How to Support Technology in a Small School District
May 30, 2008
John Puskar from Classroom2.0 asks:
I am the technology coordinator for a rural SW Pennsylvania K12 district with about 2100 students and about 155 teachers. Its just me and another guy taking care of it all! Computers, servers, network, phones, security cameras, you name it….if it connects to something else….we ultimately end up being the ones to figure it out. We don’t use any outside companies for anything, we install it, fix it, replace it. Whatever needs done, we do it ourselves. Our budget is next to negative. I’m insterested in discussing with others best practices with limited resources. The school environment presents challenges that no other IT professionals will ever have to deal with. Every computer is a shared computer and that makes for some difficult obstacles to overcome. I am more than willing to share and learn what works and what doesn’t.
Quick answer - look into working with companies that can provide staffing and expertise as needed so you can better manage resources and plan for the future.
Now, given that Smart Solutions offers these kinds of services I’m somewhat biased in favor of this approach. I honestly believe, however, that by bringing in outside technology partners, school districts can provide better IT services at lower cost than they can by “going it alone.”
This is part of the reason I chose to come work for Smart Solutions, and it’s the reason I’d recommend John look into this approach for your district.
What John has described will likely result in the internal IT staff getting overwhelmed with day-to-day work and not having the time to think strategically about leveraging their IT assets.
My first few questions if I were John’s consultant would be:
- Does your district qualify for State/Federal funding through E-rate Priority 2 to help with their network maintenance?
- Are you working with surrounding districts to pool resources?
If you have other contributions to this important topic, please feel free to leave a comment in this post.
UPDATE 6-5-2008
John responded:
Nitin, just out of curiosity, how many employees does your company have?
“What John has described will likely result in the internal IT staff getting overwhelmed with day-to-day work and not having the time to think strategically about leveraging their IT assets.”
-After 10 years, it hasn’t yet………and I don’t think the amount of technology assets and useage will likely increase anywhere near as quickly over the next 10 years as it has over the last 10.“I honestly believe, however, that by bringing in outside technology partners, school districts can provide better IT services at lower cost than they can by going it alone.”
-I think this is what the “solution providers” just don’t understand about the smaller districts. There is no way a district with limited financial resources is going to continue to pay a full-time salary for a Technology Director that needs to outsource “his” work, which is an additional expenditure to the district. Because, when all is said an done, “partnering” with a vendor or provider, does not eliminate the need to have someone there all day, full-time. And if it did, what Tech Coordinator would in his right mind put himself out of a job?
My response:
Thank you for sharing your point of view. I think this is a fascinating discussion.
We have 4 offices in Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, and Detroit. We have ~75 employees.
I am a bit of a neophyte to the IT and “solutions provider” industry, and therefore find your comments extremely interesting.
In general, I believe having specialists in Citrix, VMWare, Security, etc. as needed is more effective than one “network admin” doing it all.
The mix of skill sets could add up to one full time person, but the district can potentially rely on a team of individuals instead of one single person.
Our assertion is that your team, with the right support, could likely support up to 3-4 surrounding districts.
I also think it makes a lot of sense to work with a solutions provider for specialized services such as an end-user help desk, remote monitoring, etc. that an individual IT department could not provide.
I encourage you to write on here or e-mail me at njulka-at-smartsolutionsonline.com or call my cell phone any time at 216-374-6723 to continue the discussion.
Bottom line: I believe there are important options you can consider that have nothing to do with being “put out of a job.”
Challenges and Obstacles of Integrating Web 2.0 into the Classroom
May 30, 2008
Challenges and Obstacles of Integrating Web 2.0 into the Classroom
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach was kind enough to invite me to participate as a panelist in an Elluminate session with 80 superintendents from western New York.
We started the session with the superintendents brainstorming the greatest challenges to shifting to a 21st century learning environment. The main bullets from my notes were:
- Time for collaboration
- Privacy and security
- How to get ahead of the students instead of trailing behind
- How to educate boards and communities
- How to build a shared vision at the school
- Where to find funding
As the managed service partner for a number of districts across the region, the Smart Solutions K12 group faces these challenges on a daily basis.
As the last panelist, I had to rush through my talking points and was not able to fully explain my ideas.
This blog gives me an opportunity to more clearly state my philosophy on these topics. I believe that managing school district technology comes down to three fundamental components: policies, budgets, and leadership.
District technology departments are expected to be superheroes. As a short example, look at this article from ISTE. District CIOs need to understand:
- Leadership and visioning
- Planning and budgeting
- Team building
- Systems Management
- IT
- Business Leadership
- Education and training
- Communication
District technology budgets are being repeatedly cut, levies are not passing, and administrators are expecting IT departments to be leaders in collaborative technologies. It is clear that the current model of district technology management is broken.
Going forward, there is only one way that districts will be able to handle the myriad challenges of managing technology. This is to bring a team-based approach to technology management.
The IT department can no longer be all things to all people. For starters, IT needs to represent an executive level position with equal footing to curriculum directors or treasurers.
Next, IT should be considered a partner in the organization to help the school achieve its curricular goals.
Superintendants should also trust outside experts such as my fine co-presenters, Dean Shareski , Christopher Sessums, Dennis Richards , David DeShryver, and Vance Stevens – to help them understand best practices in integrating technology into the classroom.
Finally, the only way for this to be successful is through strong leadership at the district. District leaders, superintendents, and curriculum directors need to understand the importance of building 21st century classrooms and invest their time and energy into understanding this new environment.
Districts can overcome the obstacles of integrating Web 2.0 into the classroom with a combination of policies, smart budgeting, and leadership.
Thin clients vs. desktops in an education environment
May 26, 2008
(This is one of my most popular blog posts. Please contact me at njulka@smartsolutionsonline.com if you would like to learn more about this topic.)
A question that repeatedly comes up with our clients is: should districts move towards a thin client environment?
Thin clients, for non-technical people, are pieces of computer equipment in which the bulk of the processing is done on the server. The thin client has no hard drive, no processor, and no moving parts. Therefore, thin clients have a much longer life span than standard desktops, and also use significantly less power.
Other advantages of thin clients include lower maintenance costs because changes can be executed server-side and break-fix simply requires replacing the client. There are also lower deployment costs because thin clients do not need to be individually set up.
Smart Solutions has been the vendor for some of the largest thin client deployments at school districts in the State of Ohio.
With all the advantages of thin clients, some would argue that they are a no-brainer for cash-strapped districts. Not so fast.
The biggest problem with thin clients, in our experience, is that they are not yet able to handle the wide range of applications that some districts use. For example, we had one client who tried pushing streaming media through their thin client environment, and it simply did not function properly.
Our advice would be to not go thin client unless the district robustly tests the clients with its set of applications. Thin clients are great for basic web browsing and word processing, but not great for video and other media.
Ultimately, hardware decisions rely upon the curricular goals of the district. The best solution for districts typically falls somewhere in between. It may include thin clients throughout the district, fat client labs, and lap tops/desktops for teachers and administrators.
Free Productivity Coaching for Educators
May 15, 2008
As I have stated before, I am deeply interested in personal productivity. In fact, I have been invited by a Professor of Personal Leadership at Columbia Business School to lecture on the topic of personal productivity.
As someone who is always striving to learn more about educational leadership, I would be happy to learn some of the methods that educators have used to cope with the impossible workload of being an educational leader.
One of the things I like most about productivity solutions is that there’s always room for improvement — superintendents and educators in general have a lot on their plates and I would love to learn what strategies they have developed to stay on top of their work.
If you are an educational leader who would like to share your methods of personal productivity, please comment on this post, or write me an e-mail.
On the other hand, if you are an educational leader from Ohio and would like guidance on implementation of a productivity system, I would be happy to drop by and show you my system. I am accessible via e-mail or cell (216-374-6723).
I am especially interested in finding educators in the Ohio area who would be interested in discussing personal productivity to help them find more time!
Concerns in a Web 2.0 World
May 6, 2008
It is easy to read articles like this and believe that Web 2.0 is truly the “future of education”.
I believe that the read/write Web, or what we are calling Web 2.0, will culturally, socially, intellectually, and politically have a greater impact than the advent of the printing press. I believe that we cannot even begin to imagine the changes that are going to take place as the two-way nature of the Internet begins to flower, and that even those of us who have spent time imagining this future will be astounded by what happens. I’m going to identify ten trends in this regard that I think have particular importance for education and learning, and then discuss seven steps I think educators can take to make a difference during this time.
It is a bit more challenging to understand the dangers and risks associated with moving towards a connected Web 2.0 world.
My preliminary break-down of the risks of working in a Web 2.0 world come down to:
Privacy
As more content moves towards a digital space, privacy concerns multiply. Connect this digital content to a world wide web, where entire countries are attacking our most important institutions, and the problems get even worse. Create a Web 2.0 world where individuals are posting all their secrets, thoughts, ideas, and personal content to the web, and our definition of privacy is forever changed.
The amount of information that the digital native generation is sharing with their friends online is astounding. Pictures, resumes, journals, and chats are becoming part of the public domain.
A person with malicious intent can easily pose as a “friend” and find the most intimate details of their target’s life.
The privacy concerns in a Web 2.0 world are downright scary.
Ownership of Data
In previous generations, an individual was the owner and protector of his or her data. Today, companies such as Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft are the owners of your data. Information is being hosted through SaaS models, and information is essentially open to the wild.
When you do not own your own data, those years spent building something online is now accessible with a single password. There are no longer physical barriers to someone gaining access to your entire life.
One Point of Failure
This is something that I have had personal experience with. One day, I tried accessing my Gmail address, and got a disturbing message that my account has been disabled. Not knowing what to do, I started to realize how exposed I am to Google.
My calendar, e-mail, to-do lists, notebooks, references, online docs, RSS feed list were all hosted by a single company with no backup!
The few days that I had no access to Google products was truly a test of my entire system. It is easy to be blinded by all the great products offered by a digital world. Luckily, my account was enabled within a few days. I quickly backed everything up, but this risk can truly cripple an organization.
Reliability of Information
I was speaking to a Superintendent last week, and she shared a story with me about how one of her nieces created a research paper with faulty internet research.
The message, of course, is that students need to understand how to triangulate data, check sources, and decipher reliable vs. unreliable sources. Younger kids, in particular, are at risk of not being able to understand this distinction.
Therefore, it is important to keep in mind the reliability of information when doing research in a Web-based world.
Technology Limitations
The final concern, in my mind, of a Web 2.0 world is that the browser is simply not a mature application delivery tool. Any type of analysis involving spreadsheets, databases, or document processing still requires a desktop or server environment.
The browser was not designed to host applications. While Google Docs and Zoho represent a commendable effort at replicating desktop applications, they are not designed to accomplish what we want.
Bottom line: While I am extremely excited about the possibilities of a Web 2.0 world, there are important concerns to keep in mind when integrating these tools into the classroom.
How to Build a Social Mesh in Education
May 3, 2008
Many people in the education world are fascinated with the idea of online virtual learning communities to share best practices and increase collaboration. This is the main focus of great thinkers such as Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson.
Marc Canter (my new favorite blogger) takes the idea of social networks, and abstracts it to a significantly improved conceptual framework. In a nutshell, Canter believes that open networks, open IDs, open standards, structured content, and open APIs are the best way to tie all of the networks and data together in a meaningful way.
He recently posted 10 blog posts describing his entire philosophy. Canter’s writing style is concise, opinionated, and visionary. I believe that any designer of social networks - particularly in the field of education - should use Canter’s advice when creating their networks.
The 10 sections of Canter’s posts are:
[1] - ID, Personas, Social Graphs and Groups
[2] - Persistent Ubiquitous Content
[3] - Structured Content (and shared servers filled with that stuff)
Canter even specifically mentions educational content in a social mesh:
Educational objects are also a way for intelligent folks to make money. Imagine encapsulating some course, tutorial, advice, guidelines, how-to-guide in an object which can get you PAID for your work and intellectual property! Educational objects would fit seamlessly into the open mesh and be compatible with many DIFFERENT People’s Marketplaces.
This comes at a particularly relevant time for a company such as SchoolNet, which is in the preliminary stages of creating an education “niche social network.”
Our digital age is moving in the direction of better organized content, open standards, and social networks. It is of paramount important that 21st century businesses, media, government, and education become plugged into these trends to maximize their relevance in the future.