If you are going to be supporting the educational program at a school (or district), it is important for you to know what you believe to be important in "creating an environment that facilitates learning." This means that you need to spend a little time sitting back and reflecting on what sort of learning environment you would like to help create. Obviously, you are just one voice in many, but the whole process of designing ways to support curriculum through technology will require a reexamination of the whole learning process.

If you don't know what's important to you in creating educational environments, then you won't be able to make decisions or guide others into creating a beneficial learning environment.

Sit back, get a cup of coffee, put your feet up on the stool and dream of what sort of learning environment you would like to create if you were the MASTER of your school for a year. What resources would be available? How would learners access them? What would be their l

Before meeting with this technology coordinator, prepare by doing the following pre-organizational procedure. Make a web map of what you think this technology coordinator's duties are? You might want to refer to TC Job Descriptions page before you do this.

Suggestions for creating a web map:

• Sit down to a blank paper or open a blank document using Inspiration Software.
• Place the phrase "What Does this TC Do?" in a circle in the center of the paper/document.
• Radiate lines/links from the center circle to new circles that have general categories:Administration, Support, Maintenance, etc.
• Radiate additional lines from the new circles to newer circles with subcategories or actual duties in them.

1. What is the size and level of your school/district?
2. How long have you been a technology coordinator?
3. What do you envision as your primary role in your position?
4. Please list ALL of your duties as a technology coordinator. (OK, so buy her/him another cup of coffee.)
5. What sort of assistance do you receive in doing your job?
6. What are the parts of the job that you really enjoy?
7. What parts of the job would you rather have someone else do?
8. If you could restructure your position and responsibilities, how would you do it?
9. What words of wisdom do you have for successfully Coordinating Technology in an Educational Setting?

NOW take the results of your interview and create another web map using your newly-discovered information. Compare your new map with your earlier map.

• Do you notice any significant differences?
• What were your surprises?
• What did you learn from this exercise?

• Set the stage for your interview (don't mention the TC or the school. You CAN say something like "a middle-sized high school in southeastern Iowa").
• Give an overview of what you found in the interview.
• Share the words of wisdom you learned.
• Explain what you discovered when you compared your maps. (If you are really creative, you might even find a way to place your maps on the Web someplace so your readers can compare them while they read your comments - but this is NOT necessary.)
• Summarize what you learned doing this activity.

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