As to the digital portfolio, I'm not too sure of the value of them. I know educators and tech educators who put their stuff out there, but in the end you'll be asked tech questions that will get you the position or not. Most interviewers won't take time to look through a portfolio. It is my opinion (and I could be wrong, which is why it is my opinion) that for most jobs a portfolio is a waste of time. Gone is the day when shoving a CD of your tech success in the recruiting folder would wow whoever saw it.
More important is how you might use Epic! at the grade 3 level. What apps would you recommend if you were building a lower primary iPad program? If the school is not an AEP (Apple Education Partner) with access to using Configurator 2, how would you set up your distribution and update of Apps across the platform to minimize bandwidth usage in peak hours. How can you lock your iPads down to prevent teachers and students from making unwanted purchases or changes? How would your Apps vary between lower and upper primary? Would you recommend using iPads in secondary instead of laptops? How would you teach and integrate the ISTE standards for students, teachers and admin?
Lots of things to consider - and those are questions (or answers) you might encounter from admin who are in the know, or in discussions with existing tech staff who are going to provide feedback to the admin about your knowledge and fit.
EdTech Integration Teacher
Discussion
@SJ
Yes, I would be very, very surprised if your position is that Surfaces are more common, popular, prevalent than iPads, mainly because thats laughably untrue.
No, the backbone isnt PC, its hardware, and yes servers are cheaper when you dont buy them from Apple, and they dont run OS server, but you can use a Mac to run any server and with Apples powerful Unix based OS, theres a lot of server hardware out there running UNIX.
@Helen Back
I get that @SJ is an MS fanboy and Im defiantly not, I own a little MS hardware, and some Chome hardware but most of my devices are Apple products, certainly the ones I use most often.
MIE is nice (its in the same catagory as Google Educator and Apple Teacher), its appropriate for an IS thats 1:1 program or campus wide technology strategy is all MS based, I dont see a lot of ISs with that, and the ones that do tend to be those old school ISs that dont have a lot of tech integration. Do you want to be a tech director/coordinator or a Ed.Tech coach/integrator. If the former a health background in MS products is expected, if your goal is the latter than less on an emphasis in MS products and more in Apple and Google products is much more common, especially with someone who has your background level of technical expertise. MIE isnt going to impress the tech nerds you find with MS products, Google and Apple will impress the none nerds you find in the majority of 1:1 ISs, you dont need to know a whole lot and you dont need to compete with the tech types in tech support. Your not trying to be a better nerd, and your not competing for their job, your convincing the executive leadership that as an edu you have not only expertise but the facilitation and mentoring skills and aptitude to reach not students but other ITs and bring an increased presence of technology into the classroom in a non-threatening manner. Can you keep bringing them new ideas, innovation and creativity on a consistent and continual basis of novelty involving technology in the classroom that will make students oh and ah, and make ITs lives easier not harder with technology, not can you fix their laptop that crashed or get them back on the network. The tools that do those things tend to be Google and Apple tools not MS tools.
I dont see Ed.tech getting a lot of tech questions, they might have the admin credentials to fix a login and authentication problem, but they go to the same tech support people when their laptop needs to be re-imaged as everyone else.
You dont use a CD or DVD with a portfolio, you have a website that has those materials, and with your lack of expertise, and experience your going to have to show them youre more than the IT down the hall who can help/fix something. Youre going to need to show them you can put the tech and the ITs together with a plan, etc. before you even get to the interview.
Most of @SJs interview questions arent relevant to an Ed.tech position, but a Tech.Cor./Dir. appointment. Your job isnt to answer or make those decisions (though you may be asked on input) your goal is to take whats been decided whether its apps, platform, hardware and provide uses of the technology that you can bring into the classroom and convince ITs to buy into it.
Yes, I would be very, very surprised if your position is that Surfaces are more common, popular, prevalent than iPads, mainly because thats laughably untrue.
No, the backbone isnt PC, its hardware, and yes servers are cheaper when you dont buy them from Apple, and they dont run OS server, but you can use a Mac to run any server and with Apples powerful Unix based OS, theres a lot of server hardware out there running UNIX.
@Helen Back
I get that @SJ is an MS fanboy and Im defiantly not, I own a little MS hardware, and some Chome hardware but most of my devices are Apple products, certainly the ones I use most often.
MIE is nice (its in the same catagory as Google Educator and Apple Teacher), its appropriate for an IS thats 1:1 program or campus wide technology strategy is all MS based, I dont see a lot of ISs with that, and the ones that do tend to be those old school ISs that dont have a lot of tech integration. Do you want to be a tech director/coordinator or a Ed.Tech coach/integrator. If the former a health background in MS products is expected, if your goal is the latter than less on an emphasis in MS products and more in Apple and Google products is much more common, especially with someone who has your background level of technical expertise. MIE isnt going to impress the tech nerds you find with MS products, Google and Apple will impress the none nerds you find in the majority of 1:1 ISs, you dont need to know a whole lot and you dont need to compete with the tech types in tech support. Your not trying to be a better nerd, and your not competing for their job, your convincing the executive leadership that as an edu you have not only expertise but the facilitation and mentoring skills and aptitude to reach not students but other ITs and bring an increased presence of technology into the classroom in a non-threatening manner. Can you keep bringing them new ideas, innovation and creativity on a consistent and continual basis of novelty involving technology in the classroom that will make students oh and ah, and make ITs lives easier not harder with technology, not can you fix their laptop that crashed or get them back on the network. The tools that do those things tend to be Google and Apple tools not MS tools.
I dont see Ed.tech getting a lot of tech questions, they might have the admin credentials to fix a login and authentication problem, but they go to the same tech support people when their laptop needs to be re-imaged as everyone else.
You dont use a CD or DVD with a portfolio, you have a website that has those materials, and with your lack of expertise, and experience your going to have to show them youre more than the IT down the hall who can help/fix something. Youre going to need to show them you can put the tech and the ITs together with a plan, etc. before you even get to the interview.
Most of @SJs interview questions arent relevant to an Ed.tech position, but a Tech.Cor./Dir. appointment. Your job isnt to answer or make those decisions (though you may be asked on input) your goal is to take whats been decided whether its apps, platform, hardware and provide uses of the technology that you can bring into the classroom and convince ITs to buy into it.
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shadowjack
- Posts: 2140
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am
Re: EdTech Integration Teacher
@PG - EVERY school I have been in has Win Server 20XX running their network. Not UNIX. Not Mac. The number of schools running UNIX or Mac as their server of choice is extremely extremely limited. Schools will often have a Mac server - usually one. You are right - the backbone is hardware - but hardware is junk without software and the software of choice in Windows Server. Windows 2008 to 2016 rule the roost in networking.
It's kind of funny you call me a MS fanboy because people that know me call me a Mac fanboy. Just because I tell the truth about what I know and see in the tech world doesn't make me a fan boy of one or the other. As a tech user I call it like I see it. MS really really surprised me a while ago and I really had no clue. Note I also did NOT say Surfaces are more popular or prevalent than iPads - but they are beautiful machines.
Looking at the rest of your comments below, getting people back on the network is one of the things that a tech integrator will get asked lots - especially at smaller schools where the tech department is one or two people. As to your job is to take what's been decided... LOL ... at many schools tech integrators are the filters between teachers and tech higher ups - and it is integrators who push what apps and in many cases hardware and tech uses get into classrooms. It is not driven by the director in most cases and many schools don't have a coordinator, or the director is the coordinator too - and many of them are not educators. If I were interviewing for a tech integrator position and she or he could not answer those questions, I definitely would be passing. I've been around in technology a long time and, while others might see it differently, I base my comments on my experiences, observations, and knowledge.
It's kind of funny you call me a MS fanboy because people that know me call me a Mac fanboy. Just because I tell the truth about what I know and see in the tech world doesn't make me a fan boy of one or the other. As a tech user I call it like I see it. MS really really surprised me a while ago and I really had no clue. Note I also did NOT say Surfaces are more popular or prevalent than iPads - but they are beautiful machines.
Looking at the rest of your comments below, getting people back on the network is one of the things that a tech integrator will get asked lots - especially at smaller schools where the tech department is one or two people. As to your job is to take what's been decided... LOL ... at many schools tech integrators are the filters between teachers and tech higher ups - and it is integrators who push what apps and in many cases hardware and tech uses get into classrooms. It is not driven by the director in most cases and many schools don't have a coordinator, or the director is the coordinator too - and many of them are not educators. If I were interviewing for a tech integrator position and she or he could not answer those questions, I definitely would be passing. I've been around in technology a long time and, while others might see it differently, I base my comments on my experiences, observations, and knowledge.
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shadowjack
- Posts: 2140
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am
Re: EdTech Integration Teacher
Oh yeah. If they're not going to take the time to look at your portfolio, they're not going to take the time to look at your website. But if they ask you about what you've done in technology, you should have some student products, etc, presentations etc to show. But meh. Portfolios to me are a waste of time. If I have to have a portfolio to get the position, I'll pass. LOL
Reply
@SJ
We have different experiences. The ISs that have Windows server are those old school ISs that dont really have 21C tech ISs. They use Windows server for their network drive/file sharing and exchange server for their email and maybe IIS for their web site. Its more back-office operations than a 21C tech IS. The ISs with real tech 1:1 programs, etc. outsource to cloud servers most of those things such as their website, and they integrate with Google mail as part of google classroom. A UNIX email server is far more common than a WIN exchange server, the same with Apache running web services.
I dont actually know many ISs that run an Apple server, what would they run on it? Most Apple ISs that run their own internal servers for email or web or file exchange/sharing will run a UNIX box for those services, and interface with them through a shell command for maintenance. It would be a colossal waste to run STMP/POP,IMAP or WEB/HTML on a Apple OS Server even networked drives, file exchange/sharing would be easier to do from a NAT storage drive.
Youre not telling "THE" truth your stating your 'opinion' of what you think/believe/feel the truth is. I call it as I see i as well, it looks like your a MS cheerleader advocate, overselling extremely high technical skills and for an Ed.Tech, which I dont agree with and isnt congruent with my experience.
I wouldnt use the word "beautiful" to describe an electronic tablet device of plastic and metal.
Ed.Techs dont do credential resets or back online to a network, thats S.Tech and coordinators and the rest of the nerds in the NOC/Cluster. If someone is doing that then they arent an Ed.Tech they are S.Tech who has some training and coaching tasking.
We disagree, the vast majority of Tech purchases are made by the M.Tech and the ISs executive /senior leadership, an Ed.tech will be part of the discussion but they arent the decision maker.
The website is the portfolio, a digital portfolio, and if they arent going to look at it, they arent going to offer an interview to the LW with such a lite resume.
We have different experiences. The ISs that have Windows server are those old school ISs that dont really have 21C tech ISs. They use Windows server for their network drive/file sharing and exchange server for their email and maybe IIS for their web site. Its more back-office operations than a 21C tech IS. The ISs with real tech 1:1 programs, etc. outsource to cloud servers most of those things such as their website, and they integrate with Google mail as part of google classroom. A UNIX email server is far more common than a WIN exchange server, the same with Apache running web services.
I dont actually know many ISs that run an Apple server, what would they run on it? Most Apple ISs that run their own internal servers for email or web or file exchange/sharing will run a UNIX box for those services, and interface with them through a shell command for maintenance. It would be a colossal waste to run STMP/POP,IMAP or WEB/HTML on a Apple OS Server even networked drives, file exchange/sharing would be easier to do from a NAT storage drive.
Youre not telling "THE" truth your stating your 'opinion' of what you think/believe/feel the truth is. I call it as I see i as well, it looks like your a MS cheerleader advocate, overselling extremely high technical skills and for an Ed.Tech, which I dont agree with and isnt congruent with my experience.
I wouldnt use the word "beautiful" to describe an electronic tablet device of plastic and metal.
Ed.Techs dont do credential resets or back online to a network, thats S.Tech and coordinators and the rest of the nerds in the NOC/Cluster. If someone is doing that then they arent an Ed.Tech they are S.Tech who has some training and coaching tasking.
We disagree, the vast majority of Tech purchases are made by the M.Tech and the ISs executive /senior leadership, an Ed.tech will be part of the discussion but they arent the decision maker.
The website is the portfolio, a digital portfolio, and if they arent going to look at it, they arent going to offer an interview to the LW with such a lite resume.
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shadowjack
- Posts: 2140
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am
Re: EdTech Integration Teacher
I guess I bow to the expert. Of course in technology your job is narrowly defined and because it's technology there's never any overlap. Got it. And of course, Windows server OS is totally old school, and everybody runs off the cloud. And Google classroom is the favored software. I am enlightened. Thank you for straightening out so many of my misconceptions!