FRIT 7739: Practicum in Instructional Technology

Narrative of Interviews

Katie Cowart

Throughout the practicum course FRIT 7739, I have been able to interact and observe

three technology leaders among two different school districts. Neither of these school districts

have designated Instructional Technology Coaches, so the media specialists at two schools –

Emanuel County Institute and South Tattnall Middle School – served as the technology leaders

along with the Instructional Technology Director at Tattnall County Board of Education. Each of

these people are designated with the task of technology integration with instruction at their

designated workplaces. I had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Molly Pollock, media specialist

at Emanuel County Institute (ECI); Mrs. Teresa Thompson, media specialist at South Tattnall

Middle School (STMS); and Dr. Starla Barker, Instructional Technology Director at the Tattnall

County Board of Education (TCBOE). Each of these technology leaders represent various

education levels and years of experience in their positions.

Each interview had a range of responsibilities at their specific workplace. When speaking

with all three technology leaders, I noticed a commonality among each interview. None of the

schools/districts had designated Instructional Technology Coaches, which I expected, but they

also did not have designated technology committees for planning and executing much needed

technology programs used to integrate the particular technologies they subscribe to into the

classrooms. It seems there was a consensus that the role of technology leader fell under the role

of a media specialist. It was overwhelming when each listed their job descriptions and

responsibilities as each of the interviewees had a large list of duties. The two media specialists
interviewed were most astounding as they described having to juggle promoting literacy through

being the library media specialist while also being responsible for technology integration in the

classrooms and the ordering and maintenance of technological devices in the schools. No matter

the overwhelming number of responsibilities each of these women had, their love for their

careers and the students/teachers they get to help was very evident.

Mrs. Molly Pollock, media specialist at ECI, is my field experience supervisor. During

our interview, she mentioned how her responsibilities included updating the school’s website,

social media, and marquee board outside. She does this daily, and she also shares resources with

teachers that can be utilized in the classroom via e-mail. One of the most unique aspects of the

interview with Mrs. Pollock was her use of Google Classroom to keep in touch with all students.

She created a Google Classroom for the media center that allows her to send announcements to

students involving school and library news. She also creates and pushes out book trailers via her

Google Classroom for her students to watch. This is a great way to keep all students in the loop

even though she does not see each student daily.

I also had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Teresa Thompson, media specialist at STMS.

During our interview, she mentioned several platforms that she has been able to introduce to

teachers, including Lightbox. She also actively plays a role in integrating technology into

classrooms with her live Google Doc that she has sent out to all teachers for them to type in their

area of need and she can find resources for them to use. Mrs. Thompson also is the main contact

for Chromebook issues and repairs. Students are sent to her to troubleshoot potential issues as

well as to report damages to the Chromebooks themselves. She, too, keeps up with the school’s

website and updates it regularly along with running the social media accounts. When new

students are enrolled in the school, Mrs. Thompson has the responsibility of creating all
necessary accounts for them and ensuring they have all of the resources the rest of the students

have logins / access to.

My last interview was with Dr. Starla Barker, Instructional Technology Director at

TCBOE. This interview gave me more insight into the Instructional Technology Coach position

as she has a master’s degree in Instructional Technology, was a former teacher, media specialist,

administrator, and now holds a position at the county office as a director. She spoke of

purchasing software for the county to use and how she has contributed to the county’s

implementation with i-Ready district-wide. She also mentioned several aspects of the job that I

had not thought of, including the network and cyber security. Though she focuses more on the

instructional side, these two components are of upmost concern as you cannot function without

the network running properly and keeping students and their information safe should always be

at the forefront of our minds as educators. The district in which she is a director is in the process

of building two new elementary schools as replacements for two previously constructed schools.

It was interesting to see how much thought and planning has to go in to providing the

technological resources to run the school efficiently including the security systems, lunchroom

software, networking, student computers, teacher computers/interactive panels, etc.

Each of the technology specialists engage with technology in various ways. However, it

is very evident that each of these women are seen as leaders that students and educators alike in

the school systems they work for can come to them for help, whether it be a hardware or

software issue. Each system’s roles and responsibilities for their technology leaders were

different but had many overlapping qualities as well. The knowledge I gained from each of the

three interviews was very helpful and insightful.