Lights, Camera, Action! Technology Director on the Scene

Adam Hotchkiss, a technology director at CAK, came to talk to the class about being technology leaders and managers. He made a distinction between leaders, the visionaries, and managers, the support and facial tours behind the leaders. He said that most of the technology you should get needs to be supported by everything the school does. Making long term plans are essential to getting technology in the classrooms and integrating it into daily lessons. These strategic plans should be broad and not specific so that your equipment is not already outdated by the time you want to put it into practice. The biggest thing to consider is the total cost of ownership like hardware, software, furniture, and the people needed to train the teachers. Other things to consider would be funding, who is available to accomplish different tasks, what goals do you have, where are you getting the equipment from (new/used), warenties, etc. All these things are good to think about when trying to update or outfit the school with technology. It is also important to maintain the new equipment and keep spairs do what you can so that teachers are more likely to use the technology and not think of it as unreliable so that the technology isn't wasted.