Page 30 - THE Journal, March/April 2018

FEATURE |ROUNDTABLE
30
| MARCH/APRIL 2018
privacy and security, helping our staff and students understand phishing scams, and really helping to build a secure environment for our kids to work in.
Phil Hintz: Technology has become
so pervasive across the entire district, in every area, whether it be physical educa- tion class, or HVAC systems — you name it, technology is in everything we do
in a school district. Even on the buses, putting WiFi on school buses, tracking buses with GPS. And that’s the change that has occurred over the last 20 years, it’s just in everything anybody does.
Joel VerDuin: I think one of the biggest differences is that need to be a partner, keeping an eye on the objectives of the organization and finding out where they can help, as opposed to being a driver for things .... Sometimes we have to drive just to make sure that we’re in the right conversations and inputting
of that, we hope that our staff and our students will have more opportunities
to be innovative. And innovative means being able to try things, fail at things, revise things, try again — all those things that are real-life skills.
Adam Phyall: I think the biggest thing
is just to get out of the way. A lot of times you have CTOs with a mindset of control. So, when I say get out of the way, allow
the curriculum and teaching and learning departments of the districts to do most of the driving as it relates to the direction. And add a voice and support teaching and learning in the district. Oftentimes it’s a power struggle in some places between some CTOs and curriculum directors, superintendents. There has to be that partnership where we’re supporting curriculum and instruction, not necessarily telling them what they can and can’t do with the technology.
THE Journal: As the CTO, how have you helped facilitate STEM/STEAM initiatives in your district?
Doersch: Every year, out of our Department of Technology funds, I put money aside and our tech integrators
vet a lot of STEM products. They do the product research, and I provide the seed money to purchase the items. Once they find that it’s useful and helpful and not junk — because we’ve bought some stuff and it has been junk — we create a list. And then when people say, ‘Hey, we’re putting our makerspace together,’ or, ‘We want to get more STEM,’ we say, ‘Here, take a look at this list because we have vetted everything. You can even try it
out because we’ve got some kits down at central office that your tech integrator can bring out and you can try with your kids to see if this is something that you would want.’
the right visibility around some of the trends that are coming. But I don’t find that I’m working as much on technology initiatives that I feel like we need to do as an organization. I find myself partnering and helping other people move their missions along much further.
THE Journal: What can the K-12 CTO do to enable the latest trends in education? Doersch: We take away a lot of the routine things by building digital environments that are easy for our students and our staff to access. We incorporate single sign-on as much as
we can. We try to automate tasks. We run batches of data behind the scenes
so our teachers are always working with the most up-to-date data. All those types of things to build efficiencies.... Because
VerDuin: We find a constant need
to be working with other leaders in
the organization, to be there when they’re having conversations about improvements, and then being able to bring technology to the table and provide options, provide additional information, put them in touch with resources.
Williamson: If you’re going to provide that leadership and vision, then you’ve
got to constantly be on the forefront of knowing what’s coming. Forecasting. I think forecasting is so very important. Looking at trends so you feel comfortable with what’s coming and why it’s coming. And also, not to jump at the latest shiny object. What’s really sound and has strong instructional value. You’ve got to be well informed and well involved in different national organizations.
Phyall: We know our numbers nation- ally in the U.S. with the number of com- puter science opportunities that are out there, and the low number of girls and mi- norities that are currently seeking degrees in that area. So, we made a focus this year on coding for girls. We do coding for all students in our Hour of Code, but we did this special Women of Code [event]. We brought in various people from Microsoft, Apple, some of our other educational partners, and they had women leading our Hour of Code. So, really giving our kids exposure to women in that field.
Williamson: We have an Institute
for Innovation, which is an avenue for teachers who want to try something really outside the box. It takes really good ideas and gives teachers permission to try-fail- and-try-again, with a lot of extra support
“Allow the curriculum and teaching and learning departments of the districts to do most of the
driving....” —Adam Phyall, director of technology and Media Services, Newton County School System in Covington, GA