I am one of the privileged few teachers who has worked over a holiday break for a multinational doing tech support. I was a technician on the ground and running. So I have a perspective in both camps. I also know how little professional development is made available to technical staff and how little is actually designed for supporting a school environment. And as you reiterated, if you skimp on wages you end up getting what you paid for.

Education must lead technology. We must give the teachers the room to experiment and innovate, but this does not mean Support is not involved, rather they should be assisting, suggesting and providing. This is the partnership to learning, teaching and support. There must be educational drivers. It must enhance learning.

It is interesting that we expect our students to get stuff wrong. Good teachers use this oh so human trait, to get the best learning experiences. It focuses on what we don’t know and allows us to develop. The use of ICTs should also be like this, sometimes we have to try and get it wrong to know what works and what doesn’t. One size does not fit all here.

Could any of us imagine a school where students were only allowed to be taught in one way - “chalk and talk”, where differences in learning styles (visual, kinesthetic, auditory or readwrite learner), intelligence types (Gardner’s Multiple intelligences) or gender differences are ignored? No such a school would be unthinkable (I hope). But in many cases this is exactly what happens with the use of IT.

I think there are exceptions - Cindy sounds like one, I know a few others too. Isn’t it a pity they are the exception rather than the rule.

Allanah comments is that fine balance between Cutting edge and bleeding edge, it highlights the danger of being on the bleeding edge of technology (I bet she paid for that key out of her own pocket too!), this is where good support is essential, but teachers must have the room to experiment, and be encourages/supported and assisted to do so.

My point is that tech departments (I lead one) struggle to find the balance between supporting creativity and supporting availability. You raise a really good point that in districts we often choose to pay a little and then don’t necessarily get qualified tech staff. And then they go into survival mode. And I agree that one size doesn’t fit all.

I’m on a mission to do 3 things: 1. Help teachers/administrators talk to their tech staff (we have a communication breakdown). 2. Promote the right kind of professional development for tech staff (they need the skills and the context to do the right thing). 3. Evangelize the construction of technical environments that drive the right balance (the right technology architecture opens a realm of creative possibilties).

I’ll continue to blog about these passions.

I am not sure where I am on the continuum but I know I was cross when I paid near a $100 for a 32MB flash drive- after seeing it’s usefulness the rest of the staff got given a 500MB flash drive- not me though- because I already had one!