A Day in the Life of a Instructional Technology Consultant

/ curtisbourassa

My Technology-Infused Traditional COVID-19  Day

My day with technology has altered a fair bit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  This is how I interact with technology for most of my day.  Since I am working from home my day often starts with touching base with my colleagues on Microsoft Teams.  It operates as our virtual staff room.  I then meet with my coordinator and the other two instructional technology consultants and we make a plan for the day to help support teachers with supplemental learning.  Being a Microsoft based school division we use the Microsoft 365 online suite that contains the traditional Word, PowerPoint, Excel, but also more unknown tools such as Stream, Sway, and Forms.   Often I will have tasks such as developing a guide for teachers to follow or creating a quick video that teachers can refer to regarding a certain app or feature that our division is promoting, all while searching and looking at teacher’s needs and wants.  We have to be proactive in our planning to support teachers at this time.  Part of my job is responding to the teacher’s specific needs.  I also field a lot of questions and support requests from teachers that are looking for support with Microsoft Teams and how to best implement the program with their students.  We are also currently looking ahead to the next school year and beginning to prepare our end of year technology responsibilities to continue in the fall.

Currently, our school division has rolled out online Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).  These areas provide our teachers an hour a week to meet together and discuss, and collaborate in any way that they need.  These areas are a great way for our teachers to connect with one another as many of them do not get the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers.  Hopefully, the ability to connect with others continues after COVID-19 ends.

My Technology-Infused Traditional Non-COVID-19  Day

Prior to COVID-19 my days would consist of me going to schools and working with teachers, and infusing technology in what the teachers are already doing in their classroom.  This is how I would imagine that people would think about my job.

Our Instructional Technology Team follows the ISTE standards when we are working with teachers both during the pandemic and prior to the pandemic.  These standards are:

Each one of these outcomes features a video series for each one of the outcomes and each learning goals. We try hard to use these standards and curriculum standards as the foundation for all the lessons that we use with teachers.  More in-depth, I often do a lot of coding with students, through Hour of Code, and Scratch.  We are also diving into robotics specifically with the Micro:Bits, Spheros, mBots, Makey Makeys, and Ozobots.  Teachers will request that I come out to their classrooms and ask that I support them in these areas using these tools. Part of my everyday job is to also support and help troubleshoot with teachers during reporting times.

How do I use Technology Personally?

Personally, I use technology to connect with friends, whether it be by connecting through gaming with them.  I also use many different social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.  For professional growth, I use Twitter as my main platform.  I enjoy developing my personal learning network (PLN), connecting with other educators, and participating in Twitter chats.

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Amanda Brace posted on Twitter asking how many apps people have been using since the start of the workday.  I decided to make a list of all the apps that  I used on a daily basis.  I am sure there is more, but I tried to write them down as I was using them.  My grand total was 26 different applications that I have accessed in the past 8 hours.

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My screentime has definitely gone up over the past 7 weeks, but these times have provided me to grow as an educator by participating in webinars and connecting with others.  Hopefully this connection continues after COVID-19.

8 thoughts on “A Day in the Life of a Instructional Technology Consultant”

  2. Curtis, love the graphic showing the various perceptions of your job. I’m sure you are doing great work supporting teachers in your school division. I hadn’t explored Teams until this moment of supplementary learning. I have really enjoyed the experience so far and has provide tremendous value to my students during this period.

    Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Hey my friend, loved your blog post here. I hope we can work together on this stuff soon, seeing as I just changed to this position in my division. Lol, let’s get em!

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  4. Thanks for sharing inside specially from a different point of view as a technology instructional coach consultant. You definitely have such a great skill set and I’ve always see you trying to great better so you can help better serve the people in your schools. I used to be a tech coach / consultant too so I totally get your graphic on the different perspectives on what you do. Glad you included the ISTE standards as part of this conversation as they are very important to consider. I hope teachers stay connected to PLNs as we move forward as well … better together.

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  5. What a cool perspective of someone that was supporting teachers prior to this pandemic, and how that role has increased greatly since we have taken a break from traditional school. I think your role is critical at the best of times as you provide tools and support to help teachers use technology to enhance and deepen their lessons and assist in student learning. However, add in that 100% of your teachers are offering their lessons online and I can only imagine what your inbox looks like! I know at the school I work at there was a spectrum of comfort level from each and every teacher when we found out that we were teaching remotely. I’d expect your questions range from how to upload an assignment onto OneDrive, to more complex tech questions. I wonder if you have taken statistics or noticed a trend of who is asking the questions and what kind of questions are being asked? Who is asking for support and how that has shifted since March? Would be interested to compare the two worlds before and after March 20th. Thank you for shedding light on the perspective of those who are supporting teachers as we move forward!

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  6. Curtis – I have to say the I.T. team is AMAZING. I know many staff are following the Tech Team and are inspired. We have a few staff members that are always bringing back new tips and tricks learned from you! So thank you so much for all you do and reading your blog just reaffirmed for me how great a job you are doing in these challenging times.

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  7. I don’t have much more to add that hasn’t already been said. I love the graphic, which Trevor said already. Dean pointed out the ISTE standards.

    I just think it’s a great opportunity to be in a class with you, who may have a totally different perspective than a classroom teacher. I need to do a better job moving forward by using Twitter more as a professional development tool.

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  8. Thank you for sharing a day in your life. It is nice to read and learn from your perspective. I never knew exactly what you did as an instructional technology consultant as this is a role we don’t have in our division. I definitely see your value, especially in this time. I am sure the teachers you support are very thankful to have you! I know many of my colleagues and I would benefit from having an expert to reach out to!

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