An examination of the role of the ICT coordinator in the secondary school system in Ireland

Due to the rise in use and general growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) the roles of some ICT Coordinators in the Irish secondary school system have expanded to combine a large number of duties. To further examine this topic and to establish some straight facts an examination of the workload of the ICT Coordinator in the Irish secondary school system was carried out. Relevant literature about the equivalent positions in such countries as New Zealand, Denmark and Britain was reviewed and issues which arose included ‘Job Description’, ‘Time Availability’, ‘Technical Support’ and ‘Pedagogical Duties versus Technical Duties’. The boundaries of this ICT Coordinator position have been pushed and pushed to include all aspects of technology. In such a dynamically expanding industry the status and position of the person closest to it in schools has remained somewhat unchanged over recent years. Many ICT Coordinators feel under pressure due to the broad scope of duties. These issues were explored via electronic survey and interview of ICT Coordinators and other personnel with knowledge of ICT in schools in Ireland. The results were then organised and reported. Subsequent comparison with the findings of previous research showed first and foremost that the majority of ICT Coordinators don’t have enough time for what has become expected of them in their position and secondly many felt that too much was being expected of them in a technical capacity. The crucial area of integrating ICT into the education of the students was being left in the shadow of technical support. Questions about the over-use of the ICT Coordinator for technical purposes and about the general level of importance associated with the role were put forward in the analysis. Conclusions were then drawn under the headings from the literature review mentioned above.