Joanne,
You brought up a question that I have thought long and hard about and I think there is some truth there.
Years ago, I taught at Hazen and we had limited support which actually helped me develop some good computer skills. In fact, I would say there were at least five other people on staff with a skill set similar to mine at the time I left to work in IT at MMU. One of those people became the full time IT director for Hazen. When I arrived at MMU, there were some folks that had some good application skills but none, that I was aware of, that had good troubleshooting OS skills. They had had someone doing support for them for quite a while before I arrived and they depended on her. I think any of my colleagues that I mentioned from Hazen could have taken over the MMU position when I did had they been so inclined. I would be curious to see if Dave Mitchell (from Hazen) feels like the skill set of the staff has stayed staus quo or dropped since he moved from the classroom into full time IT since they have someone to count on to fix things when they break rather than doing a lot of it themselves
Great question Joanne!!!
Dave.
David Tisdell. Music Teacher
Browns River Middle School
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Is the opposite true as well? Does this mean that the schools with less
support are developing users with better problem-solving skills? More
risk-taking behavior because there are few alternatives? Are staff and
students in schools with more accessible support getting lazy?
>
At the elementary schools I work in, I would say that no tech support develop problem solving skills, but rather it makes them not want to use the technology.
Many teachers are willing to try something if there is someone there to bail them out, but won't take the risk if they have to do it themselves. Over time, with help, they begin to try more on their own.
It also is dependent on the person. Some people are more willing to take risks, some not, some have more demanding classes so don't want to deal with the technology not working while the kids are climbing the walls. A second person in the room with them is reassurance.
Joanne
Joanne Finnegan, Technology Coordinator
Richmond and Jericho Elementary Schools
(802) 434-2461
(802) 899-2272
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