Technology implementation should be integrated across departments

K–In two and a half years as an education strategist at CDW•G, I’ve logged more than 75,000 miles in air travel, presented at 35 education technology conferences and worked with more than 250 school districts.If you follow me on Twitter, watch me present, or read my articles, then you know I’ve talked at length about the need for professional development, and I regularly advocate for publishing your students’ work online. These topics are still high on the priority list of things we need to address in education. However, upon much reflection from my experiences and recent conversations with several schools, I’ve finally put my finger on one of the biggest barriers schools encounter when it comes to technology initiatives.

Source: Rise Above Your Silo Mentality with Technology Implementation

One thing I’ve noticed about IT departments over the last 10 years is that they are becoming more and more distant to education. What I mean by this is that the people working in IT departments in schools are more likely to not have an education background, which can cause issues. When technology first started entering school districts in the 80s and 90s, the people in charge of the technology were teachers. And for some reason they were very likely to be science or music teachers. As technology progressed, it has become harder and harder to find IT people that also have an education background.