Professional Interview #2 (Kelly)

As I have mentioned in past posts, each month we apprentices meet with a member of the IT leadership at our institutions with the goal of better understanding that individual’s roles, responsibilities, issues, perspectives, etc. and how that all relates to the IT department as a whole.  This month, I met with Kelly, the Director of Operations and Technical Support here at HWS and thought I would share some of what I learned from her with other members of the ITAP community (and anyone else who is interested!)

To begin with, Kelly’s position deals primarily with what she calls “customer-facing teams”: the teams within IT that service and interact directly with students, faculty, and staff (Interesting Note: Print Services and the Post Office are both part of IT at HWS, which is not common at most schools; both teams are included in those that make up Kelly’s role). Therefore, while these teams make up only one part of IT, they are essentially the “face” of IT here at HWS because they are the ones that individuals are seeing and interacting with.

“Who do we want to be?”
When asked what she thought was the most important goal for HWS, Kelly stated that it is answering this question. For those of you from (or familiar with) HWS, you already know this, but for those of you that are not familiar with the colleges, relationships and community are both very large aspects of the culture here and Kelly addressed that in her response. In terms of the inevitable correlation between relationships and technology, Kelly raised the question of how we, as a community, can stay “current” in terms of technology and innovation, yet remain true to the core value of maintaining relationships?

Simple answer: “Technology needs to be an enabler.” In other words, both the actual technology itself (i.e. software or tools) needs to genuinely assist these relationships rather than harm them in any way, it is just as important that students, faculty, and staff recognize and appreciate technology as something beneficial rather than merely a “change” (which is often terrifying to most people).

My takeaway: this is one of the topics of the conversations that I have been having that has allowed me, and I would imagine most of the other apprentices as well, to recognize the true significance of technology beyond merely being “technology” in and of itself; technology plays a very large role in the functions and relationships within our every day lives and, of course, that is no different on college campuses. Therefore, decisions involving technology and the use of technology (where to improve and where to draw the line) are much larger than many people may acknowledge! I mean, where would we be now if past leaders at institutions had made the decision NOT to purchase and make computers available to students on their campuses ….?

"Standardization" 

Another note that I found interesting and wanted to share is Kelly’s belief that there needs to be some sort of “standardization” on certain types of technology in the near future in order for IT services to continue to grow. 

My Opinion (emphasis on MY since these are my own thoughts and opinions and they do not directly reflect Kelly's opinions/response!) : I completely agree and have seen, first hand, the difficulties that arise from having SO many platforms and types of technology being used on this campus. While technological autonomy is a great feature of the modern age, I do not think that it is realistic to expect each and every IT department in each and every school, business, etc., to be experts at each and every form of technology utilized by each and every member of their institution; there's just too much! In my opinion, at some point there needs to be a clear and defined limit to what any IT department (this applies to anywhere, not just here at HWS) can realistically support! Therefore, I believe that there needs to be specific criteria set by HWS IT that needs to be met before they are willing to assist individuals (i.e. platform type or software version, etc) and, further, that HWS IT needs to become completely comfortable saying "no" and/or referring individuals who need assistance with that which is not included in their proclaimed area of support to other resources beyond themselves. Both of these properties would allow for HWS IT departments to be better able to assist with problems (that fall within their expertise) in that they would be better skilled in those specific forms of technology and that it would involve less time dealing with "random" issues that are time-consuming merely because they do not fall within the specific area of expertise  --> My question, though, is how would these lines be drawn? And, even more important, could an institution like HWS successfully implement a strict protocol when, after all, community and relationships are such large parts of the culture; in other words, how would HWS IT say "no" to someone who needs help?….

So, I’ve only addressed two points from the interview I had with Kelly but, as you can see, it was a very beneficial and thought-provoking discussion (I could go on forever)! Please feel free to respond to or comment on any of the topics I've addressed. I’d be interested to hear some of your feedback!

Until next time,

Megan

My Next Post: An interview with a professor about the relationship between her use of technology in the classroom and pedagogy.