For my interviews I chose three people that are all involved with technology on different

levels not only in my school district but also at the county level. Kathy, my field supervisor,

currently works both in the classroom and as the technology liaison between the district and the

county office of education; she has been in education for more than a decade, and prior to that

worked for many years in the business industry. Stephanie, works at the county office of

education; she is the Technology Liaison between the Technology Department and the county’s

Curriculum Department; prior to this position she was an elementary teacher in the country for

more than a decade. Andrew is the Network Specialist for Scotts Valley Unified School District;

he has held this position for the last four years, prior to that he worked in the tech industry for

private corporations.

Based on my work experience from both states, I imagine my interviews were

significantly different than my classmates as the requirements for technology jobs in education

are much different here in California than in Georgia. One surprising similarity arose from all

three interviews; none of the interviewees have a technology degree, and in the case of my

district's network administrator, he doesn’t have any degree. As found in my video interviews, all

three of them come from very different backgrounds including business, education, and the tech

industry. When I was picking my interviewees, I didn’t intentionally pick someone from each

level: school, district, and county; however, it turned out to be a fortunate coincidence. It

highlighted how each of them work together both before COVID and during COVID/Shelter-In-

Place Orders as the schools in our Santa Cruz County are just starting hybrid schedules this

week.

Another important commonality that stood out to me among the three interviewees was

that none of them actually control or have a specific budget assigned to them. They all

responded that they could buy products, equipment, and software within reason without prior

approval. Except for the network supervisor, the other two constantly look for inexpensive and

free technology and programs that would best support the needs of the teachers, districts and
county. In the early phases of the pandemic, the Governor of California stressed on several

occasions that he understood the importance of assisting education during this unprecedented

time, so some of us expected tremendous support and additional funding over the last year due

to the way we were thrust into distance learning. Naïve as we might have been, the money and

support never came as confirmed by my interviewees and even my own personal experience

with my own classroom. Even some pre planned events were dropped from the schedule. For

example in March of 2020, we were scheduled to have a Professional Development day on a

Friday, but our entire school staff was notified only the day before that students would be out of

school the next week, and teachers would use that time to shift their materials and everything

online. Looking back, the only support that teachers received was the reimbursement to the

subscription to Screencastify which allowed us to record more than five minutes videos.

While many expect that technology jobs are stable especially for us living right outside of

Silicon Valley, this is not always the case. Andrew, the network supervisor for my school district,

will still have his job after things go back to normal (whatever that is); however, Kathy and

Stephanie may have to go back into the classroom. Both of these women were assigned their

roles last minute, merely weeks before we went into distance learning and for a specific time

period. Since we aren’t sure how school will look once we are back full time, Kathy and

Stephanie aren’t sure what their roles will be, which will depend greatly on how much of the new

technology we keep when we return to school. When I talked with them about the challenges of

their job the unknown was on both of their minds. However when I spoke with Andrew about the

challenges of his job he said it was getting people to understand that reaching out to him for

help should not be seen as “bothering him”. He said when he is working with teachers they are

quick to apologize for bothering him and he explains that’s his job and even if he can’t get to

something right when we ask he will and it’s really no bother.

Working in the IT field, always appears to be a fast paced environment with constant

change, which seems to have only increased during the pandemic. Despite the satisfaction that
all three interviewees received from working in IT in the education field, there are many hurdles

and uncertainties to overcome, including limited budgets, changing technology, and varying

needs for the numerous staff at the different levels. All three are ready to adapt to the changing

needs and technology, but understand in the end, they might still have to change to new

industries or return to the classroom.