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Episode 16.

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My team professionals who learn their craft in organizations other than schools come to

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work in schools.

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They are surprised by many differences between working in business and working in schools.

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Among the most striking of these are the differences between the users they support.

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What are these differences?

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School users bring different skills to IT compared to business users.

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They need more flexibility in what they do and how they do it and their needs change

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over time.

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These differences arise from the fact that students have emerging literacies.

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It is not unusual for primary grade students to only be learning to read and the key borders

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new to them.

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This means many computer interfaces and input options including typing may be very difficult

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for students to use.

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Even with clear curriculum guidelines, teachers and students have different information and

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computing needs at different times of the year.

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We also find teachers who teach similar courses use different technology and their lessons.

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Further, school years are periodic.

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Just when all the elementary school students are becoming facile with computer, the school

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year ends and teachers and IT professionals must prepare for a new group of technology

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newcomers.

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Does it really matter?

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I mean, IT professionals just work on technology.

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If it works, then their job is done.

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I don't think that's true.

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It's important for all IT professionals who work in schools to understand the nature of

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the users and their specific needs.

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Every decision made and every action taken by IT professionals regardless of their role

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affects end users either directly by providing troubleshooting, training or other support

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or indirectly by selecting, installing and configuring systems and interfaces.

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All IT professionals want their systems to meet the needs of their users and in my experience

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we sometimes make assumptions about our users that may not be true.

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Consider the assumptions about users capacity to operate the devices to complete their necessary

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tasks.

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For those who have experience managing IT and organizations where all the users are

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adults, they can assume some level of skill and knowledge.

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Those assumptions are also reflected in the cases studied as part of IT training and higher

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education and workforce development programs.

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I maintain there's five differences between the IT users and businesses and the IT users

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in schools and it's important that IT leaders and school leaders understand these differences.

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Let's hear them.

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First, business users tend to be competent in basic skills such as literacy.

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When building systems for business users, IT professionals can assume the users have

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some basic digital literacy skills and they can operate a computer that they can read

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the screen and directions and interact with the graphical user interfaces so they can

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accomplish the tasks they were hired to do.

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When referring to children, I think it's important to use the term emerging competence

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to characterize their abilities.

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As they become more competent readers and writers, they'll become more competent users

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of IT as well.

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Can't we just be patient and wait for students to develop these skills?

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Sure, we could, but we can also make some reasonable accommodations so that everyone

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can use a computer.

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Let me tell you a story.

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When upgrading the Active Directory servers in a school that enrolls students in grades

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K through 12, the new technology coordinator did not change the minimum complexity requirements

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and passwords for the organizational units containing students.

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When they first logged on to the computers, they were prompted to change their passwords

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and they were met with these complexity requirements.

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Students in the primary grades found the task of creating a password with A characters and

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a combination of letters, uppercase letter, lowercase letters, numbers, special characters.

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They found that unmanageable.

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The students were effectively locked out of computers because of their inability to type

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passwords.

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The teacher happened to be one of those who value technology and used it for many activities.

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She was not happy that her teaching was so affected by this change.

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Okay, I see how that would affect students' use of technology.

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What is next on your list?

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Second, business users tend to have very clear and specific needs and IT requirements.

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They need the software they need and they need access to the data they need in order

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to complete their assigned tasks.

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If the hardware and connectivity are sufficient to run their software and access their data,

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then most users are satisfied.

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Members of the accounting department don't care if they cannot edit video on their workstations,

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for example.

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In schools, many different users with much different software needs may use specific

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computers during the school day.

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The same hardware used by students to run the accounting software for business class

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during one block in the schedule may be used by students in the digital arts class to edit

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video during another block.

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As cloud computing and internet-connected notebooks have become more popular in schools,

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the need for IT professionals to manage different software for different users has been reduced.

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There does remain situations in which teachers cannot accomplish their curriculum goals without

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sophisticated hardware and software, and they cannot always predict the systems or the capacity

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that they will need in advance.

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Wait, you mean teachers don't know what they need?

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Compared to business users, no they don't.

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The third difference between IT and business and IT in schools is sufficient flexibility

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to allow for interest-based uses.

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The information sources that must be accessed and the applications provided, either on the

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cloud or on a machine, depends on the interests of the students and the curriculum and instruction

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choices of the teachers.

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A further reality of developing IT systems for social settings such as schools is that

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the best made plans are only plans.

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Many educators do not really understand what they need until they experience with students,

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so teachers sometimes ask that systems be reconfigured after IT thought their job was

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all done.

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That is three.

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What is the fourth?

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In business and industry, users are selected for the role.

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Employees have selected themselves for the work by applying for the job and they were

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selected for the position by being hired.

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Both are gateways that ensure those who use computers for their work have the necessary

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skills or the ability to gain them and they are motivated to learn how to use the systems.

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If this proves to be not true, then there are options for the employer and the employee.

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If training or other support does not resolve problems in using computers, then the employee

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can be removed from the position.

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In public schools in the United States, attendance is compulsory and schools are obligated to

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provide education for all students.

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For these reasons, IT professionals in schools must accommodate a wide range of users and

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schools in which a student has denied access to the IT they need may violate that individual's

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right to an education.

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You mean we can't kick students off computers for violating acceptable use policies?

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Well, I'm not saying that, but I am saying we need to ensure IT is an effective learning

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tool for all students.

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And if we're going to revoke a student's access, we better have a pretty good reason

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and be prepared to provide an equivalent level of instruction and that might be difficult

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to do.

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I see.

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So, what is your fifth difference between business users and school users?

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The final difference is the relative stability of business users compared to school users.

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In school, users' skill changes over time in a periodic way.

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The students who struggle to use keyboards early in the school year become more facile

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as they gain experience.

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When the next school year begins, those students are replaced with others who lack the experience.

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As curriculum changes, the IT needs to change as well.

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Teachers who are introduced to new teaching methods and resources are usually anxious to

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try them.

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Families move into town and their children have different needs from the other students.

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All of these are situations in which the IT professional must vary from their original

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plans to meet unanticipated needs.

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I'll tell you another story that really happened.

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The candidate for vacant technology coordinator position was being interviewed and they were

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asked, how would you respond to a teacher who returns from a conference and asks you

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for help configuring systems so they can use a tool that they learned about?

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The response was, well, we set up user devices in the summer and if they don't tell me

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what would they need before we start, then it has to wait until next year.

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The candidate was not hired.

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In reviewing the differences between IT users in K-12 schools and other organizations, we

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see they are largely based on variability.

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In organizations other than K-12 schools, IT professionals can predict the skills of

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the users and their IT and data needs.

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These are within clear and narrow bounds.

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In schools, IT professionals must provide IT for diverse populations of users who have

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diverse needs, need access to diverse information, therefore they have diverse technology needs.

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You told us a story of students getting locked out of computers because they couldn't type

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sophisticated passwords.

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How did that end?

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Yeah, so the teacher complained to the principal who said, hey, it's up to the IT coordinator,

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I can't tell them what to do.

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So the next time the teacher was scheduled to use computers, she had the assistant superintendent

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come in.

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Once they saw how incredibly frustrated the students were becoming, they directed the

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IT coordinator to change the password policy.