Page 29 - THE Journal, March/April 2018

THE CHANGING
ROLEBY LEILA MEYER OF THE
A panel of top-level technology leaders from five school districts looks back on the role of the CTO in K–12 education and how it’s transforming.
CTO
WHEN DONNA WILLIAMSON began her career as an educational technology director 30 years ago, she taught multiple technology-related courses every day and provided professional development for teachers, on top of her responsibilities managing the district’s technology with little-to-no assistance. Since then, she has seen technology departments expand to support the ever- increasing demands of ed-tech initiatives.
“The role has become more one of leadership, vision. As recently as five years ago, the CTO in a K–12 school was the person who was providing solutions,” she said. “And now, it’s more about coaching your administrators, your teachers, with those executive coaching skills, that brings out the solution from them.”
THE Journal spoke recently with Williamson and four other district technology leaders about the changing role of the CTO in the current era of STEM and STEAM. Those district technology leaders include:
Diane Doersch, chief technology and information officer, Green Bay Area Public School District in Green Bay, WI
Phil Hintz, director of technology, Gurnee School District in Gurnee, IL
Adam Phyall, director of technology and Media Services, Newton County School System in Covington, GA
Joel VerDuin, chief technology and information officer, Anoka-Hennepin School District in Anoka, MN
Donna Williamson, technology director at Mountain Brook Schools in Birmingham, AL
Doersch
THE Journal: How has the role of the K-12 chief technology officer changed over the last 20 or so years?
Diane Doersch: I’ve really seen a transformation from the technical side to the ed-tech side, and now it’s coming even to the policy side. Because as we’ve made our move to the cloud, we’re having to pay more attention to FERPA, HIPAA, cloud storage, security agreements, student data
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Iconic Bestiary; MIRARTI Illustrations/Shutterstock/THE Journal staff