With reliance on technology so prevalent, edtech IT needs to run smoothly., Solving the Biggest Back-to-School Challenge

Looking back at my time in school, I remember how organized my teachers were when we returned from summer break: new packs of chalk, handouts printed and ready, red pens full of ink for correcting, lesson plans broken down to the exact page of text. But this is no longer my, or your mom’s, back-to-school.

My CEO constantly refers to school technology as an add-on, and it’s become my job to constantly remind him that technology is the background of learning today. I imagine technology as the circulatory system of today’s schools: the pulsing lifeblood that makes all other higher levels of action and thought possible.

But what happens if all of a sudden that system not just breaks down, but runs inefficiently? What if IT service calls flood the department on the first day, making fixes near impossible? What if the Wi-Fi that handled x amount of devices last year isn’t accounting for the additional amount of devices with new security protocols this year? What if the new digital lesson plans for History aren’t downloading correctly?

The amount of time and energy that could potentially be lost in the first week of class is horrifyingly staggering. Which is why, when a contributor to eSchool News recently wrote “3 ways to get school services running smoothly after summer—quickly,” I thought, ‘Gosh, are other schools thinking about this?’

In the piece mentioned above, Nancy Van Elsacker Louisnord, president of TOPdesk, says that one of the biggest challenges to back-to-school is IT drag; specifically, IT being unable to handle problems as they arise throughout the district quickly.

For example, Van Elsacker Louisnord notes that many IT systems rely on heavy system customization. If that customization isn’t updated or known to most IT staff pre-back-to-school, it can create intense headaches when trying to streamline services, log requests, communicate with users and track the progress of calls.

“The service desk staff [at this school district] was answering the same problems repeatedly, for caller after caller,” she explained. And only after implementing an out-of-the-box service management solution could IT record answers to recurring problems in the knowledge base. Service desk operators are automatically alerted to possible standard solutions based on keywords. Has the operator found a standard solution? They add them to the incident.

Not only did automation and streamlining service desk management help save time, but communication became much better for the district between IT and other departments, including admin, which often relies heavily on technology for streamlining their day-to-day tasks of billing, digital communications, answering calls and requests, et cetera.

I wonder how many other schools and districts are currently in the thick of back-to-school preparations and how many are focusing on updating and helping IT to streamline their functionality. Is this a priority? I’m genuinely curious. Because honestly, as an EdTech editor, I hear a lot about preparing for back-to-school with professional development; school supplies; or implementation plans for new reform ideas; or even big technology rollouts for trending tech like VR. But service management solution prep? It’s not sexy. It doesn’t roll off the tongue. But is it happening?

Funnily enough, trying to understand the vast challenges faced by school and district IT helped me examine my company’s dependence on IT. As it turns out, our “IT department” is pretty much just one guy who helps the rest of us with everything from Blue Screens of Death to coding our customized publishing platform. If Vince Carlson, eSchool Media IT Wizard, left—or even missed a day of work—we’d be devastated.

Vince once told me that his favorite dessert is apple pie, yet no one ever makes it for him, even on his birthday. I made it for him last week.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting everyone bake pies for their IT department. I suggest that when schools and districts begin to think about back-to-school preparation, IT and the technological support they need should be a top priority.

1. EdSurge – North Carolina’s Digital Success Story
2. Ed Week – EdTech, Personalized Learning, and Virtual Schooling: Opportunities and Dangers
3. The Guardian – ‘The help never lasts’: why has Mexico’s education revolution failed?

Examining the relationship between educator and technology

By Meris Stansbury

When it comes to technology and innovation, how important is teacher buy-in for learning success?

Thinking back to what teachers hated to use in the classroom when I was a young student, the only tools that really come to mind are colored chalk and overhead projectors. But in today’s technology-dense culture, when no classroom is spared from the onslaught of new technology and instructional innovations, how much attention should be paid to what teachers prefer and what they loathe?

This may sound like a callous question, but it’s one that’s been cropping up in wild abundance this year on eSchool News, https://www.eschoolnews.com/ the K-12 tech and innovation news and resource website I manage.

Experts make the case for and against teacher buy-in

Recently, Alan November, the founder of edtech consulting firm November Learning, wrote a piece for eSchool News explaining that the use of technology in the classroom is critical for student achievement, and that teachers must buy-in to ensure that the technology — and pedagogical practices using this technology — is harnessed to its full potential.

Attending the recent Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) conference in Chicago, one of the most pushed points during a panel on what makes a successful “future-ready” school was to acquire teacher buy-in.

“It’s critical to remember that you can’t leave teachers behind in all of this,” emphasized presenter LaShona Dickerson, director of technology for the Lafayette Parish School System, LA. “To get the best expected returns on tech and innovation implementation, you have to involve the teachers.”

However, a former long-time teacher (now the vice president of Learning and Development for Discovery Education), recently wrote a piece on why teacher buy-in is sometimes overrated and can actually “paralyze innovation” within the school or district. She writes:

“Understanding the balance between growing buy-in and launching innovation has never been more important than in today’s era… as new ideas about teaching and learning go in and out of style, teachers have a right to feel some initiative fatigue. However, the fact remains that today’s world is a digital world, and in order for our students to be successful beyond graduation, they need an education that prepares them to operate productively in our society as it is. This reality makes the digital transition not a fad or something we might be able to get to, but rather, an immediate necessity that cannot always wait for optimum levels of teacher buy-in.”

This was a sentiment echoed in part by one of the CoSN panel’s attendees, the superintendent of one of Virginia’s largest school districts, who explained that securing buy-in from everyone in order to launch a new campaign was almost an impossibility — both in terms of number of staff and time constraints.

Going on the gut

As someone who doesn’t have hard data in front of her concerning teacher buy-in, I can’t say for certain how directly student achievement correlates to educator buy-in.

However, that doesn’t mean I can’t speculate — based purely on memory and common sense — that buy-in does have an effect on student learning. I may have used that colored chalk in rebellious sprees after school despite the teacher not liking it, but my opinion of my teacher was influenced.

Outside the colored chalk years to more mature ones filled with learning software and computer labs, I continued to see the teachers who didn’t take joy in trying new things, or experimenting with the possibilities of what could be, as relics.

And why does a student’s personal opinion matter? Because when a student begins to view his or her learning mentor as irrelevant, the information imparted by that mentor is shaded in irrelevancy as well. And nothing says ‘don’t bother to learn this’ than the feeling that it doesn’t matter.

Since teacher buy-in matters, make it easier

I agree that taking years or even months to get teacher buy-in is not feasible for schools and districts under pressure to improve student achievement. But since buy-in can influence student learning, how can schools do a better job of getting teacher buy-in, quickly?

According to November, one piece of the buy-in puzzle is to understand that teacher hesitancy in using technology or changing to a new innovative practice is often based in the fear of failing; of being reprimanded by administration or teased by students because of this perception of failure. Hesitancy is also due to a “sense of loss” of tried-and-true methods. He writes:

“I am convinced that the difficult work of transforming teaching and learning with the help of EdTech is not about teaching teachers how to use new tools; it’s really about the emotional side of letting go of control and managing the anxiety that comes with a sense of loss.

November emphasizes that in order to build teacher buy-in, administration and leadership must understand these emotional barriers and offer support — both in their communications and school and district practices.

Outside mitigating emotional turmoil, Samuel Mormando, director of Technology for Garnet Valley School District, writes that offering professional development in a style that mimics what the district would like to see in the classroom is a great way to achieve teacher buy-in. He writes:

“All sessions are driven and organized based on feedback from staff and analyzed by the district’s LEAP Committee, all utilizing face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous blended instruction. Our teachers choose their specific learning topics at their own pace with their preferred instructional model.”

The question of teacher buy-in is a critical one at this peak time of technology and innovation saturation in education. We welcome your comments and opinions here and on eSchool News!

Author

Further Reading

1. eSchool News – Why education needs strong advocates now more than ever
2. PBS NewsHour – States want more career and technical training, but struggle to find teachers
3. The Guardian – Technology in schools: money saver or money waster? – seminar