Pillar 6

Pillar 6: User-friendly technical support must be available, ideally onsite and on demand

To quote Debbie Drewien, Instructional Technology Specialist for the Blaine County School District in Idaho, USA: “I whole-heartedly support [the] view that being on-site where you can respond to teachers' needs Just-In-Time and build those relationships with them so that they are willing to invite you in is so important. They will rarely call you if you are [squirreled away somewhere] at the district office. Out of “site”, out of mind (if you’ll pardon the pun)!

Sometimes an adversarial relationship can develop between the technology support team and the teachers because the tech support team may be understaffed and overwhelmed with problems that arise on a daily basis. Also, tech support may not understand teachers’ needs because they may not themselves be trained as teachers. But Jeff Hogan, Instructional Technology Resource Teacher at the Blankner School in Orlando, Florida, USA puts it well when he says: “In the best possible world (which is the one I live in because I choose to make it the best) instructional technology (IT) is faculty and staff. We are a team and we do it all for the students.”

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