Interview of Technology Coordinator at Henderson Middle School (HMS):

1. Name of technology coordinator being interviewed. ​Rob Mason

2. What is your title? ​Media Specialist

3. What type of degree is required for your position? ​Masters in Library Media
Technology or similar degree plus Media Specialist Certification

4. Where did you obtain your degree? ​Georgia State University

5. What are your job responsibilities?

a. Manage the Library Media Program
i. Manage circulation desk, checking out/in books
ii. Assist students in locating materials and using technology
iii. Collaborate with teachers with finding books and technology
resources for their students
iv. Oversee annual inventory of all print materials
v. Manage collection, order new books, and weed old books based on
curriculum and teacher’s needs
vi. Maintain library resource scheduling including library space, library
computer lab, library conference room, and mobile computer carts.
vii. Maintain library workroom, laminate materials for teachers, order
supplies
viii.Chair the Library Media Technology Committee
b. Information Literacy instruction
i. Face-to-face instruction with students on research skills, utilizing
databases, citing sources, using library resources.
ii. Copyright instruction: instruct teachers and students about ethical
use of intellectual property for instructional use
c. School Webmaster
i. Maintain and update the school website as needed
ii. Add daily announcements to website for parents
iii. Instruct teachers on creating and editing web pages
iv. Coordinate information with PTSA
d. Media Production
i. Teach both 7th and 8th grade Media Production classes
ii. Instruct students on using iMovie in producing the school wide daily
Morning Announcements video
 iii. Teach students the basics of video editing, camera techniques,
working with images, recording voice overs
iv. Compile daily announcements each day for production
e. Reading Bowl Sponsor/Coach
i. Coach the school’s Reading Bowl team
ii. Recruit students for program
iii. Facilitate weekly coaching sessions
iv. Coach team during competitions
f. Yearbook Co-Sponsor
i. Assist with overall production of Yearbook
ii. Assist with recruiting and running Yearbook Club
iii. Coordinate with teachers and students in acquiring photos for the
yearbook
iv. Organize pages and layouts for yearbook
v. Assist in coordinating school portrait day
vi. Coordinate updating student portraits in Infinite Campus and
Destiny

6. What are typical daily activities for your job?

His daily activities generally include some aspect of all of the above duties. It
requires a great deal of prioritizing to make sure the most important tasks at any
given time get done.

7. Do you have a budget that you control? How do you make decisions on selecting
resources for your stakeholders?
He has a budget for new books which comes from State allotment for libraries.
The amount is based on FTE and he’s required to spend 95% of it by the end of
the 1st semester. Decisions of purchase selections are based on the needs of
teachers, requests by students, curriculum initiatives such as STEM, replacing
outdated materials, etc.. The needs change every year. He also has budgets for
Media Fines and Printing and also Lost and Damaged book payments.

8. Have you had an opportunity to impact technology implementation throughout your

school? Would you describe a specific example?
He doesn’t have much say in recommending technologies but he does spend a
lot of time assisting students and teachers with technology. As an example, the
students were given Chromebooks. He doesn’t have any responsibilities with
those as far as distributing and maintaining them, although he ends up helping
 students with Chromebook issues since their ITT person is very busy and can’t
be available all the time.

9. Does your school have a technology committee? How are technology decisions
made?
They do not have a school wide technology committee, but he does chair the
Library Media Technology Committee.

10. What is the best part of your job?

The most rewarding part of his job is working with the students. A good day is
when he has a lot of students using the library all day and he has the opportunity
to do instruction with them.

11. What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?
What he finds challenging and frustrating is the lack of communication and
mis-communication that permeates the school and district.

12. Describe the technology resources available for students.

a. They are a STEM certified school AND Title I so they are able to purchase
STEM focused materials such as 3D printers, additional computer carts
and other materials, programs and software.
b. They have one-to-one Chromebooks provided by the school district which
students are allowed to take home
c. They have an engineering lab associated with an engineering connections
class. This class includes robotics.
d. They have numerous computer labs, including the library, but they are not
utilized as much since one-to-one Chrombooks were implemented

13. Describe the technology resources available for faculty.

a. Each teacher is provided a Chromebook unless they were already
assigned a Windows laptop.
b. After a recent renovation, many classrooms now have LCD Interactive
boards with Windows 10 OS built in, although some rooms still use later
model Promethean boards.
c. There is one ITT person to support all the technology in the building,
which is why he ends up helping teachers and students with technology
issues as needed.
d. There are multiple mobile Chromebook carts throughout the building and
also four Macbook carts available to help supplement the students who do
not have Chromebooks. These were paid for with Title I funds.
e. Digital Citizenship instruction is usually delivered by teachers using
curriculum provided by the district.