Happy Retirement to Debra Friedman: Technology Director
May 23, 2019
- What encouraged you to work with technology?
- She taught technology in the corporate world before deciding to come into school districts and she finds it very exciting to do things here such as the one-to-one implementation. Since education has always been her passion, it has been very rewarding for her to put that into technology.
- How long have you worked with EP HIgh and why?
- She has been working here for 5 years. She was actually in the corporate world for 15 years until the tech industry kind took a nosedive. She later found out that working in school districts was exciting when she came across technology directors and specialists in education. She then worked in an elementary school district for 5 years before working in high school districts.
- What stands out as your biggest accomplishment in your _ years with the school?
- The implementation would be the first and foremost as a result of the pilot the technology committee started 5 years ago in which teachers and staff were given one cart of each the Chromebooks and Ipads. Then her 2nd year at EP, the Ipads were implemented because the teachers and staff decided to go with this device instead of the Chromebooks.
- What was the biggest change EP went through while you were in the technology department?
- One thing that affected everyone in the building was google apps for education. Because before the student did not have email accounts and the staff did but they were Microsoft Outlook email accounts. Even though a lot of the staff like the Microsoft Outlook interface, she wanted the whole school to be able to collaborate together. This way students would be able to send emails to teachers and also be able to collaborate with google docs and google sheets. So the google apps for education was the biggest change the whole school went through and Gmail was the first part of that.
- What will you miss most about your job?
- She’ll miss working the staff and students as it was exciting to be on the cutting edge of things. Since a lot of teachers would come up with new apps that they want to see or different things they want to do with the Ipads, the job was always challenging, which she is going to miss the most.
- What was the hardest part of your job over the years?
- So in the first year, the school had the Chromebook v. Ipad trial, there were pioneers that were willing to do something in their classroom and there were also people who were a little apprehensive. So the biggest challenge was to let those who were resistant to change to know that this device is going to help them and the students and so its something positive for the school.
- What advice do you have for the new/next technology director?
- EP is a great school to work in and because of its size, one can interface with the whole entire staff and students and just be able to do a lot more things. The next director should also keep in mind the budget the technology department has as they need to be frugal about what is being done with the technology funds.
- What are your plans for retirement?
- She looks forward to spending more time with her husband the most especially because they are retiring at the same time. She also plans on doing more traveling than she has been able to do.
- Is there a quote or saying that you live your life by?
- “Two roads diverged in a wood and I-I took the one less traveled by, and that makes all the difference.”-Robert Frost
