3:30PM - 4:30PM
October 15, 1998

Cabarrus County Schools - Brenda Lange
Mt. Pleasant Elem - Cabarrus County
South Smithfield - Primary in Johnston County
Tconnect - Joe Poletti and Grace Repass
Hidday Jahan - ?
NCCIU - Diane Midness
Northampton County - Rhonda Moses
Pat Stedwell - Cabarrus County
Glenn Gurley - Gaston County

Glenn Gurley: I would like to welcome everyone to the third Town Meeting for today. Our guest is Brenda Lange from Cabarrus County.

Cabarrus County Sch: Hello everyone. I'm a K-5 technology specialist located in one school. We're discussing the role of a technology specialist in your school/system. As I mentioned when we were practicing earlier, the role in Cabarrus County is more of a facilitator. We do not have any students assigned to us but can model lessons for teachers with their students.

Glenn Gurley: That has been my role in Gaston County for the last two years. Two years ago I worked in an eight school feeder area and last year I served the county with a middle school focus.

Cabarrus County Sch: Glenn, does that mean that you worked only in the middle schools?

Glenn Gurley: We have technical support but I was the only instructional technology specialist.

Glenn Gurley: Knowing that I could not effectively be in 51 schools I had to focus.

Cabarrus County Sch: That's a good point. Some technology specialist role's are more technical oriented and some are more instructional.

Glenn Gurley: I would do workshop for all levels but had a target group. The next step - the elementary schools.

Cabarrus County Sch: William - do you find it difficult to keep up with the technical support while teaching lessons to students or do you have back-up help at the county level?

Glenn Gurley: William I know the students love that!!! I remember the first time I worked with K-2... so many hugs and questions unlike middle school.

South Smithfield: We do have backup, but I do seem to be behind a lot.  I left middle school last year to come here; everyday I leave with a smile. These students are great.

Cabarrus County Sch: Andy can relate to that! Setting up a new computer lab and having a new wing built on her school made it extremely difficult to keep up - even without students to teach :-)

TConnect: It was exhilarating and exhausting. Yes, we reaped the benefits of a major bond issue. Kind of like New Hanover is doing now.

Cabarrus County Sch: OK everyone, in a "typical" day, how much time do you spend troubleshooting problems?

Pat Stedwell: At least half if not more

TConnect: The job started out with teaching students and teachers, then it got progressively bigger. It is like wearing many different hats, but I don't have to tell you guys that. If we're not careful, trouble-shooting could become the job!

South Smithfield: At SSP we put most of the money in new computers. We had already connected all of our classrooms with a net day project. I spend most free time between classes, in the morning and after school on trouble shooting.

Glenn Gurley: When working in Gaston County I did very little trouble shooting... focused on instruction knowing that there was tech support and had ratios of 1-8 and 1-52... of course I would never leave a teacher hanging if there was a quick fix...

South Smithfield: What percentage is loose cords????

Mt. Pleasant Elemen: Amen. Between doing A/R, doing some technical support, meeting teachers one on one. Having 2 computer labs in our K-5 schools with 1000+ students is a real challenge. The good experiences outweigh the bad. I would really like to have more time to work with the teachers and their curriculum but they are so overwhelmed they hate to see me coming:-)

Cabarrus County Sch: What about time spent on staff development? Or does your position include doing staff development for the other teachers?

South Smithfield: I try to limit staff development to 1 hour after school, twice a week. The staff really is eager to learn, which helps.

Glenn Gurley: One thing I liked about working in middle and high schools is the time to offer staff development during the 1.5 hr blocks... at their request... during the day... they still had time to do a few thing and received 1 hour of staff development.

Cabarrus County Sch: I usually do one session every other week on Thursday afternoons, although I presented a workshop to the art teachers this past Tuesday workday. That was fun - to integrate computers into a subject area that I'm not necessarily adept at myself :-)

South Smithfield: Johnston County also has lots of Technology staff development workshops in the summer, on weekends and on workdays.

TConnect: For several years, we focused on Staff Dev. You have to keep that up to some extent. The only way to be effective with it is to empower others. The same collaborative model is true with trouble-shooting. How and who can you empower to share in the responsibility of installation and upkeep?

Glenn Gurley: I agree Joe... in Gaston County we had a train the trainer model a few years back... we had staff changes so things changed... we hope to develop that empowerment through the TLCG funding...

Cabarrus County Sch: Technology Literacy Challenge Grant funding.

Glenn Gurley: Technology Literacy Challenge Grant is funding that can be applied for each year by school systems... Teachers Connect's Connected Classroom features systems that have received the funding.

TConnect: The TLCG link is http://www.itpi.dpi.state.nc.us/grant/

Cabarrus County Sch: Here's another thought...(Can you imagine that I actually have any left at this time of day?) How do you get your own technology training? Do specialists train each other? Do you train off site?

TConnect: How do we get our training? I think after a point we do get neglected. So we go to conferences, learn what's hot, then courageously flounder our way through it. We become pioneers.

Glenn Gurley: Gaston County has monthly support for its sysops and has been very effective in technical training. The sysops, many time media specialist, maintain the first level technical support.

Cabarrus County Sch: Things like this conference help advance technology also. I don't think I would have taken the time to learn how to use CUSeeMe, if Glenn hadn't asked me to participate.

TConnect: The new projects we design in Learning Environments (LENC)--our TLCG project--are tied to the SCOS. So we're not reinventing the wheel, just rolling it down a different path.

Pat Stedwell: I have encouraged the teachers to start being more specific when they write in their lesson plan books under computer lab. What software they are using and how did it tie into what they were teaching in the classroom.

Glenn Gurley: In Gaston County we offer staff development for teachers to look at the computer skills curriculum and their SCOS and lead them into developing a lesson that integrates technology using what they have available... another way to take that first "big step".

Pat Stedwell: Joe, what do you consider and average size school?

TConnect: 5 or 6 hundred

Cabarrus County Sch: I'm at a small school (300 students) and one specialist is OK.... usually, but I know anything larger and the specialists end up being the trouble-shooter, rather than the curriculum/technology facilitator. One specialist would be enough IF someone else did the troubleshooting. Andy, maybe you can answer the question about one specialist at an "average" size school.

Mt. Pleasant Elemen: We have 1000+ students and I'm constantly running

Glenn Gurley: I am hoping that someday our county will provide one per school - our county has 30,000 students. I have never spoken to an instructional technology specialist that did not run full speed ahead...

Northampton County: I agree, lots of time spent troubleshooting and not enough on curriculum. Joe, it goes back to what you said about having time to read. What time?

TConnect: My school had 1700 students and 105.5 teachers and 25 or so other-certified staff members-OUCH! You're right, Rhonda. What happened to the time to read.

Cabarrus County Sch: Just trying to meet with each teacher one time during the school year, Joe, would take an entire quarter. Rhonda, do you ever get a chance to sit down with the teachers while they're planning to help them with tech integration ideas?

Northampton County: Not yet

TConnect: I like that answer, Pat. I also like an 8-5 (paid) time scheme and a teckie on board as well.

TConnect: Now think realistically. I think of us as pioneers, so very few understand what we do. If our job is so critical to everyone (remember the onslaught when you return from a conference?), what can we do to inform the powers that be of the ever-expanding role played by technology leaders.

Glenn Gurley: In the future I feel the teachers will be more at ease with technology... many we have now were wounded in the DOS and programming phase... however, technology is changing and more available - more "user friendly"... never a shortage of teacher training...

TConnect: But it will always change... Technology. So right when we've become comfortable with something....POP...something new

Pat Stedwell: Every teacher needs a laptop instead of a planbook

Cabarrus County Sch: Pat - I like the idea!!!Leading by example is always good. Right now I have two student interns that shadow me twice a week to see the diversity of my job.

Glenn Gurley: Leading by example is where others see how something is done effectively and stimulates ideas... always do that something extra during staff development or model teaching.

TConnect: We all have this skill--incredible flexibility and willingness to learn new things. That may be the most important quality of all future workers.

Cabarrus County Sch: Curiosity is definitely needed in the world of technology. If you're content with things "the way they've always been" you're already becoming obsolete.

Northampton County: Thanks, Pat! You just validated a project we're initiating now. We want to involve some high schoolers in hands-on troubleshooting and let them get some feel for the field, especially the girls.

Pat Stedwell: The latest research says we are letting the girls fall behind in technology. So you are on the right track.

Cabarrus County Sch: The two interns that are following me around are both female.

Northampton County: Great!

Glenn Gurley: Yes Pat, an article in the papers this week shares that girls are up there in math and science but lag much behind in technology

Mt. Pleasant Elemen: I have just start a SWAT Team at our school and I have 11 girls and 4 boys.

Cabarrus County Sch: Isn't that interesting, when you think that the NC Teacher Academy trainers for technology are mostly ALL females!

Mt. Pleasant Elemen: They had to apply for the position- so the interest is there.

Pat Stedwell: I have two female students helping in the lab every morning. They love it.

Mt. Pleasant Elemen: I'm just getting started- they have been train in printer/network troubleshooting (error message says something about connection) Can't quit out of Kid Pix, cleaning the keyboard, etc. I'm afraid to show them how to clean the mouse balls because in the last 5 yrs. we haven't lost any:-)

Glenn Gurley: That was a great idea that Lucy Miller shared throughout the state... I would like to hear how it goes this year with your SWAT team

Glenn Gurley: Before anyone leaves I would like e-mail addresses... this could be the start of a network

Cabarrus County Sch: Joe, you mentioned earlier when we talked about having a technology specialist Town Meeting that you'd like it to become a regular feature so that technology folks across the state could share thoughts/ideas. Any thoughts on that?

TConnect: I think that pioneers need more support than those that are tried and true. It's certainly worth pursuing.

Northampton County: Good idea, Glenn! My email address is mosesr.co@ncs.schoollink.net

Cabarrus County Sch: Do you think it would be helpful for us to ask around on various listservs that we are on to see if there's interest or shall we just jump in feet first?

Cabarrus County Sch: My e-mail address is mlange@ctc.net

Glenn Gurley: Would you all like me to schedule another time for us to meet? Perhaps we could cover a specific topic and share ideas...

Pat Stedwell: Glenn you already have mine, but just incase. pstedwell@hotmail.com

Glenn Gurley: My e-mail address is glenn_alex@hotmail.com

Northampton County: Sure, Glenn, I think it's fantastic.

Mt. Pleasant Elemen: Mine is awatson@ctc.net

Cabarrus County Sch: Pick a time next month and we can publicize it. Maybe the new topic could be ten ways you've integrated the new student computer competencies?

Glenn Gurley: Thank you Brenda for being our guest of this non-stop hour of sharing... it has been great for me!

Cabarrus County Sch: You're welcome. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you again soon. Thanks for inviting me.

Glenn Gurley: Perhaps we could also try to bring others onboard...

Cabarrus County Sch: If everyone brings one other "friend" that would be 14 folks sharing next time.

Glenn Gurley: Thanks to all... and I'll keep in touch!