A descriptive study of the yearly activities of instructional technology support personnel in selected public school systems of Tennessee, academic year 2001-2002

This descriptive study involved the exploration of the annual activities of a selected subset of the technical support staff and technical coordinators within the Tennessee public school systems. The study focused on how the technical support personnel's allocation of time for general support and computer-related support varied by the factors of supported student population, experience, education, gender, and salary. The population of the study was defined by an existing electronic mailing (email) list used to provide an informal method of communication between the participants. The data for this study was obtained through the use of an on-line questionnaire with the participants being notified of its location via email. From the study population of 192 individuals, 136 valid questionnaire responses were received. Once the data had been collected, One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedures were used to determine if statistically significant differences existed for each of the independent variables of supported student population, experience, education, gender, and salary. Categorizing the activities within general support, computer-related support, and methods of support provided the dependent variables for the ANOV A procedures. Where statistically significant differences occurred, the Tukey post-hoc was used to determine the amount of difference and its direction. A variety of descriptive statistics were also generated. The largest portion (43%) of the average participant's time during the school year was spent supporting computer-related technologies, and most of this time was spent supporting existing technologies. Salary and experience have the greatest effect upon the duties of technical support personnel. As salary or years of experience increased, so too did the amount of time per year spent on administrative functions. Conversely, the lower one's salary or years of experience, the greater the chance of performing computer-related support. Gender had little impact upon the allocation of time spent providing support though minor differences existed in the methods of providing that support. While support via email was almost as important as support via telephone, in most instances, the participant visited the area in which support was needed.