Curt Lieneck
Director of Information Technology
University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
Technology and Library in the 21st Century -- Defining Roles
*Who teaches research skills and tools?
Librarians. No IT staff has teaching duties. Computer teachers are
faculty, not IT staff and also teach research skills. Some content
area teachers also teach research skills and tools. Varies by
teacher, course, department.
Who works with the teachers when students are doing research projects?
Librarians. Sometimes Computer Science teachers. Tech staff gets
involved with tech logistics sometimes.
*Who make decisions on software purchases? Hardware purchases?
I make virtually all hardware decisions. Departments may use their
own funds to purchase hardware, but all tech purchases have to be
cleared by me. Same for donations.
I provide operational and big ticket system wide software from my
budget. The Computer Science Department can fund smaller requests; I
work with them and decisions are made jointly. Software unique to
content areas usually comes from department budgets. Division heads
can purchase software for teachers, too. But all proposed purchases
hit my desk for approval before the Business Office sends a PO.
Do you have separate budgets?
Yes.
Who manages online subscriptions? Who trains people in their use?
We have a full time IT person in the Libraries jointly supervised by
me and the Library chair. That person manages the subscriptions.
Librarians train.
Do you have a common place for teachers and librarians to put up their
web
links?
Not really. We could do it easily, but we don't.
Are you physically near each other or easily able to communicate with
one
another?
Not too far away. The IT person in the library facilitates two-way
communication and I join in meetings there a couple of times per
quarter.
Do you have a Technology Committee and/or a Curriculum Technology
Committee
that meets regularly?
No, not really. I've tried hard to develop formal means to communicate
and partner with division faculties in tech decision-making, but none
of the several incarnations have produced any observable results
despite the efforts of a few well-intended people. No one really wants
to invest the time it takes to do this properly.
*Who purchases digital A-V equipment (including projectors and
interactive
whiteboards, but not including computers)?
I do (tech staff).
Who trains students/teachers in the use of those devices?
Vendors, preferably, but tech staff mostly in an informal way.
Working on a better way to get this done. We've done 75 rooms with a/v
systems in the last five years. This part of the job has grown really
fast.
*Who loans it out?
Tech staff keeps a few loanable items that can be reserved through a
web calendar. 4 Laptop carts, 2 mobile projector carts, a dozen high-
end GPS handhelds...but most folks have their own stuff by now. The
lending thing didn't work out very well for cameras, microphones, etc.
[ For info on ISED-L see https://www.gds.org/podium/default.aspx?t=128874 ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
