The Role of a Technology Coordinator

Today we listend to a talk by Polly Brake who is the Technology Coordinator at Grace Christian Academy.  She talked about not only how she came to be in this position, but also some of the challenges that she has faced since starting there.  I think that one of the most challenging issues that you will find when you are in this role is that of getting people to be as excited about technology as you are.  Teachers have a million things on their plates and even though technology can help ease the amount of work they have to do, it can be initially overwhelming to try and put one more thing on their plate.  So your biggest challenge is to help teachers see the opportunities and how things will just fall into place if they are disciplined at first and take a little bit of time to try and learn the new technologies.  Also I think you could take from her talk the importance of having one unified type of technology throughout the school it makes it easier for you as the technology coordinator to help them, but it also allows for teachers to help one another learn how to better navigate and figure out the technology together.  She just kept showing how important it is for you to be proactive and to stay positive even when you don't get a very good initial response from your teachers.  You have to be persistent and try different things, work closely with those who are on board with you and don't get discouraged.  This may be a role that puts you in charge of a lot of different aspects in terms of technology, but you just have to face each challenge with a can do attitude and be ready for what each day holds.