Tech Director Chat

A weekly chat tackling the issue of educational technology from both sides. Ben Rimes, a former teacher turned educational technologist, chats with Pete Poggione, an Information Technology Professional from the private sector turned School IT Director.

In this third episode, Pete and I attempt to address the sticky issue of when attempts to help aren't always so helpful, why tech support often comes at the last minute, and what we can do to make ourselves better "helpers". We roll of few issues up into a group of questions adressing what we've tried to do and hasn't worked, and attempt to address a question posed by Sarah on Twitter about looking at instructional technology from student's point of view.

Timestamps for this weeks questions:

 :50 - Pete feels inadequate about his title

2:45 - What has Pete been doing today?

3:53 - Is the work that Pete does thankless?

5:35 - Why does support sometimes come at the last minute?

6:45 - What sort of processes are in place, or not,  to build effective support?

9:22 - If you build a website, will people come?

11:25 - How do you deal with the responses to help emails don’t go as planned?

14:15 - Why does Ben get frustrated when trying to help people doesn’t end up being helpful?

16:50 - Do you think we’re doing a good enough job of trying to view the instructional setting through the eyes of the students?

21:00 - Ben cannot edit anything down to 20 minutes

You can talk about the show or continue the conversations on Twitter using the hashtag #TechDirectorChat or chatting up Ben (@techsavvyed) or Pete (@ppoggione) on Twitter.

A weekly chat tackling the issue of educational technology from both sides. Ben Rimes, a former teacher turned educational technologist, chats with Pete Poggione, an Information Technology Professional from the private sector turned School IT Director.

We're back for a second episode, and for those of you hoping for a shorter episode....you have no idea how much Pete likes to talk! In our pursuit of trying to find a regular recording time, and a means of controlling the length of the chat, we tackle a few questions this week. Rob, one of our High School teachers in Mattawan asks a great question about upgrading, and Melissa chimes in via Twitter with a great question for any school technology department, about accessibility for special needs learners using district technology.

Timestamps for this week's questions:

1:38 - Is it gratifying for Pete to get his hands dirty and work on help desk tickets instead of staying behind his desk all the time?

4:30 - Are there new projectors or interactive whiteboards coming?

6:45 - Shoutout to the Later Elementary Teachers, they rock today!

7:31 - Can we upgrade our laptops to OS X Mavericks, and why have you waited so long? - I was told after the recording that I forgot to mention that we also postponed upgrading because not all of the important software we use in the district had been updated by their developers.

13:08 - What plans are in place for providing accessibility for students with special needs or accomodations using district technology?

16:01 - How do Apple products help us with meeting student's needs and accommodations?

You can talk about the show or continue the conversations on Twitter using the hashtag #TechDirectorChat or chatting up Ben (@techsavvyed) or Pete (@ppoggione) on Twitter.

A weekly chat tackling the issue of educational technology from both sides. Ben Rimes, a former teacher turned educational technologist, chats with Pete Poggione, an Information Technology Professional from the private sector turned School IT Director.

In the first episode, Pete attempts to answer a difficult question about why all of the technology isn't connected and setup at the start of the school year, submitted by Miguel Guhlin from his "Stump the Tech Director" blog post. We also interpret Troy Hick's question about changing "Yeah, buts...." into something more positive.

Timestamps for this week's questions:

1:52 - What was Pete doing today?

6:06 - Why can't you hook up all of my technology so it's ready to go at the start of the school year?

8:48 - How do you prioritize who gets service first?

14:23 - How do we turn the "yeah, buts..." into "yes, ands..."?

You can talk about the show or continue the conversations on Twitter using the hashtag #TechDirectorChat or chatting up Ben (@techsavvyed) or Pete (@ppoggione) on Twitter