The role of educational technologist in implementing new technologies at school

Abstract

In 2005, a new profession called "educational technologist" was introduced in Estonian schools. At first, the idea was confusing for many school principals, because of the seeming overlap with the job descriptions of existing ICT support specialists or ICT managers. Other principals interpreted the role of the educational technologist as a technology-savvy teacher who could take responsibility for teaching with technology in some subject domains so that the rest of teachers would not have to bother them with constantly changing landscape of technology. According to the data from the Tiger Leap Foundation (2012), almost 7% of Estonian schools had hired an educational technologist by 2012 - in most of the cases by re-allocating the salary fund of IT support specialists. The position is usually funded by local municipalities, not from the state budget. This paper is reflecting upon the case study data collected from 13 Estonian schools where educational technologists had been employed, the focus group interviews were conducted with 29 persons working in the field of educational technology. The study gives an overview of the current situation by defining the emerging profession of educational technologist on the level of professional practice. We also describe the arguments for establishing such a new position in school and the main challenges of a new specialist starting his/her career in this dynamic field. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.