The Collaboration of Utah Technical Specialists (CUTS) project will provide sustained, job imbedded, just-in-time technical training, shared resources, coaching and consulting for the educational technical specialists throughout our school districts in the State of Utah. As a result, the students, teachers and staff in our schools will have a more consistent and stable technology-learning environment. Throughout the many districts in the State, the technical specialists are asked to resolve and troubleshoot extremely difficult issues with minimal funding and support. District networks have become complex and security issues are time consuming to say the least. The workload and the complexity of the technical specialists job has increased to the point were it’s tough to be successful and is almost impossible for them to help move technology forward in their districts without additional training and resources. In many cases, a technical specialist will work many hours, if not weeks, trying to implement a new technology or resolve an existing technical issue because of the lack of expertise, training and or support. Many times, these new implementations and technical issues could be resolved in the matter of minutes if the technical specialists were able to bring into their districts a technical expert and or resources in the given area to provide consulting, mentoring and hands-on training. The CUTS project will provide funding to help address this specific need as well as a forum for sharing resources, knowledge and expertise throughout the State of Utah.
Goal:
Provide reliable, robust and secure networks in our district schools, for teachers and students by providing the district technical specialists job imbedded, hands-on training and resources when needed.
Details:
Each of the seven regions in the State will be asked to participate in the project and will receive $13,500.00 to implement the needed hands-on technical training/support.
This funding can be used for:
- To hire consultants/trainers (it is highly recommended, when possible, that we hire other district technical experts in the State, this will help to develop a sustainable model).
- Food, lodging, and other travel expenses for the technical expert providing the training.
- Books, tools and other materials needed for the training.
This funding cannot be used for:
- Stipends to pay those attending the training or receiving the support.
- Expenses for attending technical conferences (the training needs to be for a specific district or region technical implementation or issue)
