These days, technology in the schools is a big catch phrase when it comes to education innovation. Technology workers are needed to establish networks in schools and maintain them as well as to train school personnel, and students, in the latest technology. Are you looking for a new career away from the suit-and-tie corporate world? If you decide to look into schools, you may find a rewarding career, but be prepared!
Children today are required to learn PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Excel, and other programs as young as elementary school. That means that reliable and extensive networks must be set up within public and private schools of all sizes. Systems administrators are needed! Also, if you have a good aptitude for teaching, there could be other opportunities for you as well. Technology teachers are needed for teaching everything from simply typing to Auto CAD. The needs of schools are virtually endless when it comes to getting updated and staying on the cutting edge.
If you are interested in applying your knowledge of programming in a school environment, there is a lot to know. This new world of work will be nothing at all like the corporate environment you are used to. The world of children is one in which every item must be durable and technology breakdowns are common. Children are hard on equipment, so if your job is to repair computers and keep a system active, you will be busy all the time!
In addition, education personnel are not known for their computer aptitude. Many teachers and administrators know little about the world of computing and many more are downright luddites. Be prepared, because this attitude is prevalent! Teachers are all overworked and underpaid and simply do not have the time to sit and spend hours figuring out a program just because they are told it will benefit them in the long run. Teachers are mostly putting out daily fires in their jobs, so the long term, for them, seems way too far away.
As an IT worker in the schools, you will need to understand these various attitudes toward computers and simply take them in stride. You’ll need to remember that the combination of active growing children, their worried parents, overworked teachers, and overwhelmed administrators means that if computers don’t function at their best, emotions are liable to get frayed. Or, I should say, more frayed than usual. As a technology worker, it will be important for you to understand that the technological incompetence of many teachers and administrators is nothing less than your job security. Therefore, if you are a patient person who doesn’t mind guiding learners step by step through the process of utilizing various forms of technology, then many schools—both public and private—will be able and willing to hire you.
Schools are unpredictable and emotional places, where a myriad of issues come into play each and every day. If you long for an active, friendly environment like this, you’ll find schools to be basically as different from a corporate cubicle as they could possibly be. As an IT worker in the schools, you will also have the intense satisfaction of knowing that you are helping young people learn and build a better future every day.
