Summary

As working professionals of corporate and educational America, it is never too late to gain insight

on other professionals and just to hear another perspective. Within the educational world, it's important to

always collaborate with each other so that your work becomes more and more effective with respect to

the mastery of student achievement. Our goal as educators is to always strive to do our best for them, our

students. Many of us extend our academic lives to ensure we are always learning and applying that

knowledge in the classroom or content area. I was able to hold intellectual conversations regarding

educational technology processes with several institutions and working professionals in different title

positions. At Westlake High School, I was able to talk to 2 device coordinators, the STS (School

Technology Specialist), and the METI, which means, Media Education and Technology Instructor. At

Sandtown Middle School, I was able to have a conversation with the METI and Device Coordiantor who

is the same person, Ms. Pass Cameron. I was unable to speak to the STS due to his absence. Lastly, at my

primary site, I was able to have a discussion with the STS and METI/Device Coordinator of the school

which is held by the same person, Ms. Ellis. Their perspectives held similarities that made sense to the

goal they wanted to achieve within their respective institutions while also providing a unique and

different experience for their students.

Similarities

Within the respective institutions, what I found to be the most interesting was that either the

METI served as the device coordinator or their respective METI paraprofessionals, served as the Device

Coordinator. The similarity between the positions was that the device coordinator job was identified as a

stipend position by the STS. They all said that it's just an extra title to throw on top of what you do

already, so in this case, it's the METI that holds that position or someone close to the METI like the

paraprofessional.

As far as job responsibilities they all identify similar tasks when it comes to the different

positions, the Randolph METI said, “ they are heavy on the library and technology aspects”(M. Ellis,

personal communication, January 30, 2022) which lines up with the rest of the METIs from Sandtown
and Westlake. When it comes to the title of being the device coordinator, they also identified similar

ideas. The Sandown device coordinator identified, “... make sure that technology um runs smoothly at

Sandtown middle school meaning that technology is available for all students that technology ummm

issues and device issues are taken care of and addressed on a daily manner” (S.Pass Cameron, personal

communication, March 30, 2022). The Westlake device coordinator responded with, “... prepare the plan

for device distribution and device collection”(J. Gladden, personal communication, March 24, 2022).

During an everyday schedule, they describe the daily activities as such, they identify the issue and

see if it is major or minor, if it is a minor issue they submit a ticket on the kiosk to be labeled on the

device for the STS to address, if it is major they send it to the technology hub building to be worked with.

(S. Pass Cameron, personal communication, March 30, 2022). This aligns with what the elementary and

high school device coordinators have expressed.

When it comes to meeting the needs of faculty and staff during remote learning and in general,

the Westlake METI stated, “There was a huge need for recorded videos of how to use the actual e-

resources because our students of the course, and the teachers were not in the building they were not able

to actually sit face-to-face so with that said teams became very useful…” (T. Forrest, personal

communication, March 24, 2022). This aligns with what the middle school and elementary school device

coordinators and METIs said as well because they often had to stay on campus to assist with devices and

troubleshoot if there was something going wrong. With the way these students treat their devices, I

absolutely agree with them because it was mindblowing to see the amount the breaks and cracks and

wiring pulled out with these Chromebooks and laptops on a daily basis when I would work with the

Randolph STS.

As opposed to the teachers and staff, the Randolph METI/device coordinator responded, “We

make sure the students have a device #1, we make sure it is working properly, umm, which also if the

child is not using it properly and bring it back damaged or a willful so, the parents are aware they will

have to pay a fine for the child, so they can eventually graduate from Fulton county system. But just

making them aware that it is a privilege to have these devices to use, but also we have to make sure we
are taking care of it.” (M. Ellis, personal communication, January 30, 2022). Working with parents and

students at home and in the best way possible to ensure the longevity of device life and financial

responsibilities is very important. In addition, the Sandtown and Westlake representative also said they

worked to help them understand how to work the device and its apps on Classlink.

Finally, when asked about the best parts of their titled responsibilities, they all stated that the

students make up a big part of that joy, and especially being able to interact with them on a day-to-day

basis gives them so much to be grateful for.

Differences

Although there were a lot of similarities that those respective representatives identified with,

there were some differences in thoughts in regards to several other topics as well. In generality, it is okay

to be different, due to the level of independence each school treats its students. I would expect more

dependence and catering to K-5 students than the high school students in respect to handling devices,

walking the halls, gaining access to the media center, and asking for assistance in different technical

issues.

Within every school, there are several committees, but sometimes those committees are open to

the school for open enrollment or they are not open at all and just don't exist. When it comes to the

technology committee, there were contrasting thoughts such as, “yes but not formally” (M. Ellis, personal

communication, January 30, 2022), the Sandtown Device coordinator responded with, “so informally yes

we do have a couple of students work along with the STS and myself to kind of troubleshoot and work

together on a committee”(S. Pass Cameron, personal communication, March 30, 2022) and the Westlake

device coordinator responded with, “no there is no technology committee”(J. Gladden, personal

communication, March 24, 2022). When there is a committee, you are able to coordinate thoughts and

really come to a decision on what needs to be done but if there was no formal committee that can be hard.

When there are technology issues, again the responses were contrasting, the Randolph device coordinator
stated, “the district”, the Sandtown device coordinator stated, “administrators or above administrations

depending on the type of decision” and the Westlake device coordinator responded with “those decisions

are made by the in-school tech and whoever is above him, for instance, Principal Adams”.

When it comes to the budget being discussed, certain items in the media center or on devices may

need to be repaired, updated, or even replaced. Most of the representatives said that they get a SPLOST

grant to spend on technology every year, the Westlake METI said they received $1000 and were given a

specific vendor to use as opposed to Amazon due to company ties. The Sandtown METI/device

Coordinator stated that there are several accounts under the media center and she works with STS to

identify which items will get discussed and how they account for it financially. Finally, the Randolph

METI/device coordinator stated that they don't have a budget but also received a SPLOST. So depending

on how the media center or the amount of responsibilities each school DC/METI has, indicates the

freedom to work with the budget a little bit more than others.

Although they were selected to be the device coordinators, they have had different struggles when

it came to the responsibilities and daily tasks they needed to complete. The Randolph METI/Device

Coordinator stated that the challenging part for her was just the kids not taking care of the devices like

they are supposed to (M. Ellis, personal communication, January 30, 2022). The Sandtown METI/Device

Coordinator stated that she found that time and balancing everything was difficult considering the number

of hallway duties she had and just trying to ensure to meet with everyone on top of device inspections (S.

Pass Cameron, personal communication, March 30, 2022). Finally, at Westlake High School, the METI

stated that acquiring the right materials for the students and staff is hard because of budget constraints. (T.

Forrest, personal communication, March 24, 2022). The device coordinator at Westlake stated that

credentials played a part because the district did not give him permission to fix issues he knows how to

fix because he knows that they know they would have to pay him for those duties. (J. Gladden, personal

communication, March 24, 2022).

 Reference

Dimick, P. (2022, April 2). A Philip Randolph ES METI/Device Coordinator Interview [Video]

Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiEkU-N8ziQ.

Dimick, P. (2022, April 2). Sandtown MS Interview (METI/Device Coordinator). [Video]

Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrWoLpNJ_bc.

Dimick, P. (2022, April 2). Westlake HS Device Coordinator Interview [Video]

Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7UWtiocoBg.

Dimick, P. (2022, April 2). Westlake HS METI Interview [Video]

Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rfQ56KiK_Q.