DAILY INSIGHT: Stump the tech director

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By Miguel Guhlin, CIO Advisor

The future is here now—check out these pictures of the future—but sometimes it’s hard to move organizations along. And, some times, it’s not the organization that’s the obstacle but certain folks—like technology directors—who have trouble saying, “Yes, let’s do that!" That’s why my motto is to do something different, but making that motto REALis another thing altogether.

I love this Dilbert cartoon that Doug “Blue Skunk" Johnson posted:

Source: Blue Skunk Blog

Johnson writes: Dilbert comic strip's character Mordac, The Preventer of Information Services, is regrettably an all-too-recognizable figure in many schools. A major cause of this disconnect is that educators and technologists have valid but very different priorities when it comes to technology. As educators, we need simplicity, abundance, convenience, and ubiquity. As a technologists, we must provide security, reliability, and adequacy.

Recently, Ben Rimes (@techsavvyed) asked the following via Twitter:

What a great question! Troy Hicks (@hickstro) wrote back quickly with this reply:

So, for fun, I decided to compile my own top 10 fun list from questions heard across the years:

  1. Why do we block YouTube and Facebook, but allow Instagram, Vine and Twitter? Schools have accounts in all of those.
  2. Why can’t we use Todays Meet in classrooms?
  3. Why can’t we use mobile phones in classroom for learning?
  4. How come we’re still using MS Exchange and Outlook WebMail when GoogleApps for Education (GAFE) is available for free?
  5. How come we’re still requiring teachers to create and manage their own class rosters in a “bajillion" different tech-based instructional delivery systems? Let’s require increased automation.
  6. Why can’t you hook up all my classroom technology equipment so that it’s ready to go when I get back from summer vacation?
  7. Why can’t we adopt Dropbox as our district “storage area network" instead of fancy, expensive servers?
  8. Why do I need to encrypt confidential data before I send it via email? How do I do that? Would you do that for me?
  9. Why can’t you set up a local area network (LAN) and provide Internet access in someone else’s building for an event? Or, a field?
  10. Why can’t we just all get Chromebooks? Wait, how do you print something? Nevermind.

…as well as ask others like you for YOUR list.

Miguel Guhlin is director of technology for a 5A school district in Texas and past president of the statewide TCEA Technology Education Coordinators group. This blog is cross posted at Around the Corner.

Miguel Guhlin, CIO Advisor