration decisions are made by others to meet individual needs.
• IT professionals may be asked to provide troubleshooting support; in schools with older students, devices may have been in service for many years (obtained when the student started school).
• Legal requirement: the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) ensures all individuals have access to public resources regardless of disability status; schools cannot deny any student access to education (except in very exceptional cases).
• IT professionals have responsibility to provide adequate support for these users and devices; denial likely represents a violation of school policy.

✅ Accessibility checkers

• Educators must ensure materials (textbooks, videos, presentations) are accessible to all.
• Publishers understand this requirement and prepare alternative versions (e.g., audio or Braille textbooks).
• Teachers must take steps to ensure their own materials are accessible; must also confirm publisher resources are accessible (e.g., presentations included in instructor resources often do not pass accessibility checks).
• Microsoft Office and most productivity applications have accessibility checker tools that identify inaccessible properties (e.g., missing alternative text on images, missing unique slide names, flashing content).
• Example: before distributing a PowerPoint presentation, a teacher should make sure the file "passes" the accessibility check.

⚖️ Copyright Issues

📚 Copyright challenges in schools

• One of the most challenging issues related to digital information in schools, especially since one-to-one initiatives became common.
• Rationale for one-to-one: textbooks (traditionally very expensive) would no longer be necessary; computing devices for each student would replace them.
• While some educators use open educational resources (available for reuse and editing at no cost), many rely on other types of information, and some uses violate copyright protections.
• Historical context: when educational resources were print, making physical copies of copyright-protected materials was expensive; it was often cheaper to purchase additional copies of a novel than to photocopy a single copy.
• The excerpt ends here; no further details on copyright solutions or policies are provided.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Effective IT decision-making in schools requires collaboration among three distinct groups—educators who define appropriate design, IT professionals who ensure proper configuration, and administrators who determine reasonable implementation—each staying within their expertise while communicating across boundaries.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Three dimensions of IT decisions: appropriate design (what teachers need), proper configuration (secure/reliable/robust systems), and reasonable implementation (budget/policy constraints).
• Three levels of goals: strategic goals (school-wide mission), logistic goals (departmental tasks), and efficiency goals (IT department productivity).
• Common confusion: educators may be "tech-savvy" with consumer devices but lack understanding of enterprise systems; IT professionals may assume lecture-based teaching when modern classrooms require flexible, active-learning setups.
• Design cycle: technicians configure → users operate → users identify acceptance issues → steering committee redesigns → repeat.
• Why steering committees matter: they negotiate conflicts between what teachers want, what IT can secure, and what budgets/policies allow.

🎯 Three types of organizational goals

🎯 Strategic goals

Strategic goals describe the purpose of the organization and the conditions leaders expect to be true.

• Set by school leaders (often in mission statements).
• In schools: graduating students who are "smart" (though defining "smart" is challenging).
• Updated yearly in response to regulations, data, emerging practices, or leader priorities.
• When achieved, the organization is labeled efficacious.
• IT's role: frame departmental goals to support strategic goals and help other departments do the same.

🔧 Logistic goals

Logistic goals are the things IT professionals need to accomplish as they design, improve, configure, and manage IT systems.

• Defined by departmental leaders, often in collaboration with educators or business staff.
• Guide daily work (more focused than strategic goals).
• Best practice: ensure clear connection between logistic and strategic goals.
• When aligned and achieved, the work is labeled effective.
• Example: if the strategic goal is improved learning outcomes, a logistic goal might be "deploy reliable classroom projectors for all teachers."

⚙️ Efficiency goals

Efficiency goals are defined to improve the productivity and operations of the IT department itself.

• Typically set by IT staff themselves.
• Examples: ticketing systems, device replacement schedules, training for users or technicians, assigning technicians to specific locations.
• Why they matter: meeting efficiency goals helps IT be more effective at logistic goals, which helps the school achieve strategic goals.
• Don't confuse: efficiency (doing work faster/cheaper) vs. effectiveness (doing the right work).

🏗️ Three dimensions of IT decision-making

🏗️ Appropriate design (educators' domain)

Appropriate design: the nature of the technology that teachers and students need, as determined by educators.

• Who decides: teachers and curriculum leaders.
• What they assess:
  • Does the technology afford the experiences students need (accessing information, interacting, creating/sharing work)?
  • Is there sufficient capacity and number of devices?
  • Is it easy to use for both students and teachers?
• Why it's design, not planning: goals and measures emerge iteratively; versions are temporary and updated based on feedback.
• Collaboration: technology integration specialists and IT professionals participate, but educators must lead.
• Example: an art teacher wants to connect an iPad to a projector to demonstrate techniques to young students—this is an appropriate design request.

🔐 Proper configuration (IT professionals' domain)

Proper configuration: ensuring technology meets industry standards and is secure, reliable, and robust.

• Who decides: IT professionals.
• Three pillars:
  1. Secure: minimize threats (locked wiring closets, malware protection, firewalls, access controls).
  2. Reliable: available whenever needed (schedule updates during breaks, replace aging devices, use redundant cloud systems).
  3. Robust: sufficient capacity to meet load (e.g., wireless networks that handle dozens of devices without latency).
• Potential conflict: appropriate design may ask for excessive flexibility; proper configuration may impose barriers that frustrate users.
• Example: the technology coordinator created a special organizational unit with relaxed password rules for young students, balancing security with usability.

💼 Reasonable implementation (administrators' domain)

Reasonable implementation: ensuring all decisions fall within budgets, human resources expectations, and adopted policies.

• Who decides: school administrators (superintendents, principals).
• Three constraints:
  • Budgets: current and future financial limits.
  • Human resources: master contracts, employment laws.
  • Policies: school board regulations, legal requirements.
• When conflicts arise: administrators negotiate between appropriate design and proper configuration, deciding which perspective takes priority.
• Example: a principal observed students struggling with complex passwords, decided "easy log on" was reasonable, and directed IT to configure a solution that balanced security and usability.

🚦 "Stay in your lane"

• Each group has distinct expertise; no one person can make informed decisions across all three dimensions.
• Best practice: decision-makers focus on their domain but ask questions to understand others' rationale.
• Don't confuse: "staying in your lane" is not about siloing—it's about respecting expertise while communicating across boundaries.

🔄 The design cycle for continuous improvement

🔄 How the cycle works

1. Technicians configure systems based on proper configuration principles, their skills, infrastructure, budgets, and understanding of appropriate design.
2. Users operate the system as designed; technicians ensure users understand procedures.
3. Users identify issues (framed as technology acceptance factors: ease of use, effectiveness) and "complain" constructively.
4. Steering committee meets to define new configuration that realizes the updated appropriate design.
5. Repeat: the cycle is continuous; different components may be at different stages simultaneously.

🎯 Key principles

• Formal or informal: the cycle can be explicit or implicit.
• Multiple iterations: each stage may require several rounds before moving to the next.
• Deference at each stage:
  • Educators defer to technicians' initial design.
  • Technicians defer to educators' acceptance feedback.
  • Administrators ensure the correct stakeholders' recommendations are implemented at each stage.
• Outcome: when the cycle is active and continuous, perceptions of "facilitating conditions" improve.

📖 Real-world example: password story

• Problem: young students struggled with complex password requirements; some gave up and refused to log on.
• Complaint: teacher told principal passwords were too complicated and interfered with computer-based lessons.
• Initial response: technology coordinator insisted complex passwords were necessary for security.
• Resolution: principal observed students in the computer room, saw the frustration, and insisted on easier passwords. Technology coordinator created a special organizational unit with relaxed password rules that still protected the system.
• Lesson: appropriate design (easy log on) + reasonable implementation (principal's decision) + proper configuration (secure organizational unit) = successful outcome.

🤝 Steering committees and acceptable use policies

🤝 Purpose of steering committees

Steering committees are diverse groups comprising representatives from across the community who recommend decisions and actions.

• Who participates: teachers, IT professionals, administrators, sometimes community members.
• What they bring: strong vision, broad understanding of operations, interest in identifying technologies to fill gaps.
• What they do: simultaneously negotiate appropriate design, proper configuration, and reasonable implementation so that improvements are manageable, predictable, and sustainable.
• Why they matter: reduce conflicts between what teachers want, what IT needs, and what budgets/policies allow.

📜 Acceptable use policies (AUPs)

Acceptable use policies protect the organization from liabilities and damage resulting from inappropriate IT use.

• Policy vs. procedures:
  • Policy: adopted by school board, written in legal language, ultimate rules that must be followed.
  • Procedures: defined by IT and educators, easier to understand, facilitate day-to-day management.
• Student-friendly AUPs: written in age-appropriate language so children can understand.
• Signing AUPs: largely symbolic (users are obligated to follow policy whether they sign or not), but valuable for teaching digital citizenship, cybersecurity, privacy, etc.
• Revision: policy changes take years; procedures can be updated more frequently.
• Don't confuse: violating procedures may be correctable, but violating policy can lead to termination.

🔑 Permissions problem

• Administrator credentials: allow users to change configurations, install software, manage other users—dangerous if misused.
• Best practice for IT professionals: use a regular account for day-to-day work; log on with administrator credentials only when making changes, then log off immediately.
• School administrators: should not have IT administrator credentials (too much risk of misconfiguration).
• Contingency planning: responsible IT leaders ensure systems can be administered in their absence (multiple individuals with credentials, or credentials available to school administrators in emergencies).
• Example scenarios: primary administrator has a stroke, IT professional walks off the job, technology coordinator is on vacation in a remote area.

🧩 Complicating factors in school IT decision-making

🧩 Educators' consumer-level tech knowledge

• Many educators are tech-savvy with personal devices and home networks.
• The gap: consumer IT skills do not scale to enterprise systems.
• Risk: educators who "know enough to be dangerous" may attempt troubleshooting or offer advice that makes situations worse.
• Example: a teacher wanted to buy a $250 laptop with her classroom budget, not understanding enterprise procurement; another thought a 48-port network switch was "like a light switch."

🧩 IT professionals' outdated teaching concepts

• IT professionals have school experience and concepts of what teaching is.
• The gap: many assume lecture-based methods (easy to support: one workstation, projector, speakers).
• Reality: modern educators use active learning strategies that require much more complicated, flexible IT.
• Don't confuse: IT for lecture halls vs. IT for active learning classrooms.

🧩 Administrators' incomplete IT knowledge

• School leaders are often savvy technology users for their own productivity (e.g., tablets for walking around buildings).
• The gap: their teaching experience may be brief and with primitive technology; their IT knowledge is personal, not enterprise-level.
• Risk: they may make large-scale purchases (e.g., tablets for all students) without understanding configuration/management challenges or differences between their tasks and students'/teachers' tasks.
• Example: leaders reasoned "my tablet helps me be productive, so they will help everyone be productive," unaware of the differences in use cases and management complexity.

🧭 Overview

🧠 One-sentence thesis

Getting hired as an IT professional in schools involves navigating a localized, structured process that includes finding openings on regional job boards, submitting detailed application materials, participating in multi-stakeholder interviews with standardized questions, and completing extensive on-boarding requirements including background checks and school-specific training.

📌 Key points (3–5)

• Job search is regional and localized: schools post openings on regional job boards and their own websites; the process varies significantly by location, so candidates should research local hiring practices.
• Application materials must connect experience to role: resumes, cover letters, references, and education credentials are required; applicants must explicitly link their qualifications to the position because reviewers may not understand technical details.
• Interview process is structured and multi-stakeholder: search committees include diverse representatives (sometimes students); they ask standardized questions approved by HR and cannot ask about protected personal information.
• Common confusion—protected information: committees cannot ask about marital status, family, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity; candidates should avoid volunteering this information even if it feels natural.
• On-boarding includes unique school requirements: background checks (often paid by employee), fingerprinting, FERPA training, mandated reporter training, and dual supervision structures (technical competence + educational appropriateness).

🔍 Finding Job Openings

🌐 Where schools post vacancies

• Regional online job boards: schools in the same area typically use the same job boards; if one local school uses a platform, nearby schools likely do too.
• Professional organization sites: state or regional education organizations sponsor job boards; some postings are cross-listed on large commercial sites with links back to the school's specific posting.
• School websites directly: most schools have an "employment opportunities" section linking to their job board postings.
• The excerpt notes that previous generations searched newspapers; today the process is almost entirely online.

📋 Why openings arise

Schools create vacancies for the same reasons as other organizations:

• New positions created when leaders decide additional workers or new expertise is needed.
• Existing positions open when individuals are terminated, resign, transfer internally, or retire.
• Pandemic effects: volatile enrollments and funding have made school employment unpredictable; some positions remain vacant to save budget or because qualified applicants cannot be found.
• Recent additions: some schools added technicians for infrastructure and instructional technology specialists to support remote/online teaching; permanence of these roles is unclear.
• Short-term openings: family/medical leave coverage and grant-funded positions are common; the excerpt cautions that part-time duties often expand while pay does not.

🔐 Hiring procedures and constraints

As public institutions with often-unionized employees, school leaders must follow specific procedures for filling openings.

• Internal candidates first: sometimes open positions must be advertised to internal candidates and those candidates considered before external advertising.
• Diversity recruitment: schools seek candidates that increase faculty/staff diversity; the excerpt clarifies this does not mean preferential hiring, only recruitment.
• Don't confuse: recruitment for diversity ≠ hiring preference; it means broadening the candidate pool.

📝 Application Process

📄 Required documents

When applying for IT jobs in schools, expect to submit:

Document	Purpose	Key advice from excerpt
Resume	Summarize work experience, highlight IT experiences required for position	Add other technology skills for completeness; remember reviewers may not understand technical skills listed
Cover letter	Specify position and qualifications	Use five-paragraph model: 1) job you want, 2) introduce yourself, 3) work experiences, 4) technology skills, 5) express interview interest
References	Three written references familiar with IT abilities and collaborative work	Must speak to both technical and teamwork skills
Education evidence	Unofficial transcripts, professional licenses, digital badges, credentials	Varies by position requirements

🔗 Drawing clear connections

• Critical principle: explicitly connect your experience and preparation to the role; reviewers may not understand what qualifications are most relevant even with a clear job description.
• Be clear and direct about qualifications without overconfidence.
• For career-changers or new professionals: schools are often open to hiring those new to the profession or returning to workforce; be clear about skills and willingness to learn.

💻 Submission platforms

• Job board platforms: some allow uploading resumes, cover letters, recommendations, transcripts, and credentials once, then reusing them for any position on the site.
• School-specific platforms: other schools maintain their own application systems; the excerpt notes frustration that many require re-entering information about previous employers into their forms, representing significant effort that can dissuade applicants.
• Previous generations submitted hard copies; online submission is now far more common.

🏫 Pre-interview research

It is a good idea to learn more about the school where you are applying before you accept an interview.

• Spend time on the school website to familiarize yourself with curriculum, activities, and culture.
• Some applicants search for interview team members on social media beforehand; the excerpt's author has recommended those who searched for him but personally avoids following interviewers after applying.

🎤 Interview Process

🗂️ Typical hiring stages

The human resources professionals determine the process, which typically includes:

1. Initial screening: identify applicants meeting minimum requirements.
2. Search committee selection: committee comprises individuals representing many stakeholders; they select applicants to interview.
3. First-round interviews: increasingly, committees ask all candidates the same questions, often approved by HR to ensure appropriateness; students may be on the committee for positions requiring student interaction.
4. Final interview recommendation: search committee recommends top candidates for final interview with a smaller group (often the direct supervisor and close colleagues).

🚫 Protected information boundaries

Questions about marital or family status, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity are not allowed.

• Why: these are protected information and cannot be used for hiring decisions in most public organizations.
• Career advisor recommendation: "if they can't ask about it, you shouldn't talk about it"—protects both search committee and applicants.
• Example from excerpt: A colleague inadvertently disclosed being transgender; "the committee all stopped as if they heard some great secret they should not have been told."
• How to handle if it comes up naturally: use general references instead of specifics.
  • ✅ Better: "I'm interested in a career that allows me to support my family"
  • ❌ Avoid: "I'm interested in a career that allows me to support my wife and children" (identifies marital status, parental status, partner's gender identity)

👥 Committee composition and communication

• Diverse representation: the committee likely comprises diverse representatives from the school community; some may not understand technical answers.
• Strategy: pay attention to committee members' roles and direct technology answers to those with technical expertise.
• Candidate questions: committees often ask if the candidate has questions; worth researching recent (non-difficult) events at the school to ask about.
• Example from excerpt: Author was asked what he knew about a high school; responded that he knew about their football winning streak 10 years earlier and that he was the player who recovered the fumble ending that streak; identified the football coach on the committee.

👻 "Ghosting" reality

Schools are notorious for "ghosting" candidates.

• Applicants, even those interviewed, may never get status updates.
• Inquiries to HR professionals often go unreturned or receive standard "we cannot discuss personnel issues" replies.
• The excerpt acknowledges this is frustrating but states applicants have little recourse; be prepared for this possibility.

📋 Decision authority

• Depending on local policies, some interview processes are advisory only.
• Final personnel decisions (formal offers, salary, similar details) are addressed by HR professionals and often school boards or other governing bodies.

🎯 Offer and On-boarding

📜 Accepting the position

• Once formally offered a position, candidates usually have a day or two to decide.
• After acceptance: contracts are signed and a start date is scheduled.

🔍 Background checks and fingerprinting

In the 21st century, it has become very common for school employees to undergo a background check and be fingerprinted before they begin work.

• Cost: in some jurisdictions, employees must pay these costs themselves.
• Redundancy issue: some employees must undergo (and pay for) multiple background checks; example given is if hired for an afterschool program paid through a grant rather than school budget, a separate background check may be required for that position.

📚 Required training

All organizations include required training in on-boarding; schools add specific requirements:

Training type	Examples
Common business trainings	Harassment prevention
School-specific trainings	FERPA training, mandated reporter training, blood-borne pathogen training, and others
IT system training	Details of systems the new hire will support and connection to greater IT infrastructure

👔 Supervision and evaluation structure

IT professionals are usually included in the non-academic staff, although some such as technology integration specialists are licensed.

Key organizational principle:

• Schools are organizations where licensed educators are chief executive officers (superintendent responsible for all aspects).
• Personnel divided into academic activities staff (licensed and unlicensed educators) and non-academic activities staff.
• General rule: it is not appropriate for licensed educators to be supervised and evaluated by unlicensed individuals.

Dual supervision for IT professionals:

• Not unusual for IT professionals to report to multiple individuals.
• This seems unusual to those from other organizations but makes sense in education:
  • Technical competence: evaluated by chief information officer.
  • Appropriate interaction with school populations: evaluated by a licensed educator.
• The position advertisement usually specifies to whom the hired individual will report.

🔑 Administrator Credentials Context

🔐 IT administrator access principles

The excerpt opens with context about administrator permissions (though somewhat tangential to the hiring chapter):

IT professionals know the danger of using computers when logged on with an account that has administrator permissions.

• Best practice for IT professionals: maintain two accounts—regular account for day-to-day work; administrator account only when making changes, then log off immediately.
• School administrators: in general, should not be given IT administrator credentials; potential for inadvertent misconfiguration is too great.
• Responsible leadership: no school administrator who understands the importance of secure, reliable, robust IT systems would want administrator access.

🆘 Contingency planning

Responsible IT leaders take steps to ensure systems can be administered in their absence:

• Multiple individuals with administrator credentials.
• Making administrator credentials available to school administrators in emergencies.
• When to review plans: especially when new school administrators or chief information officers are hired.

Scenarios to prepare for (from excerpt):

• Primary system administrator becomes incapacitated (example: author had a stroke when primary system administrator; fortunately returned before major malfunctions).
• IT professional with administrator credentials denied promotion and walks off the job.
• Technology coordinator for small school on vacation in remote region when IT system becomes dysfunctional.

🌟 Summary Perspective

Schools are interesting and rewarding workplaces for IT professionals, but they can be challenging as well.

• Key difference: strategies and methods developed in business and industry may be less effective than IT professionals predict when applied in schools.
• Preparation value: reflecting on the differences described in the book will prepare IT professionals to get hired and be successful in careers supporting teaching and learning.
• Localization reminder: the reality of finding and securing jobs in education is very localized; individuals should investigate local hiring details by talking to teachers, school employees, or HR professionals at local schools to ask where they post openings.