MEMBER PROFILE
DataBus Chats with Ian
Byerrum
By Lisa Kopochinski, DataBus Editor
What are your responsibilities as technology coordinator for the Ackerman Charter School District? My job responsibilities cover just about everything technology related for my district. Ackerman is a small, single-school district in Auburn, about 30 miles northeast of Sacramento, and the technology staff includes myself and my part-time assistant. I regularly find myself changing job hats on an minute-to-minute basis, including I T support, EdTech coach, managing technology projects, developing tech plans and policies and many others. I also teach the robotics and computer science classes for our middle school students. Some days though, it feels like my responsibilities cover anything that plugs into an electrical socket. How long have you been in the computer industry? I’ve been working as the technology coordinator for the past six years. Before that, I was a middle school math teacher. What drew you to the industry? What do you like most about it? I grew up in a family of educators, and I made the mistake of thinking that I could escape the “family business.” Midway through college, I decided to change majors from computer science to teaching, and after receiving my credential, started work-
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ing as a math teacher. I never lost interest in technology, and soon began teaching the technology electives. When the opportunity came to focus on technology, I felt like my career plans had come full circle. I love that I can work in both technology and education. When did you join CETPA and why? I formally joined CETPA in 2009 and shortly afterwards participated in the CTO Mentor program. I had known about CETPA for a year or two prior, but never really took the time to look into it. I wish that I would have joined CETPA earlier, as I’ve found the support, resources, and conferences to be invaluable in my professional growth. Where does CETPA need to grow? Working in a small school district in a rural community can feel quite lonely at times. I think CETPA is moving in a great direction by chartering and supporting regional technology groups. Our local Gold Country CETPA regional group has reached out to all of the area school districts in the area with the message of support and inclusion. As a result, we’ve seen several small district technologists in attendances who are new to CETPA.
What is the greatest challenge facing the industry and how can it be overcome? I think the greatest, or perhaps most immediate, challenge currently involves how to successfully prepare for the new Smarter Balanced assessments and Common Core curriculum. I am fortunate that my district greatly supports our technology programs, and with the new curriculum and assessments we are recognizing the need to heavily invest in new platforms and methodologies. The challenge that I see is implementing a strategy that fulfills the requirements of Smarter Balanced, encourages teachers and students to shift their ways of teaching and learning to best take advantage of any new tools, and turns out to be the correct decision the first time through. This last part is the one that keeps me up at night. Two of the primary hurdles I’ve faced are the limited information available and uncertainty in funding any new purchases. To overcome this challenge, I have invested countless hours researching, collaborating with other local districts, meeting with our diverse group of district stakeholders, and informing those stakeholders the various options we have available to develop our plan. Whatever strategy my district adopts will need to be both ambitious and cautious, as we can only do so much with the resources available.