In our state, half of the school districts are less than 1000 students. In small districts, the person in charge of technology could be a teacher, an administrator as part of his/her duties, it might be a solely dedicated administrator, it might be a student with high aptitude who just graduated, or it could be someone who has just graduated from a 2-year program.

It is extremely difficult to find an association that might meet all of these individuals needs – because they vary tremendously.

School technology professionals are incredibly diverse in their personal and organizational needs. Other administrator positions such as principals, curriculum directors, special education directors, and superintendents all tend to have some very common problems and interests when they are grouped. An elementary principal in a large urban district still has “teacher” issues and still has “student” issues – the same as the small rural principal.

But, a technician in a small district might be concerned about the nuts and bolts of keeping the hardware running and sees his/her needs most often through that lens. A technology director in a large district may never even touch the hardware.

It is this disparity, I think, that leads to making it difficult for organizational fit. It definitely does in our state.

I’m still glad you are looking out for the smaller schools though, it is needed.

Let’s keep talking about this and advocating for this somehow because the need is huge.

As far as organizing, it is more difficult than it sounds to start a new organization from the ground up. Our former educational media association has tried to bring in technology folks, and provide a place to call home. The educational media association has changed over the years moving from what was primarily supporters of audio visual equipment, to including library media specialists, to becoming a predominately library media specialist-focused organization.

The landscape of technology support professionals is very factionalized now, even with the opportunity to become part of an organization with a history of strong advocacy on behalf of its members. The large district directors have only a few in its ranks who belong to the organization (myself included in the few). The small districts have few technology support personnel in the membership.

It is a challenge with each and every discussion when it comes to answering, “What is in it for me?”

We’ve tried to keep the focus on the theme that we all ought to be pulling together to provide learning opportunities for our students and staff around technology, but it is not well believed yet.