March 2008 — Features
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Point Man
A district's IT efforts all revolve around the CIO, whose role and responsibilities have been transformed by the digital age.
BOB DYLAN ONCE SANG THAT THE TIMES WERE A-CHANGIN', but the shaggy crooner couldn't have had any idea how the line would one day resonate with the leaders of K-12 technology.
ON THE JOB Forsyth County Schools'
Bailey Mitchell typififies the new breed of
CIO, ready to respond to his district's many
technology needs.
Think back to the days of the first George Bush. Back then, few, if any, school districts even had chief information officers. Instead, IT was handled by computer or technology coordinators, many of whom were classroom teachers with passing interests in computers and associated high-tech gadgets and gizmos.
As districts began embracing CIOs, the earliest administrators on whom the title was conferred bought technology, installed it, and tried to keep it running. Most of these folks were focused on instructional technology; occasionally they bought PCs for the computer lab and maybe for a classroom or two. Software in those days was AppleWorks or the early forms of Microsoft Office, as well as teacher tools like crossword puzzles or word-search programs.
In other words, it was all pretty rudimentary stuff.
Gradually, however, as education technology has become more sophisticated, the role of the people who administer it has too. Nowadays, many K-12 CIOs have responsibility for technology that is mission-critical throughout the school district, including everything from applications software to networks, testing, and reporting systems that transmit results to local government, and student information systems that capture attendance records upon which funding is based
Today's CIOs-sometimes referred to as CTOs, or chief technology officers-are expected to make tactical decisions, always keeping in mind how technology will impact the business operations of their district. Bill Rust, research director at Gartner, a market research firm in Stamford, CT, refers to today's K-12 technology honchos as "educational business leaders," noting that the transformation has been nothing short of radical.
"Earlier administrative and business needs were addressed with the existing, stable technologies, but that's no longer the case," he says. "Instead of satisfying the needs of a few central office and school-based administrators, CIOs now need to recognize a gamut of needs, from technology decisionmaking to technology management, business operations, and strategic thinking."
In this environment, modern-day CIOs are faced with unique challenges-and a new set of secrets to success. A recent workshop from the Consortium for School Networking (see "CTO 2012") singled a few of them out: building consensus among varied constituents; balancing budgets at a time when funding is scarce; hiring and retaining good workers; and perhaps most importantly, making sure technology stays current.
Here's a closer look at each of these challenges, and how the best K-12 IT chiefs stay on the leading edge.
