The article that follows is one of a series called EdTech Diary, published on a now-defunct website in 2008-9. I hope you find it useful, or at least interesting. Although it was written a long time ago, it's still relevant to some extent, even though I've updated it.
A few years ago I went to an educational technology conference. I didn't take a laptop, so the only time I could get online to do any blogging, realistically speaking, was when I managed to get a computer in the internet café the organisers had set up. That suited me perfectly fine, and I was very happy with what I managed to achieve.
This image was generated in Seeart AI using the prompt: create a photorealistic picture to illustrate the theme of 'expectations'.
This image was generated in Ideogram AI using the prompt: create a photorealistic picture to illustrate the theme of 'expectations'.
The next year, I attended the same educational conference. This time, I did take a laptop, but the only time I could get online, with just a few exceptions, was when I managed to get a computer in the internet café the organisers had set up. That did not suit me at all, and I was very unhappy at what little I was able to achieve.
Now, if you examine these two paragraphs carefully, you will notice that, objectively, very little had changed. So why did I come away from the second year's conference feeling frustrated and unhappy, whilst tghe previous year's conference had no such effect? I think the answer may be found in a single word: expectations. We (the prospective delegates) were informed that there would be wireless access throughout the venue for the duration of the conference. In reality, it was sometimes not possible to pick up the wireless network at all, whilst at other times it was pretty flaky. In the end I just gave up trying, and seethed whilst reading the Twitter back-channel chat which I was unable to take a full part in.
This little anecdote serves to illustrate something quite important I think. The way we feel about things is subjective. I know that that is a rather obvious statement, but I think it's worth saying. It may be that objectively I was no worse off the second year than I was the first year in terms of my conference connectivity, but I was expecting to be considerably better off because I went to the trouble of taking a laptop with me. Had I known that connectivity could have been an issue, I'd probably not have bothered taking the extra weight, and I'd have felt fine as a result.
Another thing to think about and which arises from this is that, given the fact that I, as a customer if you like (after all, I paid for the privilege of attending the conference), the only thing that matters to me is my personal experience, and the way I feel about it. It's no good telling me, as one of the organisers did, that most people did manage to get connected most of the time as far as they were aware. That's like going to a restaurant and being served a cold meal that was meant to be hot, and then being told that most people's meals were the right temperature. What would you do? Say "That's fine then, sorry to have bothered you!"?
The general point to glean from all this, of course, is that as technology co-ordinator you have a choice about whether you exceed people's expectations, in which case you delight them, or fail to live up to their expectations, in which case you disappoint them. If you agree with that conclusion, then the very first thing to would be to try to discover what people's expectations might be.
A good starting place is to think about what your own expectations might be. For myself, my expectations are, on the surface, quite simple. Taking the example of my visiting a school as, say, an inspector or trainer or visiting teacher, I expect to be able to do the following:
• Get connected to the internet easily and conveniently wherever I happen to be in the school. I don't care whether that's on a desktop, a laptop, a handheld device or my cell phone. I want to be able work efficiently, and that means being online. Period.
• Work at a computer. Again, I don't care what device I use as long as I can easily print from it and transfer files from it to my own computer or somebody else's.
• Print easily. It's not just to do with devices, which I've already mentioned, but whether the printer is available from the computer I'm using, whether it has paper or toner or ink in it, whether I have to find someone who can give me a code in order to get credits to be able to use it and so on.
• Arrange to use it with a class in the confident expectation that it won't die on me. We all know that technology has a tendency to go wrong, but I don't expect it to as a matter of course. Or at least I should not have to expect it to. If I do, that must be somebody else’s fault on some level.
In short, I want to be able to have as much access to technology when I'm in a school as what I enjoy in my own home. I don't think that is too much to ask, but maybe that's me. Your expectations may be lower, or at least different. But what that means for me is that, if I were an ed tech co-ordinator, I would not expect my colleagues to put up with a service which I personally regarded as inadequate. That's why, when I was an ed tech co-ordinator, I used all the odd bits of extra funding I managed to get hold of to buy new computers and printers for staff use before buying more stuff for the kids to use. I figured that, in order to get other teachers to want to use the technology, I had to make it enticing - and you can't do that with stuff that has seen better days and which is not as good as your own kids are using at home. Next, or alternatively, you could carry out a survey to find out what your colleagues expect of the technology and of you. But don't do that unless you're prepared to put the time and effort in to deliver what they want. Scary stuff!