Engaging Technical Staff in the Business of Education

A strong technical staff is important to the success of today's schools. Working in the trenches but often behind the scenes, school technical support needs to be included in the discussion of world-class educational excellence. Working with teachers, administrators and students, technical staff should be strongly connected to the education goals of the organization.

Ed tech organizations should serve technology staff by providing lines of communication that promote the sharing of expertise and information while working to meet the ongoing demands of educational technology. Network analysts, break/fix technicians, software developers, programmers, database administrators, functional analysts, telecommunications specialists, trainers, project managers, technology coordinators and every other technical job in between should be encouraged to grow beyond technical expertise, beyond relationships with technology vendors.

Effective ed tech organizations must work to break down silos of isolation by providing ongoing communication, training and resources that help technical staff to become trusted partners in the business of education. CRSTE is looking to engage technical staff in this dialogue, bringing them out of their areas of expertise to share, collaborate, plan and implement ed tech solutions that will best support and promote 21st century skills.