What Does it Mean to be a Technology Integration Facilitator?
What does it mean to be a Technology Integration Facilitator? Or an Integration Technology Coach… or… BTW what is your official job title?
My job as a TIF did not exist 3 years ago at my school. My job still does not exist in many schools across the USA and the world. There are still computer lab attendants and computer teachers that welcome students into the lab and supervise them as they practice their typing skills, do research for a paper that is due in one of their core classes and learn how to use word processing programs, spreadsheet applications and presentation software.
My job is still in its infant stage. It is growing and changing so rapidly that sometimes I wonder myself what my job description is. How can I describe what I do? What are the components that are essential for a technology integrator? (How) Will I survive infancy? How about the “Me, me, me” and “I can do it myself” stage of the toddler years. How will I make it through the awkward tweens and the rebellious teenage years?
Who and what I want to be when I grow up?
I spent the past two days at a non-technology conference with school administrators (principals, advancement, admission, IT directors, etc). Not all schools I talked to or heard about had even a dedicated Technology Integrator on staff as part of their technology team. I was even asked several times what exactly my position was?
How do I see my position today? Into what will it evolve by the end of the school year or next?
- Professional development
- Lead professional development for faculty, staff and administration
- Just in time
- 1-1
- Small group
- Monthly workshops
- Bring in and facilitate the presence of outside voices
- Create digital How-To guides and step by step tutorials
- Present and share at local, national and international conferences
- Lead professional development for faculty, staff and administration
- Life Long Learner
- Practice what you preach: You want your teachers and students to be learners, you have to be the model.
- Continue to take classes, attend workshops, conferences, meet with colleagues, skype with experts in the field
- Avid reader of educational blogs, wikis, listserves, twitter, podcasts, professional journals
- Stay abreast technology AND education trends and how they relate to student learning
- Plan and Co-Teach
- Plan regularly with classroom and resource teachers.
- Be informed and able to reference curriculum across grade level
- Support teachers by co-teaching with them, then let them fly
- Teach
- Teach at least one class (a tech club or after school activity) to keep it real
- Don’t loose touch with what it means to teach real kids and not to just theorize about how teaching and learning should look like
- Personal Learning Network
- Create, actively grow and nurture your own PLN- local as well as global
- BE a part of a personal learning network for others- (you get out of it what you put in it)
- Model 21st Century Skills
- Communicate and Connect with other educators (local and global) in order to Collaborate
- Take active steps to make connection for your teachers and their students around the world to open the classroom walls
- Write, reflect, and grow on your own professional and school blog
- Share resources on your blog and/or wiki
- Create new opportunities for yourself, your colleagues and students
- Be flexible with curriculum or calendar related changes as well as guaranteed equipment failures
- Be part of school’s Technology team
- Participate in and make hardware and software purchase decisions
- Participate in and make budget decisions
- Attend Technology Committee meetings
- Present to school board
- Work closely with network administrator, media specialist and other team members
[...] Langwitches » What Does it Mean to be a Technology Integration Facilitator? – Read More [...]
I’ve read this post several times today while at school because you are spot on. This is the first year that my school has had the TIF position as well and IT IS difficult to write a job description. Everything you said is so very true and accurate for my everyday happenings.
At the end of the day, I get the question: “So what did you do today” I always start with the number of steps I walked on my pedometer which describes everything you’ve written!
FYI: Today was a 13,000 step day.
[...] job description that said, “Go make tech work and build a program.” I was reading the Langwitches blog a couple of days ago and found the most perfect job description for what I do on a daily [...]
[...] given a job description that said, “Go make tech work and build a program.” I was reading the Langwitches blog a couple of days ago and found the most perfect job description for what I do on a daily [...]
[...] a job description that said, “Go make tech work and build a program.” I was reading the Langwitches blog a couple of days ago and found the most perfect job description for what I do on a daily [...]
I really like the job description. How did this position get created in your district? I’m hoping to have one created in my district for me. Do you have any advice?
I love your job description and graphic. I think many of us are grappling with the same issues you describe. For so many schools this job is new and no one really understands what to expect or how to move forward.
Having been in this kind of position (though with various titles) for the last 9 years, it seems that these growing pains exist every time I transition to a new school. This time around, having the title of 21st Century Literacy Specialist has definitely thrown new kinks into the works.
Taking the word “technology” out of the title completely has been both a positive and a negative – easier for me to ensure that my job doesn’t revolve around tools, but sometimes harder to explain what my job is, succinctly.
About eight months into the job, I took it upon myself to define my role, much as you’ve done here. I know it’s an old post, but now I’m curious to go back and see just how similar or differently we have described our positions…
@Amanda
I love your 13,000 steps description. I envision myself on a scooters many times when racing up and down the hallway at my school.
We need to consciously record ALL the things that we do in our jobs in order to create an accurate job description for ourselves, but also for our administration, colleagues and others who ask “So what is your job exactly entail?”
I just read Lisa Thurman’s post What did you do at work today? Very interesting and telling the way she describes one week in her professional life.
@Chad
I put a job description together about 3 years ago, on how I envisioned what a TIF’s job would be. I took that description to my administration and told them that I was going to pursue this career. I gave them all the research and background information that I could, why they could not afford NOT to have such a position at our school. I was lucky that they were open and visionary enough to create that position for me. Although there are more and more positions like ours out there now, we still need to convince most administrators of its necessity. Very hard to do in these economic times if the position does not exist yet.
@Kim,
I followed your link back to your blog to re-read the post from last February ’08 about your job description. From there it took me to another post Putting the Puzzle Pieces together from November ’07 and then even further back to How do you spend your day?
Again, it is very clear that we are in the PROCESS of defining what our job really entails. Blog posts like yours over time are giving us a great way to track this process.
We need to define and focus on the desired outcome: learning, skills, communication, collaboration, information, etc., then be flexible to “teach, un-teach and re-teach”
in whatever form the process throws at us.
To do everything in numbers 1-7 with a smile, you deserve more than a virtual pat on the back. It takes dedication and enthusiasm.
Thank you for outlining your responsibilities so clearly. I will be referring to it for my next self-evaluation at work. I frequently have trouble defining what I do. I just respond that “they” tell me where to go and I go there.
Lisa
[...] a job description that said, “Go make tech work and build a program.” I was reading the Langwitches blog a couple of days ago and found the most perfect job description for what I do on a daily [...]
[...] of us share similar responsibilities, yet we have a wide variety of titles. Just looking back at my own experience over the last ten years in three different schools, my job [...]