The purpose of this study is to define the duties and responsibilities of school district technology coordinators. Because the occupation is relatively new, this study will determine the duties and responsibilities as defined by persons currently working in the field. The findings of this research may assist administrators to define the roles of technology coordinators for their K-12 school districts. In addition, administrators and educators of higher educational technology programs will be better informed of the types of demands that are being made of technology coordinators and the type of training that should be provided.

Technology has progressed far beyond expectations. Becoming technologically literate has become essential, as well as valuable, to a student’s education (Heterick and Gehl, 1995). In classrooms across the nation, students have become daily users of computers. Ironically, some of these students’ knowledge of computer usage has surpassed some teachers. Therefore, schools must not only nurture the use of technology by students, but also by the educators of these students. Educators across the curriculum should be responsible for incorporating technology into their lesson plans (Casson, 1997).

A school district's budget determines its advancements concerning technology programs, (Moursund, 1992). Schools across the country have varying budgets. The size and location of a school district may also play a major role in the amount of funding received. These factors may limit the school district’s ability to provide adequate technology facilities for students. Budgets may also determine the amount of technology training the faculty at a school district receives. If the school district does not have funding necessary to make computers easily accessible to students and teachers, then the need for training in these areas is obviously reduced. If, however, the school district has the funding available to provide easy access to technology, then the need for training both students and teachers becomes increasingly important. In some of the more wealthy and populated school districts, the use of technology has become an integral part of the educational process. Teachers often have access to a variety of technologies such as networked computer labs, a personal computer, and a district wide e-mail system in addition to many other types of technology. The whole process of integrating technology into an educational system revolves around the amount of money a district has available to spend.

Funding and lack of trained individuals have been two of the main obstacles for school districts, keeping them from integrating more technology into their curriculum. If technology becomes a top priority, districts will need people trained in finding and budgeting those funds. Until now, administrators, along with computer teachers and library media specialists (Edwards and Morton, 1996) have been the most frequently used personnel who decided what was to be spent on technology and how it was to be spent.

Administrators have reasoned that the computer lab and the school library have been the main two places where technology was needed the most. Ironically, due to lack of funding, some of the school districts' most expensive technology purchases have been handed over to staff members who lack any training to handle such technical issues related to hardware selection, troubleshooting, maintaining Local Area Networks/Wide Area Networks (LAN/WAN’s).

The demand for technology has moved beyond the areas of computing and library science and is now needed across the entire curriculum. Unfortunately, the need for technology across the curriculum has outgrown available resources. The need for technology, the funding for it, and the staff development required to keep it going have increased so much that librarians and computer teachers can no longer handle the increased job loads along with their existing responsibilities (Ceperley, 1991).

Although, there are many school districts using people to coordinate the district technology programs in addition to other responsibilities, many districts have decided that a full time technology coordinator is needed. In addition, some schools have also added a technical staff member or technician.

When school districts hire technology coordinators there should be some knowledge of what the job responsibilities entail. This study will address this issue and may offer future guidance to school districts when determining whether or not the district is in need of a technology coordinator and, if so, what the job description should include.

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