School Tech Department Reflections on School Year

It has been a busy year for technology departments in schools across the Upper Cumberland.

It was up in the air about what to expect for the Fall as many school systems had to fill in technology gaps and get students and teachers prepared to learn in all new ways. Putnam County Technology Supervisor Johnny Sloan said getting the devices students needed was his biggest challenge.

“Getting access to devices, we were in the process of getting some devices actually last Spring, for internet access for students at home,” Sloan said. “Certainly there’s some gaps there, which we knew that before COVID hit.”

Warren County Technology Department Director Dr. Katrina Haley said she had the same device issues, but it intensified once people started trying to use them.

“Hot spots, we didn’t really deal with those, we had wireless devices everywhere but not hot spots,” Haley said. “Those are something that when a parent or student gets them, they’re calling in and asking for help on those.”

Sloan said he was fortunate to have an experienced staff and be able to add another position thanks to CARES Act money. Sloan said the last nine months have been unifying for the department.

“I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot right now, we’ve learned a lot and we’ve been able to obtain some additional equipment.” Sloan said. “Now that we’ve been back in the office for quite sometime, not in a remote setting… that’s certainly helped a lot because we really wouldn’t have been able to get all the devices provisioned and ready to go.”

Haley said there have been huge leaps in her department’s team work. She said she always made an effort to send out tech tips to employees, and now that is paying off.

“This has made teachers that probably wouldn’t listen before because they have so many different tasks to get finished in a day,” Haley said. “They had to listen now and so I do feel like now that all of our teachers, and I feel like parents and students are prepared technology wise, due to COVID.”