WCSD’s tech director retires, reflects on 40 many years of technological innovations in education | Waunakee Tribune

Haubrich entered the discipline as an industrial-arts teacher for Washington Island Faculty District in 1981. Sony experienced just released the 3.5-inch floppy push, and IBM its variation of the own computer (Computer system). Haubrich’s training places at that time bundled classic shop classes these types of as woodworking, metalworking, drafting and electronics.

Know-how highly developed swiftly, however, and desktops before long discovered their way into the classroom.

“I picked up the computer bug when Apple started out selling Macintosh,” Haubrich explained. “I brought them into the classroom not actually recognizing what the impact was going to be, but being aware of that they could do some really cool points. Of course, at that time, the amazing points they could do were very rudimentary when compared to what they can do now. But they ended up nevertheless interesting.”

Haubrich mentioned learners were being open up to mastering about new technologies, together with personal computers, but the devices experienced but to make inroads in the location of tech ed. Desktops served mostly as word processors and math machines back again then. Maybe you interested Math notes.

Eventually, they had been utilized for computer-aided drafting and structure (CADD).

“And that is when I truly imagined, ‘Well if I’m going to be an industrial-arts instructor, and I want to train young children drafting, I superior understand some a lot more about personal computers,’” Haubrich claimed.

Haubrich returned to the university, enrolling in a master’s diploma software at UW-Eau Claire. The application concentrated on teaching with personal computers, and he shortly created an in-provider application that showed fellow staff members members how to combine personal computer use into their individual school rooms. Haubrich turn out to be properly-versed in CADD, as very well, and commenced teaching it to his tech-ed college students.

“The difficulty that I had was, hoping to educate laptop or computer-aided drafting and style and design on an island to a extremely restricted viewers of youngsters,” Haubrich mentioned, “I felt like my effect was not going to be quite wide.”

Haubrich’s daughter experienced just concluded eighth grade, and not wanting to disrupt her substantial-faculty education and learning, the spouse and children realized that they had a small window if they have been likely to relocate. So in 1996, right after 15 yrs educating for the Washington Island faculty district, Haubrich searched for a plan with higher engineering infusion. Haubrich interviewed with various districts, and finally accepted an offer to grow to be Mount Horeb Higher School’s new tech-ed instructor.

The faculty was undergoing an addition at the time and putting in new laptop or computer labs.

Haubrich spent the up coming 3 many years scheduling, organizing and presenting instructional materials for tech-ed college students. Haubrich’s places of emphasis bundled electronics, lasers, CAD and CNC.

In 1999, Haubrich took a 1-12 months sabbatical from education. He then joined the Cooperative Instructional Provider Company (CESA) 3 in as a technology-integration expert in 2001. The career consisted of composing grants for decrease-earnings school districts, to assist them infuse engineering into their curriculum.

“I did lots of experienced enhancement, seeking to present persons what technological know-how could do for the applications that they experienced,” Haubrich mentioned. “That was pretty gratifying, but I understood that you just cannot make a living composing grants – due to the fact in the grant-writing organization, you generate your salary into the grant so that you can continue to keep operating. That’s however type of the way grant composing will work in the education and learning discipline. So immediately after a few decades, I acquired rather burnt out, mainly because it’s a gamble.”

Haubrich still left CESA in 2004, and possessing acquired all the necessary credits to grow to be an administrator, returned to the Mount Horeb Spot College District as director of technological know-how.

Haubrich served as tech director for MHASD from 2004 to 2012.

“After eight many years of staying in that posture and 14 decades in the district, I felt like I could remain there for the rest of my job and retire from Mount Horeb. And that genuinely was a thing that crossed my head a few periods,” Haubrich reported. “But I was on the lookout for yet another challenge.”

Waunakee’s technological know-how director at the time, Tim Schell, happened to be a shut pal and informed Haubrich that he would be having the curriculum-director place at WCSD.

The district would require another person to take his location as technological innovation director.

“Waunakee experienced some of the issues that I desired to perform in,” Haubrich said. “And one of the points that they explained in the job interview was, they preferred a storage location community (SAN). They did not have 1 they had a server room exactly where all the servers were actual physical servers. And at the time, most folks had been switching to what’s referred to as virtual servers. So when I interviewed, a single of the skillsets that I had was staying equipped to structure and assist carry out a virtual heart.”

Doing so would be one particular of Haubrich’s initially work opportunities after staying employed in 2012. The new administrator served the district transform from somewhere around 45 bodily servers to a SAN that served the complete district.

Haubrich also served the district change to Google for Training.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Haubrich worked with other administrators to get present technologies into the hands of pupils. In some instances, previous mobile telephones were being applied as hotspots. Haubrich mentioned the practical experience demonstrated the require for competency in the industry of technological know-how, for both of those directors and classroom academics.

“I assume we’re at a stage where it’s assumed, now, that you know how to instruct with know-how,” Haubrich stated. “COVID seriously introduced that out…that you require technological innovation in your classroom. And if you never have it in one thing like a pandemic, exactly where young children are obtaining to go into quarantine and now you are obtaining to train young ones (remotely), you can not do it until you have a rather great expertise of how technologies operates. I assume the past yr and a half has revealed that.”

Haubrich explained the expertise of the previous two college a long time factored into his conclusion to retire, which he declared at the starting of 2021. His retirement marked the close of a 39-yr vocation in training, and an important era for school districts that the moment considered 3.5-inch floppy drives as slicing-edge technologies.

Haubrich lives on the west side of Madison with his family. Now retired, he strategies to expend much more time golfing and traveling drones. Haubrich commenced a organization in January, referred to as ASA Drone Images, which specializes in aerial images of genuine-estate houses.