In the 1970’s computers entered the consumer market, and hobbyists began purchasing computers. By 1981, personal computers could be purchased for less than $1000, and amateur enthusiasts (including children) were writing their own programs to satisfy their own interests and curiosities, but consumer computers were still marginalized and largely a hobby. Joseph Deken, a statistician Read More
Category: Edtech for IT
On Computer Mediated Communication in Schools
The events I recorded in the papers I wrote as an undergraduate student and in my journal kept during my first few years working as a teacher and the few surviving lesson plans and resource folders from my pre-Internet years (recall that I entered the teaching profession using an Apple IIc computer in 1988), all Read More
On IT Roles in Schools
In schools today, most professionals who work with technology typically fall into one of six groups. The descriptions of the duties assigned to these individuals illustrate the range of tasks necessary to manage and use the very complex information technology infrastructure encountered in a typical school and the scale of the system that requires support: Read More
Some Technology Decisions are Permanent in Schools
Early in the history of computers in schools, they typically purchased and supported only one operating system. Schools were “Apple” schools or “IBM” schools; later they were Macintosh or Windows schools. Ostensibly, decisions were made for financial reasons (PC’s were generally assumed to be less expensive than Macintoshes) or for educational reasons (“PC’s are what Read More
Elevator Pitch: Changing Media
Information technology available and used in a society exerts strong and active, although often unseen, influences on that society. . We are in the midst of a nearly complete replacement of print by electronic information, but schools still struggle to reorganize teaching and learning to reflect that reality. Students arrive in classrooms with brains that Read More
Where the Rationale for School IT Breaks Down
In my experience, that last point is where school IT decision-making breaks down. Organizations have different strategic goals, and they accomplish those goals by setting different priorities and adopting different strategies. IT professionals who have learned their craft in organizations other than schools are often unfamiliar with the urgency of malfunctioning academic systems. During my Read More
Special Use IT in Schools
In addition to the fleets of computers maintained for populations such as students and teachers, schools are places where special purpose computers and peripherals are found. In makerspaces, science laboratories, studios, workshops, and other special teaching spaces, there are computing devices necessary for specialized educational activities. Examples include:
IT Tradeoffs in Schools
School users are also well-known for trading reliability for functionality and ease. IT professionals know that systems can be configured to perform many more functions than are typically used. Further, many users will use only a fraction of the tools and features available in the applications they use. Of course, using these tools and features Read More
Edtech for IT: Learning Management Systems
Virtual classrooms took on particular importance to teachers and students with the quick pivot to remote teaching necessitated by the COVID pandemic. Even before that, however, virtual classrooms were being managed by school IT professionals and teachers were using them to extend their classrooms and enhance information sharing and interaction. Like other cloud-based infrastructure in Read More
Types of Tests
There are two types of tests that are typically administered to students: standardized and standards based. For IT professionals who are designing systems to administer the tests, there is no difference; devices must be able to establish reliable and secure connections to the servers where the test is housed, user accounts must be created, and Read More