[Year 12 IT Apps] RE: Google docs issue

Mon Dec 8 13:54:55 EST 2008

If we think of schools as small businesses, we forget their welfare / people
and family focus and run into the danger of thinking them as just a
commercial baby-sitting and training institution.

I once heard it said that schools are cultural reproducers ..they are small
versions of the very same community outside .. complete with all the
tensions, spectrum of opinions and forces that shift and shuffle views. With
this model and considering the educational focus that we expect them to
have, it would make sense for your IT technician manager to refer the
teachers to at teacher / eLearning coordinator to handle the interpretation
and decision making.

No offense but the buck has to stop somewhere and it is best if we do it
within the scope and direction of a skilled educator. Of course it would be
a foolish coordinator who didn't take the views of their IT staff into
consideration. Teacher - Librarians went down this path around a decade ago
with their area in a school.

Regarsd Roland

2008/12/8 ken price <kenjprice at gmail.com>

> I agree, the analysis of how IT meets organisational needs is valid as it
> is part of the course.
>
> I'll tell a short tale of  a very skilled IT technical manager at a school
> where I taught. He had spent several years working for large national
> organisations as IT manager. He was (and still is) very keen to make IT work
> for the school in the best possible way. He is a very valuable school IT
> manager.
>
> After a few months working at the school he made an interesting observation
> about schools vs his past employer which might be relevant here.
>
> He noticed that in the large organisations, there was strong governance
> over ICT decisions and investment. Decisions were made/endorsed by senior
> management based on needs and suggestions put forward by all staff
> (including IT support). It was thus very clear what the organisation wanted
> in terms of ICT. However in schools this was not always the case -
> individual teachers and other staff seemed to believe that their individual
> views represented that of the entire school, and IT staff were pulled in all
> directions, often contradictory, After unblocking one website for one staff
> member, they'd get another complaining that their kids could now waste time
> on that same website. After installing some piece of software based on one
> request, theyd have someone else asking him why staff were being confused
> with multiple offerings. You can probably see his dilemma.
>
> His view that he was paid by the school to meet the school's needs - but
> the school's needs were not always clearly defined. He felt that if staff in
> most large organisations directly approached their IT support unit demanding
> their own way, they'd be referred very quickly to the IT decision-making
> committee. If they did it more than once, things would get serious for them.
> Similarly, he saw that if his IT support staff ignored the priorities set by
> the organisation and did whatever they thought was a good idea or
> interesting, their job would be in jeopardy.
>
> He commented that in some schools the IT support people ended up taking the
> lead because there seemed to be nobody else willing to manage a process that
> reached a school-level view on priority and strategy. He thought this was a
> dangerous situation. It relates directly to Anne's quote from the Unit3
> syllabus.
>
> So perhaps there is another issue here - the nature of schools and how they
> reach decisions on how they want to use IT,innovate, etc, and how these
> decisions are informed by educational and technical issues?
>
> The IT manager was unsure if schools are inherently different to other
> large organisations, or if there is something else here. I haven't spoken to
> him for some time, so I'll get in touch and see what his views are now,
>
> Perhaps we can get some examples of how schools manage this school-level
> decision making and how it translates into the work that "techies" do?
> Perhaps they would be useful as case studies for students?
>
> Ken Price DoE Tasmania
> President, TASITE www.tasite.edu.au
> On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 8:10 AM, <murch at tpg.com.au> wrote:
>
>> This discussion may have gone on long enough but I would like to argue
>> that it is not inappropriate to
>> this list or OT as it embraces the very nature of the ITA course. From the
>> summary of the VCAA course
>> design.
>> "Unit 3 focuses on how individuals or organisations use ICT to solve
>> information problems. This unit
>> focuses on how ICT is used by organisations to solve ongoing information
>> problems and in the
>> strategies to protect the integrity of data and security of information."
>> I think that this is a realistic problem that teachers and technicians on
>> the list are looking at and are
>> discussing. It is one that will be used for my students next year as they
>> will see the relevance of such a
>> problem as it pertains to their education. It has been interesting to hear
>> the opinions of the various
>> people involved in organisations - technicians, educationalists etc And
>> best of all, here is a virtual team
>> in action trying to solve the problem.
>> So thank you to everyone, and I in no way meant to be an egotistical
>> contributor, simply someone
>> seeking a solution.
>> Anne Mirtschin
>> Hawkesdale P12 College
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>>
>
>
>
> --
>
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>

-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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