Site Supervisor Interview and Technology Coordinator Interviews

Interview of Marleen Harris

Instructional Technology Coach
Screven County School System
Site Supervisor

1. Name of technology coordinator being interviewed

Marlene Harris

2. What is your title?

Instructional Technology Coach for K-12

3. What type of degree is required for your position?

There is not a degree required by the state for the role of Instructional Technology Coach.

4. Where did you obtain your degree?

Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia

5. What are your job responsibilities?

Assisting teachers in their classroom with tech integration, researching new technology that will
benefit students and teachers as well as assessing the need for, creating, and implementing
professional development opportunities.

6. What are typical daily activities for you?

Splitting time evenly between the elementary school, middle school, high school, and the board
office. Going into classrooms and modeling new or useful technologies, troubleshooting,
maintaining student accounts on all programs along with Mrs. Boykin, publishing a monthly
website and newsletter, collaborating with the other instructional coaches at each school.

7. Do you have a budget that you control? How do you make decisions on selecting resources
for your stakeholders?
No, Mr. Bland, the superintendent, controls the budget. If teachers, administrators, or
instructional coaches would like funding for new technology programs or equipment it must be
submitted to Mr. Bland for his approval.

8. Have you had an opportunity to impact technology implementation throughout your school?
Would you describe a specific example?
Yes. Significant input into developing the technology integration plan for Screven County. Also,
has had a big part in developing professional development opportunities to support the plan.

9. Does your school have a technology committee? How are technology decisions made?
Yes. Each school has a technology committee run by the technology teacher at the school.
Each committee is made up of staff from each grade level as well as Mrs. Harris and an
administrator. The committees send out monthly surveys to see what the staff is doing
technology wise and what they are interested in learning more about. The surveys are
discussed at the monthly technology meetings and committee members discuss ideas and
make a plan based on survey results as well as personal experience.

10. What is the best part of your job?

The best part of the job is supporting teachers in the classroom and helping them meet goals
for their students in regards to technology integration.

11. What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?
The most challenging aspect is scheduling professional learning with staff members because
there is no time set aside for this in school schedules except at middle school once a month.
The teachers are very busy with PLC meetings, planning, committee meetings, and regular
classroom duties and therefore scheduling professional development is a difficult task.

12. What advice do you have for others in your position or similar positions?
Meet teaches where they are. Not everyone is technology savvy and it is important to
remember that. If they do not understand how to do the basics, then professional
development on Google classroom would be useless to them. Find out where teachers are and
help them on their level.

Interview of Justin Keith

Media Specialist/Instructional Technology Specialist
Effingham County High School

1. Name of technology coordinator being interviewed

Justin Keith

2. What is your title?

Media Specialist and Instructional Technology Specialist for ECSD
1 day a week 20 extra per year instructional tech specialist for district

3. What type of degree is required for your position?

Masters degree in Instructional Technology and Media Specialist

4. Where did you obtain your degree?

Georgia Southern University

5. What are your job responsibilities?

Spend 4 days a week acting as media specialist/instructional technology specialist at the high
school and 1 day a week is spent as instructional technology specialist for the county. Address
any Sysaids (technology related problems), fix problems with the phone’s automated system,
conduct trainings for teachers at ECHS, conduct monthly trainings for the designated
instructional technology trainer at each school, meet with instructional technology trainers at
each school.

6. What are typical daily activities for you?

Open the library at 7 and allow students to come in and check out books or use computers,
monitor the library and checkout books, address any Sysaids that have ben submitted by staff,
move throughout the school and address technical issues, updating computers throughout the
school to Windows 10, plan instructional technology professional development opportunities
for staff and instructional technology liaisons at each school.

7. Do you have a budget that you control? How do you make decisions on selecting resources
for your stakeholders?
The media center has a budget but it is controlled by the primary media specialist, Mrs.
Shearouse. It is used for supplies and books for the media center only and not technology
related purchasing.

8. Have you had an opportunity to impact technology implementation throughout your school?
Would you describe a specific example?
Yes, this year technology implementation is part of Mr. Keith’s TKES goal and is a school wide
TKES goal. This year each school selected one teacher to be an instructional technology coach
at their school site. Mr. Keith meets with this group of teachers once a month to address issues
and concerns. He has also planned 6 professional development sessions for these teachers of
which they must attend 3 per year. These teachers then go back to their school site and
redeliver to the entire staff. These teachers are given a sub one day a month so that they can
take that day to redeliver the instruction from Mr. Keith. This has been an effective way to
provided more professional development opportunities for everyone.

9. Does your school have a technology committee? How are technology decisions made?
No, there is no technology committee. One has been discussed but not implemented.
Technology decisions are discussed with technology personnel at the school as well as
administration and then taken to the county level if necessary. The three main technology
personnel at ECHS also have a running PLC using Google docs where any concerns or ideas are
added throughout the day.

10. What is the best part of your job?

The best part of the job is not having all of the classroom responsibilities such as testing,
grades, etc. but still getting to work with students and teachers. There is also much more
flexibility and more chance to make one’s own decisions about what to do daily.

11. What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?
The of the most challenging things is teaching teachers because they can be the worst students.
Many are not willing to change and are not open to new technology. Also, it is difficult to
implement technology without administration leading by example.
On the district side of things scheduling is the most challenging aspect. There is not enough
time for training and it gets pushed aside for other “more important” things. There is also a lack
of communication between the instructional side at district level and the instructional
personnel at each school especially with programs such as Read180 and iRead.

12. What advice do you have for others in your position or similar positions?
It is very important to be flexible as each day is different. Technology is constantly changing so
it is important to go with the flow and adapt as you go and embrace new technology.

Interview of Sheila Neidlinger

Media Specialist
Ebenezer Middle School

1. Name of technology coordinator being interviewed

Sheila Neidlinger

2. What is your title?

Ebenezer Middle School Media Specialist

3. What type of degree is required for your position?

Media Specialist or Instructional Technology degree

4. Where did you obtain your degree?

Mrs. Neidlinger earned a Masters degree in in Instructional Technology from Georgia Southern
University.

5. What are your job responsibilities?

Job responsibilities include but are not limited to checking in and out books, shelving and
organizing books, technology troubleshooting school wide for students and staff, ordering new
books, helping students locate books, assisting students with using computers and printing,
helping teachers as to needed-find materials and technology for instruction, participating in the
PBIS committee, and daily afternoon car duty.

6. What are typical daily activities for you?

Each morning is spent at the counter checking in and out books as this is a high traffic time.
Then all books are shelved and time is spent working on the various job responsibilities. Each
day is different and there really is no typical day as new problems arise or new things need to
be done each day.

7. Do you have a budget that you control? How do you make decisions on selecting resources
for your stakeholders?
Yes, there is a media center budget for books and other media resources. Before deciding what
to buy teachers are asked for input. There is also a clipboard that stays on the counter for
students to write down books they would like ordered and added to the media center. Also, an
analysis is done yearly using Title Wave by Follett. The media center holdings are uploaded to
Title Wave via Destiny and Mrs. Neidlinger can run reports to see where the need is. If a certain
section of the library needs more books. She also reads reviews and recommendations
available before purchasing new materials.

8. Have you had an opportunity to impact technology implementation throughout your school?
Would you describe a specific example?
Yes, gets the 20 Chromebook carts out and ready for teachers.

9. Does your school have a technology committee? How are technology decisions made?
Yes, there is a technology committee but it has not met this year. Decisions on technology
purchases are made at the county level. Once the technology arrives at the school the media
specialist works with administration to decide how it will be used.

10. What is the best part of your job?

The best part of the job is not being in a classroom all day but still getting to interact with the
students on a daily basis. Middle school students come into the library frequently and need
assistance much more than at the high school level.

11. What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?
The most challenging part of the job is satisfying teachers. There is always someone who is
unhappy with decisions that are made. Getting teachers to collaborate is also very challenging
as they are so busy and it is hard to find time to work with them. It is also difficult when people
think that you do not do anything, but the reality of the job is that it is very busy and each day is
filled with new challenges.

12. What advice do you have for others in your position or similar positions?
The best advice would be to learn all of the technology you can. Be aware of new technology
resources and learn how to use them so you can share with teachers. The media center is
shifting toward more technology integration so you have to be ahead of the curve.