{"id":2655,"date":"2015-01-13T12:05:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T17:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=2655"},"modified":"2016-05-24T16:37:36","modified_gmt":"2016-05-24T20:37:36","slug":"a-little-bit-of-everything-in-schools-i-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2015\/01\/13\/a-little-bit-of-everything-in-schools-i-t\/","title":{"rendered":"A little bit of everything in schools’ I.T."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Craig<\/a>

Craig Shoemaker ’78 is responsible for the functioning of the computer systems in two schools in Harrisonburg.<\/p><\/div>\n

If a computer glitch <\/span>threatens to derail something like a state-required proficiency test at Harrisonburg (Virginia) High School, Craig Shoemaker<\/b>\u2019s phone <\/b>is bound to start ringing.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Teachers] get anxious,\u201d he said, chuckling. \u201cI\u2019m the one they try to get a hold of.\u201d<\/p>\n

A computer resource technician with Harrisonburg City Public Schools, Shoemaker (\u201978) likens his job during the school year to firefighting, swooping in to sort things out whenever someone can\u2019t log into their computer or get their projector to behave. Shoemaker is responsible for one high school and one middle school in the city \u2013 though these days, he\u2019s able to fix lots of problems remotely without leaving his office.<\/p>\n

During the summers and other calmer times, Shoemaker also keeps the schools\u2019 computers and other devices, like iPads, up-to-date and in good working order.<\/p>\n

In neighboring Rockingham County Public Schools, Obe Hostetter \u201900<\/b> has a slightly different role as an instructional technology resource teacher. Though he also gets involved in technological troubleshooting, he visits all the division\u2019s 24 schools to train teachers on how to better use technology in their classrooms, and sometimes co-teaches technology-enhanced lessons with them. A recent example: teaching a kindergarten class how to scan QR codes with iPads.<\/p>\n

\"Andre<\/a>

Andre Hertzler ’92, Ben Brunk ’97, Obe Hostetter \u201900<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI enjoy the teaching part, seeing the kids getting excited [about technology],\u201d said Hostetter, who spent his first five years after college teaching elementary and middle school before going down the technology path.<\/p>\n

One of the tricky technology-related issues that comes up in school settings is the fact that after Hostetter\u2019s lesson on QR codes, those kindergartners may well be more adept at using them than many of their teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not as comfortable, because they have not grown up with it,\u201d says Shoemaker, of teachers who began their careers before computers had so thoroughly infiltrated education.<\/p>\n

While younger teachers, as a rule, don\u2019t tend to be as intimidated by technology, there\u2019s a flipside. Doug Moyer \u201991<\/b>, a systems technician for the Warren County (Virginia) Public Schools, tells of a young teacher whose Smart Board went out of service and was thrown into a tizzy by the prospect of resorting to primitive substitutes like the markerboard.<\/p>\n

Moyer and Shoemaker both spent some time in the business world before getting into school technology, and both say they enjoy the general lower-pressure school atmosphere. Computer emergencies happen both places, but the stress and aggravation just usually aren\u2019t as great in education.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has its moments of intensity, but it\u2019s not nearly as great, and I appreciate that part of it,\u201d said Shoemaker.<\/p>\n

Mike Stoltzfus \u201998<\/b> also began his IT career in private business, beginning with CMDS (now Jenzabar; see story p. 15) after graduating with a computer information systems degree. He then spent several years handling IT for Harman Construction, a company that has worked on numerous projects at EMU over the years, including the ongoing renovations of the Suter Science Center. While he worked for Harman, Stoltzfus also ran his own web hosting business on the side. One of his clients was Eastern Mennonite School (EMS), which created a full-time IT position and hired Stoltzfus to fill it in <\/b>2008.<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/a>

Mike Stoltzfus ’98 moved from the business sector to Eastern Mennonite School in 2008.<\/p><\/div>\n

With just under 400 students in grades K-12, the school\u2019s IT needs are modest enough that Stoltzfus handles most technology-related issues (Andrew Gascho \u201909<\/b> assists him, and teaches digital communication classes at EMS). Those range from systems maintenance to troubleshooting to repairs to keeping up with the rapidly changing digital world by planning things like a Chromebook-for-every-student initiative that the school is exploring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that really attracts me about working at a place where there isn\u2019t a huge technology infrastructure,\u201d Stoltzfus said. \u201cI can be involved in all those different things\u2026. I enjoy seeing the whole picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Since starting at EMS, Stoltzfus\u2019s job has expanded well beyond that whole IT picture; now the director of business affairs, he also oversees school finances and a few other operational matters.)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s never a time when there\u2019s not something new to check out. With a relatively tight budget to be conscious of, for example, Stoltzfus has been exploring opportunities offered by open source software.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy learning new things. That\u2019s one thing that I\u2019ve always enjoyed about technology \u2013 it\u2019s always changing,\u201d said Stoltzfus, who majored in computer information systems. \u201cAs you learn about things, you realize more and more how much you don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Stoltzfus, Jon Harder \u201982<\/b> also works as a technology generalist for a small school system, handling \u201cpretty much anything to do with technology\u201d for Mountain Lake (Minnesota) Public Schools.<\/p>\n

In addition to all the usual school troubleshooting and software updating, Harder has been able to put his programming background to good use as the schools\u2019 technology coordinator. When a need was identified for a computer-based method for staff to reserve rooms or vehicles to use, Harder couldn\u2019t find existing software that fit the bill. Instead, he created his own web-based application that\u2019s now in use. It\u2019s the kind of thing that\u2019s kept the job interesting for the past 14 years (prior to which, he was a software engineer in the Twin Cities).<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I\u2019m a real problem solver,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always fulfilling to run into new challenges and figure out how to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Harder was at EMU, tinkering with the mainframe computer that used to be in the old Administration Building or the few really early Apples that belonged to the Psychology Department, he had no clue that computers were going to become such a thing. The Internet as it exists now wasn\u2019t something anyone could conceive of.<\/p>\n

That makes it hard to hazard a guess as to what sorts of technologies people like him will be troubleshooting in schools in decades to come. Fewer keyboards and more spoken commands, he suspects.<\/p>\n

Hostetter concurs on the voice-interfacing thing. 3-D printers are coming, too. Maybe \u201cwearables\u201d like Google Glass will make their way into classrooms eventually. Whatever it is, it\u2019s bound to be something that seems hard to imagine right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is pretty amazing what all we can do now that just a couple years ago wasn\u2019t possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If a computer glitch threatens to derail something like a state-required proficiency test at Harrisonburg (Virginia) High School, Craig Shoemaker\u2019s phone is bound to start ringing. \u201c[Teachers] get anxious,\u201d he said, chuckling. \u201cI\u2019m the one they try to get a hold of.\u201d A computer resource technician with Harrisonburg City Public Schools, Shoemaker (\u201978) likens his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":2656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[466,6],"tags":[512,505,508,510,649,767,513,511,509,793],"class_list":["post-2655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fallwinter-2014-15","category-magazine","tag-andrew-gascho","tag-computer-science","tag-craig-shoemaker","tag-doug-moyer","tag-education","tag-information-technology","tag-jon-harder","tag-mike-stoltzfus","tag-obe-hostetter","tag-public-schools","issues-fallwinter-2014-15"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2655"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2660,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655\/revisions\/2660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}