Shanice Solomon

Interview of Technology Coordinator #3

FRIT 7739
Spring 2022

Interviewee: Whitney Jones, District Technology Coach for Savannah-Chatham County School
System

Solomon: All right. Good afternoon. I didn't freeze on you, did I?

Jones: No, slightly. You're kind of frozen. I think you're going to unfreeze soon. I hear
your voice. Just not…

Solomon: Just not me moving.

Jones: Yeah.

Solomon: Okay, because that's what I see, pretty much. This interview is just to kind of
get an idea of what technology leaders do, how they help others in their position. So first
question here is the name of the technology leader being interviewed, which is…

Jones: My name is Whitney Jones.

Solomon: Okay. And your title?

Jones: I'm an educational technology coach.

Solomon: Okay. All right. So what type of degree is required for your position?

Jones: You would need a degree in instructional technology. I have my EdS, but you
can also have a master's.

Solomon: Okay. What are just a few of your job responsibilities?

Jones:Oh, So many of them. [Laughs] I'm just trying to think… basically we train and
we also create the resources to train, and that can vary from videos, to how to guides,
to infographics, to creating course modules for them to go through it, to creating a whole
lot of things that support what you're teaching them to know how to use.
Solomon: Got you. All right. Does your role as a coach help meet the needs of faculty
and staff in the district? Whenever there was a transition to remote learning.

Jones: I came in the middle, right before the pandemic hit. So our Department was very
crucial with getting the teachers prepared for virtual learning because a lot of them were
kind of resistant prior to everything happening. And so we basically showed them how
to use the LMS, which is Its Learning. We were also supporting them with Google
Classroom, just really just helping them know how to facilitate learning online with their
students. So we help them with all of that, with creating the courses, creating the
resources and the assignments that go into courses.

Solomon: Okay. So you're in a lot in a short amount of time to kind of get done.

Jones: Yeah. So we kind of did like a weekly session with them. We talked about new
tech tool or showed them some things that they can use to practice on and apply for
that day. We also did individual one on one training. People can book time with us if
they need more assistance.

Solomon: Okay. Have you had to do that this year at all as far as assisting? Okay.

Jones: Yeah. So that didn't go away at all. It heightened during the pandemic, but I
think that people feel like it's more of a necessity now, for sure, especially with a hybrid
and dual teaching, because that's still a thing, too.

Solomon: Okay. All right. And I think that you might have answered part of this: It says,
how are you meeting the remote learning needs of students and parents? So, on the
student side of it.

Jones: From the student side of it, I don't really touch that. I'm more so with the
teachers. And my program manager made it very clear that we work with the
administrators, the teachers, the LMTSs, everyone that's involved, but we don't deal
directly with the teachers. We have the media specialists that make contact with the
students,I'm sorry. They deal with the students and we handle the teachers, but I do
work with the parents, but that's outside of my job here. I also work as a technology
coach for Parent University, which is connected to the district a little bit. So that's how I
work with them. And I also try to meet with some of the liaisons and facilitators in
between the schools and reach out to them and say, hey, do the parents need training
on this platform? Et cetera, et cetera.

Solomon: Okay. I guess I hadn't thought of who they kind of pull for Parent University
to help parents with all of that, because I know they have questions out of the Ying
Yang for lack of a better term. Like, “I don’t know what that is!”.
Jones: For sure, and I was just reaching out to say, hey, I'm getting a lot of Parent
facilitators wanting to have me host that It’s Learning training. It's really hard because
some schools don't have them, and some schools do. What’s another way that I can
help the parents know how to navigate this online learning, too? And then I ran into
Parent University, and I love what they stood for. And so I began working with them.

Solomon: Cool. Okay, so what are typical daily activities, something you do every
single day or throughout the day?

Jones: Every day? Every single day, I interact with all stakeholders, and I make sure
that I have to stay available to the extent. I'm troubleshooting issues with the platforms
that we manage. I'm also always creating a resource, if not doing research on the
resource, before we deliver it. So it's always creating. You're always researching. You're
always communicating with stakeholders. That's probably something every day. And
most likely, you're always training. So you're either training individually or whole-group
almost every day.

Solomon: Okay. So for your position, do you have a budget that you can control?

Jones: No, because we don't have a budget in our department.

Solomon: Okay.

Jones: We don't have it, but we do show the teachers how to write grants and things
like that.

Solomon: Okay. Because I think the second part says, how do you make decisions on
selecting resources for your stakeholders?

Jones: It depends. Most of the time, our stakeholders come to us with things they
already purchased, things that they already want to implement in their schools, and then
we just support them with the instructional side of that.
Solomon: Okay.

Jones: They do all the vetting, and then they come to us and say, hey, we brought this.
Can you show our teachers?

Solomon: Got you. Do they actually sometimes kind of consult you at some point?
Jones: They consult us, but it's a whole process. They have to see if the director
approves it. They have to see if they are approved to get it from financing. So they do
reach out and say, hey, what do you feel is the best program for this, and then we'll do
the research and we compare and we let them know. But they can always choose
whatever they like, of course.

Solomon: Got you. Okay. Have you had an opportunity to impact technology
implementation within the school system?

Jones: Yes. Everything that's implemented right now has been through myself or if my
colleague has some ideas for her schools. But everything in the Department is very,
your own idea. My program manager is super new, but the one before that was she was
a veteran, but they still kind of let you hit the ball like you make up what your schedule is
going to be. You make up the trainings, you have the ideas, but it's also according to
what the schools want to offer as well, too. But once you see what they want, you can
kind of create what kind of tools you implement in their sites.

Solomon: Okay. So this question I don't think you would be able to necessarily answer,
but I'll probably replace school with district. Does your district have a technology
committee?

Jones: I really wish they did. We do have something of the sort where we have the
Nearpod coaches. We have them kind of filtering through, where we teach them
something about Nearpod, and then they go into their schools and they implement it. I
do have a community of my Google certified educators that came from the district as
well, underneath my program, but that's about it in regards to technology.

Solomon: But not like a centralized one for the district?

Jones: I mean, we do. The Nearpod one is centralized.

Solomon: Okay.

Jones: Because we had their names and they came to us. They were recommended
from their principals to join us so that they can deploy Nearpod at their school and we
trained them on it. But it varies for every device, though, or every platform.

Solomon:Got you. And I attended the Camp Engage this past weekend with Nearpod.

Jones: Oh, nice.

Solomon: Yeah. As much as I could have without because everything was virtual. I
wish it was in person, but it was nice. And I'm glad that they recorded a lot of the
sessions, too, so I can look back at it as well.

Jones: Uh huh.

Solomon: All right. How are technology decisions made? I think you kind of answered
that earlier. That's based on the schools?

Jones: Slightly. It depends on what technology you're asking about. If you're asking
about software, it's up to the schools, even hardware, too. We can give them as many
recommendations as we want to, but our district is very lax, it allows the principal to
make a lot of major decisions unless it's something that they really need to implement.
Like we have an Apple program here that's at certain schools. And so those schools
have to have Apple devices. They have to have Apple trainings, and then it really varies
by school. We don't even have the same devices at all the schools.

Solomon: Got you. So I know some schools, um of course, with the elementary
schools, they have both, maybe Chromebooks and iPads with the younger kids.

Jones: Right. But they can have both at one school. Like, they can have some from K-
2, and then they have from 3-5, they'll have Chromebooks.

Solomon: Right. But anything major that could affect the entire district and that would
have to come from downtown, I guess?

Jones: That usually is pushed down to us. And most of the time, those major programs
are purchased through data and accountability or either CNI, like the bigger umbrella of
things. They pay for them, and then they let us push the initiative.

Solomon: Okay. All right, so what is the best part of your job?

Jones: I'm a big nerd, so I really enjoy looking up resources or attending conferences
and learning new things and then coming back and applying it. I just love finding out
new ways to be more efficient in the classroom and then coming back and showing the
teacher. So I guess training and research is my thing. I love those two things.
Solomon: Because, I mean, it's always something new out there. I guess the way that
we had to kind of push forward with the pandemic as far as virtual learning, so many
different programs that I've used in the past have added so many different things, and
it's constant updates to a lot of those things, too.

Jones: Yeah. But with that being said, even though I like to find new tools, I do like to
always circle back to the old ones and say, hey, you can do this on that one and just
reinforce it because I know it's really hard for teachers to say it's another gadget. It's
another one out now?

Solomon: Right? Yeah.

Jones: Yeah. So I just try to be mindful of that. When I am finding new tools, I try to
make sure I incorporate what they are used to. Like we had Its Learning. If you were in
a department or in our district then, we had Its Learning, but I always referred back to
Google Classroom when I was training because I knew that's what they were
accustomed to using.

Solomon: Right. Okay, what do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?

Jones: Well, I think mine is more so a period-based, because the most challenging
thing on my job is that I can't really see how the teachers are implementing it right now
because of the Covid. They're not letting us in the building as much. I can't really see. I
can't get an eye or a viewpoint of what the classroom looks like in our school district at
the moment. And I think even when we come back, I really won't get a good gauge of it.
So it's kind of hard with me just taking it from the admin view of what they're saying that
teachers need what I rather would honestly seek feedback from the teachers and see
what they would like.

Solomon: Yeah.

Jones: I missed not being at, like, a home. I feel like being at a home school is easier to
get to know all your teachers versus being over 60 schools.

Solomon: That's a lot.

Jones: Yeah. And I only remember the ones that always come to the meetings or
there's something funny. I want to be able to know them all personally, but I know that's
probably impossible.
Solomon: Yeah, I mean the district is not very small so it's hard to kind of get to
everybody that way for sure. If you have to do a Zoom or something, you have to
probably do like the webinar version because that would be on, so it just depends.

Solomon: So the last question that I have is, is there any advice for anyone coming into
this field of instructional technology that you have?

Jones: Embrace your green. Embrace being new because a lot of people are going to
come in or already have ideas that they're used to or accustomed to doing. And I feel
like a new pair of eyes can always add more to a department. So embrace you not
being aware of what's going on. And then that's good sometimes because you don't
want to get caught up in what happened before. You want to be a part of the future. So
like I said, embrace the green. Keep trying. Do your own personal development. That's
huge! Like, you are training teachers every day to be better teachers, so you want to
make sure that you too, are informed and a part of a technology community and always
keeping yourself abreast of all technologies that are coming out.

Solomon: Got you. Okay. That is all that I have for you. Did you have any questions for
me?

Jones: No. I just want you to have a good time and enjoy your program and take all the
knowledge that you learned there, because it's definitely going to be used when you get
into a position as a tech coach.

Solomon: Right. I think with the visits that I've been having to do I’m kind of like, whoa!
but at the same time, like, okay, I know this can work. And then I feel like I'll still enjoy
what I'm doing because it'll be a lot different from teaching in the classroom, for sure.
But I'm excited. I'm very excited about this new path.

Jones: Good. Adults are a little bit different, but it's still rewarding. When you see that
light bulb off in their heads, you're like, oh, I get it. You're like, yeah, I taught them
something new.

Solomon: Right. All right. Well, I thank you for joining me. I'm very appreciative of you
taking your time out of your day, along with the nice little drill in the background, to
speak with me today. I really appreciate it.

Jones: My pleasure. And let me know if you need anything else from me.

Solomon: Will do. Thank you so much!

Jones: All right. Take care.

Solomon: You too.