Coppell ISD Executive Director of Technology Dwight Goodwin was led into his career in technology by first making PowerPoint presentations to teach his middle school classes. Now, he is the head of CISD’s technology department.
“Technology is a unique thing in that you are always trying to solve a problem,” Goodwin said. “It’s always intrigued me.”
Goodwin loved technology from a young age, and was always determined to figure out and learn more about it, finding gimmicks and problems in software to solve.
Goodwin started working for Coppell ISD on Jan. 2, replacing Stephen McGilvray as the executive director of technology. Goodwin was hired by distinct administration due to his vast and varied experience in education and technology.
“He’s well organized, experienced and he has a lot of knowledge both in hardware and instructional technology,” CISD chief operations officer Chris Trotter said.
Goodwin was the executive director of technology of Grapevine-Colleyville ISD prior to working at CISD.
Before getting into technology as a career, however, Goodwin was a middle school history teacher at Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD. This experience gave him insight into practical classroom needs that can make an impact on not only students, but also staff.
“He knows what the needs are in a classroom, what it is to be a teacher, and to have students that need things to work all the time,” CISD coordinator for technology support Chip Bloecher said. “He comes to us with a lot of different experiences from a lot of different places that will help us grow.”
As a teacher in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Goodwin would implement the then limited technology available at his school and design lesson plans based around them.
“I would design lessons that used the technology by making PowerPoints, doing research, and building websites,” Goodwin said. “But as I started progressing in technology, I started asking more questions to the technology department.”
This innate curiosity carried over into teaching, where Goodwin would make connections in technology by constantly trying to learn more.
“It’s like how it was when you were a kid, opening up a pen to see how it works just out of curiosity,” Goodwin said.
Eventually, Goodwin would move from technology usage individually to learning more about network computing, which is used at a wider district scale. From there, Goodwin started to work as instructional technology specialist at Birdville ISD from 2006 through 2013, turning his questions into a career.
“Not only did I enjoy the instructional piece being a teacher, but also the technology piece which was behind the scenes,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin’s key goals at Coppell are to maintain good communication and relationships between staff, students, and the technology department.
“One of our core values here at Coppell is relationships, and I think you should build those relationships with vendors, students, faculty and even other employees like our bus drivers, as technology touches every aspect of a school district,” Goodwin said. “Building that relationship with every department is important.”
With the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence, Goodwin also wants to help implement ways to help students and staff learn to use AI as a tool.
“With any new technology, there’s kind of a learning curve where we definitely want to use it, but we want to use it responsibly,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin thinks AI is a tool that can enhance learning just like how people use it to enhance their work in the real world.
“AI takes the human element, and it can add to it, and that’s what we want to do with the learning process too,” Goodwin said. “We want to bring artificial intelligence to enhance student learning, not take the place of it.”
Goodwin also wants CISD to be a leader in technology throughout the state and even nation with systems and processes that can fuel the staff and students to be as efficient as possible.
“I always think it is fun to be the best, and I want people around the state and around the nation to know that Coppell has the best technology department,” Goodwin said. “I think you do that by building relationships and also good systems inside.”
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