Directing Technology/Overview

The Responsibilities of the Tech Director

A school district technology director is a position of growing responsibility, authority, and importance. While this Wikibook focuses on the K-12 education environment, portions are applicable to higher education and business. Many different titles are used for this position such as: IT Director, ICT Director, Director of Information Services, and so on, but the position is characterized by three criteria:

1. responsibility for technology, networking, and usually communications (phones, fax, videoconferencing, etc.),
2. responsibility for educational or instructional technology, and
3. responsible to (reports to) the Superintendent, CEO, President, or is at most one level away from the top person. It is usually a cabinet, or top leadership position.

Beyond those three criteria, the position may require credentials in education, administration, and/or technology. The tech director may have been a teacher and came to the position through an education career. Increasingly, the tech director comes from business, industry, or the military through a technical career path. The tech director is usually also responsible for technology that serves the business, personnel, medical, security, and transportation needs of the organization. Major areas of responsibility may be divided into instructional technology, administrative technology, and technology infrastructure. In a large school district, the tech director may have a large staff with lower-level administrator and specialists; in a small school district, the tech director may have direct hands-on involvement with network equipment, troubleshooting, and individual computers.