Technology Site Interviews ~ Henry County Schools

During my field interviews, I had the opportunity to explore two media center specialists and one instructional
technology specialist within the Henry County Schools School District. I had the privilege of interviewing my
field supervisor, Ms. Kimberly McDonald (HFES Media Specialist), Donna Scoggins (LHS Media Specialist),
and Ann Armstrong (HCS District Instructional Technology Specialist). We are the eighth largest public school
system in Georgia, serving around 42,000 students K-12 in Atlanta’s south metro area. Henry County has 28
elementary schools, 12 middle schools, 12 high schools, and the district central office building. Due to budget
cuts and department consolidations four years ago, we have instructional technology coordinators at the
district level, but not in each local school. Currently, the county has five Instructional Technology Specialist –
three for the elementary schools, one for all middle schools, and one for all high schools. During each
interview, a common theme was that all schools needed more personnel at the school level to meet all
students, teachers, and parents’ demands.

Each individual I interviewed had a range of titles, responsibilities, and degrees ranging from a bachelor’s to a
master’s degree. The question of job responsibilities was overwhelming when I interviewed each individual.
The media specialist and instructional technology specialist positions have a wide range of responsibilities that
differs between every school and every day looks different. Our instructional technology specialist runs
everything from implementing Learning Management systems, approve requested software to be unblocked,
professional development sessions for teachers and administrators, troubleshoot technology issues, create
weekly tech newsletters, etc. Ann is in charge of all 12 of the district’s middle schools to support instructional
technology. The responsibilities of both media specialists widely differed. Ms. McDonald is responsible for
teaching a connections course to all elementary school students, which was the primary chunk of her daily
responsibilities. Ms. Scoggins, on the other hand, does some specific lessons at the beginning of the year for
research strategies and using the systems, but otherwise is all over the place for her daily responsibilities.
These can range from helping students find research material, decorating and preparing for a school event,
leadership meetings, calling parents of failing students, and watching over classes for the academy of
advanced studies. Consistent across both schools was that the paraprofessional handles most of the library’s
operations of checking books in and out, shelving books, etc.

Each of the interviewees’ favorite part of the job is when they help someone, whether a teacher or student. Every day is
filled with different job responsibilities and opportunities to serve others in so many different capacities. However, all
agreed that this was sometimes the hardest thing to find time for in the day-to-day rush. The challenges of the interviews
were different for each level Ms. McDonald struggles with the tedious tasks of weeding and managing inventory. Ms.
Scoggins and Ms. Armstrong both find the biggest challenge is time management in finishing the myriad of tasks they
juggle and answering emails.

All individuals have a different responsibility for the budget. Ms. Armstrong’s department has a budget and is generally
geared towards conference admissions fees and software like Canvas to do the county’s weekly tech newsletters. Ms.
Scoggins has a small official budget to buy resources and supplements this with library fees and recycling ink toner.
However, she gives her principal a wish list at the end of every year, and many things are purchased from it with excess
school funds in the budget. Ms. McDonald’s budget is pretty straightforward in that she only gets a set amount each year,
and she adds to it with the scholastic book fair and library feeds.

The opportunity to impact technology implementation throughout the district and schools has been a common theme of
the county, especially in response to COVID. There was a Chromebook rollout four years ago for all students to have
equitable access to technology. This was immensely helpful when our county decided to go fully remote in March 2019.
Since the rollout, incorporating technology in the classroom in a meaningful way has been a big priority for Henry
County. This is evident from all three interviews doing different things to help teachers. Ms. Scoggins helped get all of the
equipment needed, such as webcams and microphones. Ms. McDonald helped find online resources for lessons for
teachers. Ms. Armstrong has done professional development all across the county to help teachers learn different software
platforms and implement them in the classroom. All three were also agreed that a lot of people have a misconception
about what their job is, and personal effort has to be made to reach out to teachers to see them as a resource. With the
instructional technology specialist only at the district level and the media specialist overwhelmed already with other
duties, both only get to plan with teachers sparsely. All agreed that more instructional technology specialists should be at a
school level or have more help in the media center to help teachers and students more than they already do.