What Am I — ET or IT?
July 6, 2007 by jzcolby
Jeff Utecht posted on the TechLearning blog an article about Informational Technologists versus Educational Technologists. Informational Technologists focus on the hardware and software; whereas, Educational Technologists focus on teachers and helping the teachers use technology in the classroom (see his posted diagram below). As Jeff mentioned in his posting, these positions very often get assigned to the same person (that would be me) where they really should be two separate positions. I agree that it would be nice to have two separate positions but budgets do not always allow that and so we have to make the best of the situation we are in. I am glad that I read this posting, however, because I have been grappling with this dilemna this past school year. My IT part of the job has been getting in the way of the ET part of my job and, therefore, makes me feel very guilty.
Jeff states:
If you are in this position, you know how many different directions you are being pulled, and there is no physical way you can both support teachers and keep the technology infrastructure running smoothly. By trying to fulfill both the Informational Technologist and the Educational Technologist in one position, schools tend to stretch these people so thin that both the IT and the ET suffer.
So, what am I going to do about it? I am going to try to become more “streamlined” with the IT side of it — maybe schedule days to handle my IT job and days to handle my ET job and not let the IT job take over my ET job. It always helps when others put in writing things you have been feeling but just couldn’t put in words or felt maybe you were “wrong” in feeling them.
I have been doing the IT part of my job since our school let out 3 weeks ago. I just finished today and now, hopefully, can start “playing” with tools that can enhance my ET job next school year when working with the teachers and students. Another funny thing is that any professional development I take or articles I read to enhance my job is always for the ET job.
In case you were wondering — I prefer the ET part of my job.
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Julia,
When I read Jeff’s post I thought of you. I am fortunate that I can focus on ET, but I am constantly amazed at how well you handle both jobs. You have a wide and varied skill set, that I envy. I too am having fun playing with new tools.
It’s tough. I’ve been in that same position. School leaders need to start realizing there are two different parts to technology. Sure you can do both..because you were hired to do both and that’s what you’ll do. But at some point…some time…something has to give.
Good luck in the coming school year and continue to talk with and build the relationship with your administrators to help them understand the need for the two positions.