A technology infrastructure

So I woke up at 4:00 this morning to join the techleaning.com webinar on The Tipping Point in K-12 Education: One-to-One Computing, Electronic Textbooks, and New Tools for Learning. A great presentation on the use of computers in the classroom and the power that one-to-one computing offers to schools. It was the first time I had taken part in a webinar and quite enjoyed the experience.

One thing that really got me thinking was the importance of an infrastructure being in place before a school district goes forward with a one-to-one computer program. As I evaluate my school I find that no such infrastructure exists for us to implement such a program. Yes we have high speed internet, yes we have many computers, but we donÂ’t have an administrative infrastructure to oversee a large implementation as one-to-one computing would be. James Banks, Executive Director of Technology, Barbers Hill I.S.D. He is a full time technology administrator for his district, allowing him to oversee a large scale implementation such as a one-to-one computer program. This is a position that our school district is missing and I think really should be considered if we are to move technology out of the labs and into the hands of students. Without an administrative infrastructure how can we begin discussing the larger questions of hardware, software infrastructures that need to be set up before a program like this is implemented? Sure we have dedicated technology teachers, but they have a full time job teaching technology, asking them to carry the wait of implementing a true one-to-one program would be overwhelming and a very slow process.

I’d like to hear what other school districts have in place. Do most school districts have a ‘Technology Coordinator’ (for lack of a better term) as mentioned above? What is their official title and what are their duties?