The Technology Director for 2015 and Beyond
The role of the school district IT Manager has changed. What used to be a position marked by installing and maintaining hardware has shifted to one of safeguarding – almost consulting for – the district on decisions and their effects across the entire organization. The IT Director has grown from maintaining systems to managing them; from running software to recommending it.
So, what does this evolution look like?
Power Up! also considers the importance of perspective and empathy for the new tech directors to be another key aspect of this evolving position. It is now the director’s responsibility to lead their team of engineers to a balance of collaboration with members of the curriculum team. Without this, the interdepartmental disconnect will lead to misunderstanding and deficiencies in budgeting, planning, and the implementation of the technology; leading to an unsuccessful year for teachers and students. Changes to this role that Forward Edge has also experienced is the increased department collaboration with curriculum regarding technology integration into coursework. In the past, the technology director would provide devices and software to the curriculum department or teachers and then maintain them as needed. The future technology director must work closely with the curriculum department to select the correct integration tools, systems, and practices for all student and teaching levels.
If you are currently a technology director, you are probably nodding your head at many of these new points. As complexity of this position grows with each passing school year, the evolution between these two roles will be vital to the success of every district’s technology team. As you can imagine, this transition can also be is extensive and time consuming, if you are interested in learning more about the future technology director and how we can help, call Forward Edge and talk to one of our experts