Deadly tech sins. (District plus: tips and ideas for successful district leadership).In many school districts, there is no shortage of technology: laptops, desktop computers, handheld PDAs, wireless networks, scanners and printers. The list goes on. But how are administrators to be sure the wave of technology within their schools doesn't become a tsunami? According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Tom DeMarco Tom DeMarco is an author, teacher, and speaker on software engineering topics. He lives in Camden, Maine, and is presently both a principal of The Atlantic Systems Guild, and a fellow of the Cutter Consortium. , director of technology and information services See Information Systems. at North Hills (Pa.) School District in Pittsburgh, there are common pitfalls that administrators can avoid. Here are a few suggestions: * Training Any new initiative requires more support than expected. Make sure you provide more than adequate training opportunities. Remember teachers are not the only staff that need training. Your support staff must be up-to-date also. * Standardization standardization In industry, the development and application of standards that make it possible to manufacture a large volume of interchangeable parts. Standardization may focus on engineering standards, such as properties of materials, fits and tolerances, and drafting Pick a platform and stick with it. MAC, PC, thin client, Windows, Novell, Linux, they all work. They all are complex enough that it is difficult to be an expert on all. Allow the support technicians to become knowledgeable at a single platform. It will save time, effort and money in the long run. * Support Don't hybridize hy·brid·ize intr. & tr.v. hy·brid·ized, hy·brid·iz·ing, hy·brid·iz·es 1. To produce or cause to produce hybrids; crossbreed. 2. your support staff. Technicians should be able to fix equipment and solve software issues. Teachers must be experts at teaching. When you ask teachers to be technicians it takes them away from their primary responsibility. * The Right Duties The director of technology should be responsible and supervise all the technology areas (including the network, data center, phone system, audio visual department and technological support). One person has to be responsible for all areas to resolve turf turf: see lawn. turf In horticulture, the surface layer of soil with its matted, dense vegetation, usually grasses grown for ornamental or recreational use. wars and allocate To reserve a resource such as memory or disk. See memory allocation. resources fairly. * Planning Put together a technology plan. Make it part of the district's strategy and base all decisions on it. Have a vision for it, plan it and then do it. * Latest and Greatest Syndrome Wait a while to try new technologies. Stable is better. Don't buy into the belief that newer is always better. Let other people go through the pain and expense of being first. |
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