Bob Dippold has been a computer guy since 1984, but the favorite period in his career has been the last 25 years working for Homewood District 153. He retires in June.

“Working here has been different. Working in the education system is interesting. I kind of liken it to even though the public pays for everything it’s still run like a company,” but his customers are students and the staff, he said.

He made the adjustment from the business world to education, and “I’ve loved it ever since.”

Dippold was one of two people who formed the early technology support team in the district. He took care of needs at Willow, Churchill and James Hart Schools. It kept him busy, but in those days technology was very limited.

“I came in on the ground floor, and we did everything and back then there was barely one computer per classroom, then it turned into two and then into four. Now teachers don’t want computers, they want to be mobile, so they want the laptops,” he said. “As time went on and we got more and more technology, I was basically hardware support in all three buildings, including the phones. I called myself the jack of all trades, master of none because I knew a little about a lot.

“There’s been so much change. We went from projectors with screens and then we went to Smart Boards. Kids loved the Smart Board because they could come up and touch it,” Dippold said, but the newest piece of classroom technology is the Display, a 55-inch screen in every classroom that allows a teacher to send from the laptop to the Display using Wi-Fi.

“Display is a device itself. We started with one at Willow, and now we’ve got them in every single classroom. That’s how much technology has changed. We used to use the old inkjet printers here and we only had one color copier, now there’s multiple copiers in every single building,” he noted.

The COVID pandemic changed the world of education, especially in District 153 with a mad scramble to get a device into every student’s hands in March 2020. For months, the technology team worked to keep students and staff online as they worked from home.

Working through the pandemic was hard, but Dippold said it proved to be a good thing as well “because it generated new ideas on how to use technology.”

Now that all students have their own devices, District 153 was able to do away with computer labs in the schools, but the technology team has had to pay greater attention to network security and monitor what websites students can visit, Dippold said.

When District 153 put a technology tech in each building, Dippold’s job shifted to negotiating and managing vendor contracts to provide the best and newest technology available. He misses the interactions with students, especially the youngest ones at Willow School.

“I just love little kids, and when their technology was up and running they would be so grateful it put a smile on my face,” he said. “I loved it.”

Retirement will afford Dippold more time with his own grandchildren. He expects to keep current with technology changes by watching and learning from them.