September 2024 Member Spotlight

Andrew White, CETL®, CISSP

1.  How long have you been a member of CoSN? 

“I have been a member since 2016.”

2.  Why did you join CoSN? What do you enjoy about being a member?

“After taking over for our district’s technology director in 2012, I was looking for a resource to connect me with other K12 technology directors in the area to seek out advice and experience, since I was new to the role.  I found CoSN through a colleague and joined up with our local chapter, IETL, as soon as I could.  The CoSN organization and the people I have met through this membership have been instrumental in making me a better director and as I learned about budgeting, security, technology infrastructure, staffing, and strategic planning.  The professional development and personal connections I have received through CoSN are invaluable to me."

3.  How did you get into the field of educational technology?

"I come from the technical side of the edtech house, as I have never been a teacher.  I have, however, spent my whole life and career around teachers – they are some of my favorite people!  My parents, wife, and most of my extended family are teachers, so it was natural for me to combine my love for technology and my love of learning to search in the education industry for a career.  I studied information systems at Illinois State University, and then got a job as a technology specialist/technician at a few school districts.  I started at NLSD years ago as a district technician performing server upgrades and systems implementations.  As my knowledge grew, I was able to takeAdvanced on more responsibilities and eventually I took on my current role in our district.  I continue to grow and learn every day in my current position."

4. What CoSN committee are you a part of?

"I am starting my first year on the CoSN Driving K12 Innovation Advisory Board, and I am excited to connect with many knowledgeable people to discuss the hurdles, accelerators and tech enablers impacting K12."

5.  What does your daily work entail?

"One of the great things about my job is that every day is different!  As a superintendent’s cabinet member, I participate in many meetings with my colleagues to strategically plan improvements at our district.  Our technology initiatives feature in many other departments’ strategic plans, which speaks to the high level of technology integration we have at NLSD.  Whether I am helping our curriculum personnel implement a new digital classroom resource, helping our business office with a financial system error, or helping our technicians improve their trouble ticket response times – I get to help others and make an impact in the lives of our students, parents, and staff.  I spend many of my days planning initiatives centered around cybersecurity, data privacy, budgeting, technology infrastructure upgrades, staff professional development, and the management of our technology maintenance and support functions."

6.  What emerging trends or technologies in education are you most excited about, and why?

"I am excited to see what AI can do for our educational environments.  Whether it is helping teachers plan lessons and communicate with parents, or helping our district office staff analyze student information, AI has potential to give us more time for human-centric tasks like teacher-student interaction or to increase our ability to notice trends in our data and act on them from a district level.  It will take some work to utilize AI effectively and responsibly, but once we are accustomed to AI’s abilities and limitations, I think we will see some great district benefits.

A while ago I fell into a love of cybersecurity, and though it has been a hot topic for a few years, new threats and new opportunities are appearing in this area every day.  So I think cybersec may still be an emerging trend, though many of us are now a bit burnt-out as we hear of a new very large breach every week.  But those breaches are the catalyst for many changes coming in the way we authenticate and prove our identity, the way we store confidential information securely, and the way we allow access to information about ourselves….so perhaps those specific trends are the emerging side of cybersecurity."

7.  What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the field?

“My favorite part of this field is that you have the opportunity to learn something every day, so never stop learning!  Always seek to improve your processes to make them more efficient.  Focus on our students, parents, and staff members and see the technology you are building or supporting through their eyes – seek to make their lives easier.”

8.  What is your favorite book?

"The Phoenix Project has been a great read for me, and I really enjoyed its narrative-style of teaching about IT organizational management.  While it is a story about a technology department in the corporate world, I found myself nodding and chuckling as I read many parallels to my district, my department, and myself in its pages."

9.  What is your favorite Fall activity or hobby?

"My favorite fall things are taking walks outside with my wife when it is not too hot, seeing the leaves change here in the Midwest, apple picking with my two young sons (ages 5 and 7 this year), and the occasional (read: probably too frequent for my waistline) piece of pumpkin pie"

Nominate yourself or another member by filling out the questionnaire.