The Hat Box

The position of Educational Technologist is not an easy one to define. Wikipedia offers the oh-so-helpful definition that "An educational technologist is someone who is trained in the field of educational technology." How insightful! A definition like that is probably more helpful when the area of expertise has more concretely defined parameters. For example, What's a firefighter? A firefighter is a person who fights fires. Well, that's a fair definition because I know (or at least have a general idea of) what that means. I know what a fire is and I have a reasonable understanding of what it means to fight a fire. However, when the field of educational technology is best defined by change, using the term to explain the job of an educational technologist is not terribly helpful.

The best place to find out what is expected from an Ed Tech on the job is to check out a job posting. In reality, each Ed Tech position is going to be different from the next because the needs of each school/division/corporation are going to depend of their current level of technology integration and their vision for future integration. After perusing several job postings available on line (and there are a lot of them!), there seems to be at least some common ground in each post. Regardless of what audience is involved (elementary/high school, post-secondary, etc.), the basic must-haves of the position seem to be the same.

As a side note: There were corporate listings available on many sites under the heading of Educational Technologist, but I'm going to stick with the education setting for now. We'll touch on the corporate possibilities of the position later on.

Educational Technologists are expected to:

• Work with teachers to implement technology into the curriculum.
  
• Arrange and/or provide teachers/staff/students with technology training and professional development.
  
• Recommend and/or purchase software, hardware, and other resources.
  
• Identify trends in technology that supplement curriculum and teaching strategies.
  
• Maintain/Oversee the technology integration plan of the school/division.
  
• Create/Collect learning resources for teachers, staff, and students.
  
• Evaluate new and existing programs and strategies being used to integrate technology.
  
• Maintain resources and equipment
  
• Troubleshoot software/hardware issues on site
  
• Provide input/insight on ways to increase teachers' use of technology
  

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Quite the diverse list of duties, non? And that's just the tip of the iceberg; many jobs will require additional responsibilities! Also, bear in mind that each of those duties comes with its own list of more specific expectations. However, this list definitely gives a starting point for filling our hat box. Over the next 5 weeks, we'll take a closer look at each of these responsibilities and what hats are required to fulfill them. In the end, we should have a hat box twice as diverse as Mr. Dressup's tickle trunk!