Matt Kephart's Blog

I’ll try to be as unbiased as I can here, to take a look at it from a taxpayers’, school boards’, administrators’, and educators’ points of view.

From a taxpayer’s perspective, the question would be thus:  Would purchasing laptops significantly positively enhance our students’ education?  The use of the word “significant” is important here, because it would be a very significant purchase for a school to make financially.  Taxpayers would want to be assured by the board members that this was indeed a beneficial purchase, and their money was being spent wisely.

From a board member’s perspective, the question would be:  How exactly would a purchase like this help teachers and thus, students?  The school board has been elected in order to make sure the money collected from the district is spent in a responsible manner.  They would be interested in being able to quantify (or, at the least, make tangible) the educational benefits.

Administrators would be tasked with the role of making sure teachers were in fact utilizing the laptops effectively in the classrooms.  Their question would be more along the lines of:  How am I able to oversee the efficient and effective use of these laptops?

Teachers would be responsible for showing the administration exactly how they are utilizing these laptops in their classroom, and how the laptop positively increases their ability to teach effectively.  Research and initiatives have been produced to show just that.

-Matt

The board at my wife’s school recently put the district’s “technology coach” under scrutiny–basically asking the man to defend the existence of his job at a board meeting open to the public on Monday.  You can read about it in the local Clearfield paper, here, if you are so inclined.  Part of me feels bad for him, as it would be a tough position to find yourself in:  a public apology of your job!

But part of me was frustrated because the questions by the board members weren’t the correct ones!  The question should have been:  What do you do?  It should have been:  Why does this school need a technology coach?

I believe there was (<–past tense!) at one point a need for such a position:  someone to coach the teachers in the use of technology, helping them integrate these resources into their classrooms.  But with teachers being increasingly more exposed to technology outside of the classroom (not to mention, being required to take courses in order to obtain a certification!), how necessary is someone that will “show teachers how to use computers,” as the article says?

Is a “technology coach” a dying position for schools to have?

-Matt