HiTechHall’s Tech Waves

Here is the second of several essays I wrote as part of an application to the Foreign Service. It describes a scenario that I’m sure many other technology coordinators and educators have faced during their careers.

Question #2: Organizing Your Own Work

Give an example of a situation that shows your ability to think logically, analyze problems, communicate with others, and apply sound judgment, particularly where you had to meet tight deadlines or work long hours. Indicate the complexity of the task you were organizing and the consequences if you had failed to meet your deadline.

My Response:

During my third year as a technology coordinator at a large school, I was told by district administrators that we would receive 212 new PCs to replace an equal number of antiquated machines. While this “refresh” project offered great benefits, it also presented several significant challenges. Where would I find storage space in our already overcrowded facility for the machines? How would the installation and configuration be scheduled to limit classroom disruptions? Most dauntingly, which classrooms would receive the new machines and which wouldn’t?

As the school’s sole IT facilitator I needed to solve these problems. First, using a blueprint of the school, I located a vacant changing room far above the theater. But how were we to get 424 heavy boxes up there? As a football coach, the answer came to me like a linebacker blitz: I’d round-up my players to participate in some unique “off-season” conditioning drills. As a result, the boxes were enthusiastically delivered and stacked within an hour.

Second, I scheduled the computer installation work to be done everyday after school over a period of several weeks. This largely eliminated the disruption of classroom instruction, yet still allowed us to meet our deadline. The slower deployment also bought me time to come up with a plan for dealing with the final, more difficult, challenge.

The school was “technologically-polarized.” Certain classrooms were outfitted with the latest equipment while others had none. This was an opportunity to make the necessary changes to correct this imbalance, though I knew that in doing so I would be walking a political minefield. I decided to rely on my recently-formed Campus Technology Committee, which included staff from various departments at the school. After lengthy debate and collaboration, we were able to develop the school’s first official policy for equitable computer distribution.