Episode 89: Charlie Reisinger

Introducing Charlie Reisinger

Charlie serves as the director of technology for Penn Manor School District in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His first book, The Open School House, chronicles more than 15 years of open-source learning programs at Penn Manor.

Show Notes

Book | The Open Schoolhouse

Twitter | @charlie3

Website | Charlie Reisinger

Website | Penn Manor Schools

Episode Transcript

Tara: This is Hallway Chats, where we meet people who use WordPress.

Liam: We ask questions, and our guests share their stories, ideas and perspectives.

Tara: And now the conversation begins. This is episode 89.

Tara: Welcome to Hallway Chats. I’m Tara Claeys.

Liam: And I’m Liam Dempsey. Today, we’re joined by Charlie Reisinger. Charlie serves as the director of technology for Penn Manor School District in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His first book, The Open School House chronicles more than 15 years of open-source learning programs at Penn Manor. Welcome, Charlie.

Charlie: Hi, there.

Tara: Hi, Charlie. It’s nice to meet you and have you on Hallway Chats and I’m really excited to hear about what you’re doing, it sounds cool. Can you tell us more about yourself?

Charlie: Absolutely. Thank you again for spending some time with me this afternoon, my day job is the director of technology for Penn Manor School District. We’re located in beautiful Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. My role here as part of the senior leadership team is to oversee our technology operations and our instructional technology programs. My work takes me from the server room to the classroom and just about everywhere in between. I’m fortunate to be in a position where I can oversee programs and policies but also have the time and in many ways, the autonomy to work with students. Actually, I should say our super students are terrific teachers.

Tara: What’s your background? How did you get started in technology?

Charlie: Sure, sure. I came to this position in, I guess, a peculiar way. I am not a technologist or a programmer by training. My undergraduate degree is in psychology and I also had a philosophy minor. My master’s degree is instructional design and design, that’s really the study of the intersection between pedagogy and technology. But I certainly did not. think when I was in college that I would be having a technology program. But I guess by a series of strange swerves, I ended up here and that’s awesome.

Liam: Charlie, you shared that you have an undergrad in psych and philosophy, and a graduate degree in instructional design and technology. I wonder if you came to your job. Did you get into working with the school district as a technologist and then discovered your love of teaching and kind of the intersectionality of that or how did that come about?

Charlie: It was both. When I started Penn Manor School District, it was in 1998 and I was hired as a building technician. The sole focus of my job was to provide desktop and network support for our students and teachers. However, before I arrived here, I was the IT director for a small two-year school that is now part of the Art Institutes. The name of that school is Bradley Academy for The Visual Arts in York, Pennsylvania. And there I had a role that was deeply embedded into both technology and management, but also working side by side with students and teachers. But I think even stepping way back, I’ve always been interested in education. I think that’s a big part of the reason why I got into psychology,