Remember the days when computers were associated with SMART people?

I have this theory about school tech support staff. It goes something like this: Take your average graduating class of computer science majors, and figure the top dogs are going to get jobs with major players like Microsoft or Apple. A good number of them will also end up in the heavy engineering entities, like Boeing, or consumer giants like Sony. The hard-core geeks will make their way to the game developers, who will give them the means to maintain their high school/college mental state indefinitely. Then you have the bulk that will find jobs with IT departments of various companies, and spend their days upgrading OSs and dealing with general user idiocy. The bottom of the barrel goes to work for the government - who probably pays the least and has the most out-dated tech. That's where school IT comes in.

I don't mean to be too down on school tech people - once upon a time Old Republic High School had a marvelous woman who was the go-to guru for all of our tech needs. District 'restructuring' forced her out of a job, and we've had a string of incompetent chimpanzees ever since. To be honest, my first line of defense when I have tech needs is to turn to one of the faculty tech-team people (Science Bob and Science Kate) before I go to the on-campus IT guy (Tech Joe). They usually point me in his direction anyway (protocol and all) but I like to start off talking to someone who at least has their shit together before I have to deal with the bureaucracy.

I do have to say - I feel sorry for Tech Joe. I think he's generally a lonely guy. He sits in his cramped, cluttered closet of an office with the door open and waves at everyone who walks by. He's the kind of guy that you kind of dread talking to, because you know he'll try to suck you into a longer conversation than what you intended. At the same time, he has a bit of a "King of the Castle" complex going on. He kind of comes off as wanting to be the master of all things tech-wise, but has a tendency to answer all requests with "ummm... yeah, we can't really do that." I rolled my eyes when he sent out a mass-email the other day complaining that someone just dumped a cart of equipment off at his door-step without going through the procedure that would allow him to properly collect document the equipment being returned. I mean, yeah - he has a job to do, but the fact is that everyone knows that doing things the "right" way means waiting around for something that may or may not predate the second coming.

I understand that he is but a cog in a larger wheel that isn't quite screwed on tight to begin with. School tech departments have become more concerned with liability and accountability than with supporting the classroom efforts. To that end, they have created a gauntlet of restrictions that have made the use of technology in the classroom about as easy as running an obstacle course in a straight-jacket.

The district mandates ALL tech must be provided, supported and maintained by the district IT, including all software and accessories. Now I understand the want to keep all your ducks in a row, and I certainly empathize the paranoia being sued for the use of unauthorized or the need to discourage staff from frequenting inappropriate web sites on school time - however there are certain problems with the real-life implementation of this:

* The district simply does not have the resources to take care of ALL our tech needs.

* Tech provision and support is distributed unevenly.

* IT people assume that all classrooms are the same and have the same tech needs.

* The IT time frame for getting stuff done is waaaaaay too slow.

* The IT boys don't always understand the specialty tech (like music software) and are likely to impede rather than assist with the implementation of it.

* We spend too much time and energy arguing the necessity of a hardware component or software package with people who don't understand our subject area.

* IT expects us to design our activities to fit their tech requirements, rather than provide the tech that supports our curriculum.

At it is for all of these reasons that I have "gone rogue" - unabashedly and wholeheartedly - I have gone to the dark side of tech-in-the-classroom. My office is a haven for unauthorized tech components, most of which I paid for out of my own pocket or with music department funds. Every time Tech Joe walks into my office, he turns into Sgt. Schultz at the sight of my "rogue printer" (Honestly, that's what they call them..."rogue printers" Are they going to come up for a police radio code for them next?). I keep my "rogue router" securely hidden - he's been known to confiscate them.

While I lament the speed at which my aging desktop performs, I celebrate the fact that I have full administrative access (a gift bestowed upon me by the faculty tech guru years ago). I mean, I'm not installing World of Warcraft on my system or anything... I just have a lot of little freeware utilities that make my life a lot easier.

I'm not happy about breaking the rules when it comes to my classroom tech - moreover, I lament the fact that doing my job effectively encourages, and sometimes even requires me to do so.