If a computer glitchĢżthreatens to derail something like a state-required proficiency test at Harrisonburg (Virginia) High School,ĢżCraig Shoemakerās phoneĢżis bound to start ringing.
ā[Teachers] get anxious,ā he said, chuckling. āIām the one they try to get a hold of.ā
A computer resource technician with Harrisonburg City Public Schools, Shoemaker (ā78) likens his job during the school year to firefighting, swooping in to sort things out whenever someone canāt log into their computer or get their projector to behave. Shoemaker is responsible for one high school and one middle school in the city ā though these days, heās able to fix lots of problems remotely without leaving his office.
During the summers and other calmer times, Shoemaker also keeps the schoolsā computers and other devices, like iPads, up-to-date and in good working order.
In neighboring Rockingham County Public Schools,ĢżObe Hostetter ā00Ģżhas a slightly different role as an instructional technology resource teacher. Though he also gets involved in technological troubleshooting, he visits all the divisionās 24 schools to train teachers on how to better use technology in their classrooms, and sometimes co-teaches technology-enhanced lessons with them. A recent example: teaching a kindergarten class how to scan QR codes with iPads.
āI enjoy the teaching part, seeing the kids getting excited [about technology],ā said Hostetter, who spent his first five years after college teaching elementary and middle school before going down the technology path.
One of the tricky technology-related issues that comes up in school settings is the fact that after Hostetterās lesson on QR codes, those kindergartners may well be more adept at using them than many of their teachers.
āTheyāre not as comfortable, because they have not grown up with it,ā says Shoemaker, of teachers who began their careers before computers had so thoroughly infiltrated education.
While younger teachers, as a rule, donāt tend to be as intimidated by technology, thereās a flipside.ĢżDoug Moyer ā91, a systems technician for the Warren County (Virginia) Public Schools, tells of a young teacher whose Smart Board went out of service and was thrown into a tizzy by the prospect of resorting to primitive substitutes like the markerboard.
Moyer and Shoemaker both spent some time in the business world before getting into school technology, and both say they enjoy the general lower-pressure school atmosphere. Computer emergencies happen both places, but the stress and aggravation just usually arenāt as great in education.
āIt has its moments of intensity, but itās not nearly as great, and I appreciate that part of it,ā said Shoemaker.
Mike Stoltzfus ā98Ģżalso began his IT career in private business, beginning with CMDS (now Jenzabar; see story p. 15) after graduating with a computer information systems degree. He then spent several years handling IT for Harman Construction, a company that has worked on numerous projects at EMU over the years, including the ongoing renovations of the Suter Science Center. While he worked for Harman, Stoltzfus also ran his own web hosting business on the side. One of his clients was Eastern Mennonite School (EMS), which created a full-time IT position and hired Stoltzfus to fill it inĢż2008.
With just under 400 students in grades K-12, the schoolās IT needs are modest enough that Stoltzfus handles most technology-related issues (Andrew Gascho ā09Ģżassists him, and teaches digital communication classes at EMS). Those range from systems maintenance to troubleshooting to repairs to keeping up with the rapidly changing digital world by planning things like a Chromebook-for-every-student initiative that the school is exploring.
āThatās something that really attracts me about working at a place where there isnāt a huge technology infrastructure,ā Stoltzfus said. āI can be involved in all those different thingsā¦. I enjoy seeing the whole picture.ā
(Since starting at EMS, Stoltzfusās job has expanded well beyond that whole IT picture; now the director of business affairs, he also oversees school finances and a few other operational matters.)
Thereās never a time when thereās not something new to check out. With a relatively tight budget to be conscious of, for example, Stoltzfus has been exploring opportunities offered by open source software.
āI really enjoy learning new things. Thatās one thing that Iāve always enjoyed about technology ā itās always changing,ā said Stoltzfus, who majored in computer information systems. āAs you learn about things, you realize more and more how much you donāt know.ā
Like Stoltzfus,ĢżJon Harder ā82Ģżalso works as a technology generalist for a small school system, handling āpretty much anything to do with technologyā for Mountain Lake (Minnesota) Public Schools.
In addition to all the usual school troubleshooting and software updating, Harder has been able to put his programming background to good use as the schoolsā technology coordinator. When a need was identified for a computer-based method for staff to reserve rooms or vehicles to use, Harder couldnāt find existing software that fit the bill. Instead, he created his own web-based application thatās now in use. Itās the kind of thing thatās kept the job interesting for the past 14 years (prior to which, he was a software engineer in the Twin Cities).
āI guess Iām a real problem solver,ā he said. āItās always fulfilling to run into new challenges and figure out how to do something.ā
When Harder was at EMU, tinkering with the mainframe computer that used to be in the old Administration Building or the few really early Apples that belonged to the Psychology Department, he had no clue that computers were going to become such a thing. The Internet as it exists now wasnāt something anyone could conceive of.
That makes it hard to hazard a guess as to what sorts of technologies people like him will be troubleshooting in schools in decades to come. Fewer keyboards and more spoken commands, he suspects.
Hostetter concurs on the voice-interfacing thing. 3-D printers are coming, too. Maybe āwearablesā like Google Glass will make their way into classrooms eventually. Whatever it is, itās bound to be something that seems hard to imagine right now.
āIt is pretty amazing what all we can do now that just a couple years ago wasnāt possible,ā he said.