Technology for Learning

Good communicaton requires each side of the dialogue to connect with and understand the other side. I’m working on a couple tools to help teachers and IT staff talk to each other. This is the first draft of the teacher tip sheet (the IT staff tip sheet will follow). Can you help? I’m looking for input from both perspectives to make this a useful tool.

Tip Sheet for Teachers – How to Talk to IT Staff

1. I just need a port opened – what’s the big deal?

The IT Perspective
IT’s mandate is to keep the technology environment up and available. Securing the technology from malicious attacks and viruses is how IT does that. Opening ports may cause the technology to fail.

Another Way for Teachers to Approach IT
Instead of asking for a port to be opened, tell IT staff what you are trying to do. Describe the software you’ve seen/demo’ed/read about that needs the port opened, and describe how you think you will use it. There might be another solution, and in fact sometimes a solution already exists.

2. IT staff don’t have their priorities straight – why do I have to wait for the network project to be completed?

The IT Perspective
Connectivity and the size of the technology footprint in your district contributes to complexity. Remember the stacking cups in kindergarten? It’s hard to make a good stack when some cups are round and some are square. IT is just like that. When the components are different, with different standards, they don’t play together well.

Another Way for Teachers to Approach IT
Your request may be a simple one, IF the right components are in place to support it. Tell IT what it is you’re interested in doing, and ask if the right components are in place to let that happen. Then you have a couple courses of action if the answer is no. First, ask if there is a plan to have the right components in place and what the implementation timeline is. That may satisfy your need. If not a second approach may work if you are just trying to test a particular tool. Your IT staff may have a testing environment available, and if not, ask if one can be set up on a more permanent basis. A great way is to create a “sandbox” network for teachers to trial new software and tools that don’t impact that network that IT is trying so hard to keep reliable.

3. It’s a simple tool – why does it take IT so long to approve it?

The IT Perspective
This is a similar situation to the complexity issue – in both cases IT is moving too slow. IT is trying to do lots more work than is possible with the resources available.

Another Way for Teachers to Approach IT
Ask IT for its evaluation work plan, and a description of the process it uses to complete evaluations. Suggest that prioritizing evaluations should be a joint process. Sometimes by the time a tool hits the top of the priority list, the interest in the tool is no longer high. So make the review of the workplan a regular and joint event.

4. IT doesn’t get that we need to move fast.

The IT Perspective
Planning horizons for most major changes to the technology environment are three to five years. Depending on the nature of your request it may be a quick and simple software tweak or a major infrastructure change that takes months. If you have a joint planning framework in place, the major work can be predicted, planned and resourced, often paving the way for the tweaks and fixes along the way.

Another Way for Teachers to Approach IT
Can you talk about what you want in the next three years, or is your planning horizon this academic year? Talk to your IT department about longer-term horizons, and ask IT what it would take to fulfill your longer-term vision. “I envision learners bringing their own access devices to campus. Is that possible with our network?” If the answer is no, initiate joint planning and expect that it won’t be an overnight decision.

5. Every time IT says no, they stand in the way of student learning.

The IT Perspective
IT professionals are trained to deliver solutions to business problems. They may or may not understand the concepts of 21st century learning.

Another Way for Teachers to Approach IT
Talk to IT about your vision. Describe what learning looks like to you. What happens in a teacher’s day? What should be happening in a teacher’s day? What should learners be doing? How is it different from the experience IT staff had when they went to school?

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So there’s the first draft. What do you think?