Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on CoSN’s blog and is reposted here with permission.

Key points:

• CTOs should maintain critical relationships for efficient school technology processes
• The journey to digital sustainability: A CIO’s perspective
• How to direct a districtwide tech transformation on a budget
• For more news on district CTOs, visit eSN’s IT Leadership hub

One of our jobs as CTOs is developing great relationships with other district leaders. IT touches every aspect of the modern K-12 district, and our success, as well as the success of the district, relies on our ability to build and maintain these relationships.

All relationships are important, but the ITS and Facilities relationship cannot be overstated. From the simplest ‘thorns in our sides’ to the most wicked challenges, our relationship with the facilities leaders can pay off in big ways.

Simple  example – IU5 and the generator

IU5 is a service agency. We provide professional development and other services for districts at our main facility. Our Executive Director was unhappy when we had to send hundreds of teachers and administrators home during a power outage. We were in the process of bidding a generator for just the data center. After the power event, we were instructed to ensure the entire facility could stay powered up for an extended period. We initially worked with facilities to solve the problem, and in 2004, the Caterpillar generator was installed. Jump ahead 19 years, and we were experiencing inconsistent startups (30-40 second blackouts before the generator would start and provide power) when power failure events happened. The maintenance company was having difficulty isolating the problem. Through collaboration with facilities, we captured multiple data points about what was happening from the point of failure until the generated power was active. This data proved instrumental in finding the problem and finding a resolution. Teamwork is fantastic–especially when the relationship is conducive to making it happen instantly.

A complex example – Curtis and the “Not a Tornado”

On August 10, 2023, at about 10:30 pm, the central part of Wichita Falls was hit by what is being labeled as a microburst. It looks pretty similar to a tornado in damage capability. It removed most of the roof and toppled a wall at our alternative education center only three working days before the start of the 23-24 school year. Phones started ringing around 11:00 pm that same evening, and those relationships that had been built before that event were put to the test. I’m proud that the trust relationship between Technology, Maintenance, and Fixed Assets was already strong. This allowed us to trust one another’s judgment and rapidly move toward a common goal. On Friday morning, while the rest of the staff was at Convocation, these three teams were hard at work stripping all the salvageable equipment from the damaged campus. We were then able to coordinate together to rebuild that campus completely at a previously abandoned location. There were simultaneous efforts from Warehouse personnel delivering items to the “new” campus, Technology installing networking, classroom, and security hardware, Maintenance performing last-minute repairs, and Fixed Assets rounding up surplus items to complete the puzzle. We had this empty campus up and running again for the start of school on Wednesday. The timely coordination required focus, grit, and respect for the needs of each department. This could have never been accomplished between silos or dysfunctional leadership. So put in the effort today to build those bridges between other departments and leaders, for you never know when a “Not a Tornado” could roll through your own life.

Build the relationship now

These examples are some of the many reasons that having a solid relationship with your facilities team is essential to the successful technology support of any school organization. However, you do not want to wait for an emergency to build the relationship. Make a concerted effort to build those relationships now so they will be there when needed.

Key points:

• School districts are ready to be transformed by reliable optimized wired and Wi-Fi networks
• Cybersecurity staffing shortage is districts’ top concern
• The modern CIO’s role is changing–here’s how to keep up
• For more news on school networks, visit eSN’s IT Leadership hub

In 2024, Wi-Fi and wired networks are critical infrastructure for educational organizations. Thanks to the continuous push for digitally literate students and interactive, immersive, and connected eLearning environments, chief technology officers (CTOs) are responsible for networks that must support greater demand than ever before.

There are three top technologies for school district CTOs to consider when planning for the health and longevity of their wired and Wi-Fi networks. Addressing these three key areas–video collaboration, the 6GHz migration, and network automation–will prepare networks to meet the needs of today’s and future students.

Optimize video collaboration for seamless connectivity

Video collaboration applications place substantial demands on networks because they use real-time data. If networks are unreliable, even with intermittent problems, video applications will take a hit. When this software is used to support virtual learning and to supplement classroom instruction, it must operate smoothly and without interruption.

Problems can result in teachers being forced to adapt lesson plans on the fly, students not receiving complete instructions, or learning goals being missed. This can lead to frustration in the classroom.

CTOs want the best for their students. Prioritizing network designs that support video collaboration is one way to ensure the best is always possible. This takes:

• Complete network and application visibility.
• Proactive alerts before issues affect end users.
• Video collaboration testing of key end-to-end metrics to determine how capable a network is of supporting video platforms.

A best practice is to work with one or more solutions that will deliver these capabilities automatically. This reduces the burden for IT teams and ensures that all analytics are delivered consistently and continuously. Once CTOs know how a network is performing and what demand it is under, leaders can make the most effective use of their resources and design a network that reliably delivers video collaboration support.

6GHz and Wi-Fi 6E for next generation technologies

6E devices and the 6GHz spectrum they operate in provide the following benefits for schools:

• Lower latency across the board and instantaneous network responses for real time applications.
• Faster data rates and designated bandwidth for users for improved user experience.
• Reduced network overcrowding due to 6E devices not using the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands.

While the adoption of Wi-Fi 6E, the 6GHz frequency band, and the significant improvements these technologies can deliver are exciting, there are important strategies for CTOs to keep in mind as they prepare for the upgrade.

This is the first time in over a decade that a new frequency band has been made available. There could be members of a CTO’s professional team who have never participated in an adoption like this. It’s important to remember that there’s no rush, these technologies aren’t going anywhere, and a school district can’t be transformed overnight–nor does it need to be. Moving forward at a pace that makes the most sense for your district, making changes where they will have the most benefit first, testing for interoperability issues–all of this will ensure the adoption is seamless, delivering the best ROI possible.

CTOs’ teams must be able to:

• Analyze end user metrics to predict which schools or school areas need the upgrade first.
• Redesign AP deployment to better provide 6GHz connectivity.
• Analyze network performance to ensure redesigns don’t cause roaming issues.
• Continuously manage all possible security risks – a possibility during any transition.
• Compare network performance before and after the transition to ensure the desired benefits are delivered.
• Watch and analyze three frequency bands (2.4, 5, and 6GHz) 24/7.

CTOs who bring these capabilities onboard will personalize the transition process, ensuring the most rewarding experience for their unique schools.

Network automation for improved, worry-free performance

Ultimately, CTOs need to provide complete assurance that both wired, and Wi-Fi networks are reliable and optimized at all times. AI-driven network automation solutions provide this assurance. These solutions automatically detect, notify, and mitigate wired and Wi-Fi network problems using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Here’s why they are a major trend for educational institutions. They support:

• Connectivity for eLearning, online assessments, and emerging technologies with:
  • Constant, real-time monitoring and analysis of network behavior.
  • Automated historical analytics for long-term performance trends.
  • End user experience metrics so CTOs know whether the network is meeting educational needs.
  • Wired and Wi-Fi network tests.

• Reduced network downtime and fewer network issues thanks to:
  • Proactive identification of existing and potential wired and Wi-Fi network issues.
  • Elimination of network mysteries through the identification of the root cause of issues.
  • Automatic alerts to IT for all issues.

• Supported educators and staff because solutions:
  • Scale cost effectively, supporting hundreds to thousands of devices.
  • Provide remote, automated troubleshooting to cut down on travel for IT.
  • Deliver future-proofed optimization (if vendor agnostic).

Work with network automation solutions to restore time and energy to IT professionals and take the complexity out of network optimization.

Future-proofing the best way

School districts in 2024 are ready to be transformed by technology and reliable, optimized wired and Wi-Fi networks. CTOs that use automation, AI, and machine learning to understand their users’ needs and network behavior will support seamless connectivity and improved learning across their districts.

Key points:

• Careful planning, open communication, and strong partnerships are key parts of digital sustainability
• Balancing sustainability and innovation in education
• K-12 tech innovation is driving a paradigm shift in education
• For more news on digital sustainability, visit eSN’s IT Leadership hub

I recently had the privilege of co-presenting a session on digital sustainability with UDT at FETC this past January. Meeting with other education technology and instructional leaders affirmed how multi-faceted and critical digital sustainability is for school districts right now.

My unique path to serving as Chief Information Officer for Orange County Public Schools has enabled me to experience our district’s digital transformation from multiple perspectives. I began at OCPS as a first-grade teacher before joining the district’s teaching and learning team, where I helped plan our five-year 1:1 device rollout for 280k students. In August 2023, I transitioned from teaching and learning to IT.

Given our district’s size, we distributed devices to 30 or 40 schools at a time beginning in 2014/2015. The year before a rollout, we’d begin training the teachers and upgrading any necessary infrastructure at the school level. By the time the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we were almost done with the rollout. However, this created an interesting dynamic. We had schools with devices that were 5 or 6 years old, schools with brand new devices, and classrooms with equipment approaching 6 to 7 years old. As we were finishing our 1:1 rollout, we also had to consider updating and refreshing all these devices.

This disparity made us realize that we needed to implement a robust digital sustainability strategy to deliver equitable and secure digital learning opportunities to all OCPS students.

To be successful, we have separated our approach into four key areas:

1. Devices: This includes distributing, collecting, replacing, and repairing devices, as well as giving schools the timeline needed to adjust to district decisions. It also involves managing accessories, like chargers, which students often lose. A laptop without a charger is essentially non-existent in your fleet, so we had to develop an in-depth plan for managing and replacing chargers.

Mitigating the impact of breakage rates has been a learning process. For example, we originally did not put our devices in cases. Introducing cases has led to a 50 percent drop in breakage. We have also changed our model to ensure students get their original device back after repairs, which encourages them to take better care of their devices.

2. Infrastructure: We need to think beyond the device and consider our entire digital infrastructure. If we do not have enough broadband to facilitate seamless learning experiences, our students will suffer. Additionally, as interactive whiteboards and other components age, we need to decide how we will pay for replacements.

3. Access: As CIO of OCPS, I am often reminded of the delicate balance that must be maintained between access and security. Our devices are not for IT; they are for our teachers and students. Our role in IT is to ensure these devices work and provide the access needed for effective teaching and learning. Teachers want quick access to resources, and we strive to provide that. However, we also have a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our network and data. One way we achieve the balance is through our software request process. This process allows us to check that the requested site has a privacy policy that aligns with our district’s guidelines.

Communicating the ‘why’ behind our actions to teachers, parents, and other stakeholders is critical as we navigate the complex landscape of providing access to resources while maintaining security. We may need to convey it multiple times and in ways that parents and teachers understand, but it’s a crucial part of maintaining the balance between access and security.

4. Security: With the number of devices on a school district’s network, security is a massive concern and needs to be part of every conversation. The moment we power a device and start using it, we introduce risk. The sophistication of cyber threats is increasing, and schools need to adopt a layered approach to security.

No matter your size, school districts are going to need partners to help safeguard their digital learning environments and streamline their fleet management processes. Our own partnerships provide expertise that is not native inside our district and help our organization function more effectively.

As we move into 2024, we know we will be challenged every day. However, with careful planning, open communication, and strong partnerships, we are confident in our ability to sustain our 1:1 device program and continue to provide our students with the tools they need for success.

Key points:

• Admins can take risks, learn to use new tools, and relying on the partners
• Solving the IT staffing challenge in K-12 education
• Now is the time to plan for next year’s technology upgrades
• For more news on IT transformations, visit eSN’s IT Leadership hub

Irvington Public Schools is an urban district with the hometown feeling of a place where everyone knows each other. Our student body is predominantly Black, but we are quite diverse and have many cultures represented among our students. Approximately 20 percent of our scholars speak English as a second language.

I have been with the district for 20 years, though I didn’t become the superintendent until April 2020. When I came into the office, I had a tech-focused vision for the future of our district, but the pandemic was beginning to force us to move in that direction anyway, albeit without the careful consideration and planning we would have preferred. I gave our technology department marching orders to get every student and every teacher on a Chromebook and trained in the Google Suite within two weeks. It was immensely stressful for them, but they got it done and we haven’t looked back.

Here’s how we brought our district into the future without breaking our budget.

Beginning a technological evolution

When I first became an administrator in the 2013-14 school year, I started a coding initiative. I believed technology would be powerful for our scholars and I wanted everyone to have access to it, but only one student in the entire school signed up for the program.

Fast forward 10 years, and now thousands of scholars in our district are learning to code in elementary school using engaging, hands-on tools like Ozobots, Lego Spike, and VR Labs–and that’s just where their tech journeys begin.

We also have Chromebooks for every student and 3D printers and interactive whiteboards in our classrooms. We even bought virtual reality headsets that allow our scholars to visit places they might never see otherwise, a powerful way to bring cross-curricular learning to life for students. One thing I appreciate about the headsets is that they really highlight the belief that technology does not have to exist in its own standalone class, or even be the main point of any activity it’s used in. Sometimes it’s just a way to excite students, to immerse them in a different perspective or experience than they might otherwise have access to.

Our tech director, John Amberg, does an excellent job staying on the cutting edge of technology and finding ways to share it with our students. Not only did he help launch our first STEAM academy, he was instrumental in putting together our first AI community summit, and we are now preparing to open an AI academy.

Finding the funding (and partners) for a tech makeover

In order to fund these exciting initiatives, we have been able to leverage state and federal funds–specifically, ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds–and have secured various grants. We can (and will!) always hope for more funding. Regardless, our goal is to ensure that our scholars are exposed to what’s happening in the world, whether that’s new AI tools or Elon Musk’s new project. To that end, we have a department called Government Programs that seeks out and applies for grants, and we direct a certain amount of each school’s funding toward technology.

We spent time and resources to conduct research prior to making decisions, which has proven to be a sound investment. Part of that research is looking at what other districts do and reaching out to their leadership when I see something I admire. I’m part of several different superintendents’ groups, but I belong to one core group in which we share everything we’re doing so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It can be hard to build those relationships with neighboring districts because everyone wants to stand out and be the best district in the area, but nearby superintendents can make incredible partners. We have our STEAM academy right now because I had two phenomenal partners who let me visit their districts to see how their technology and systems worked.

During any large technology adoption, it’s important to partner with a vendor who has a human touch and can be consistently relied upon. They may be tech gurus, but if they don’t understand your entry points and where you want to go from that point–or you can’t reach them when things aren’t going well–it doesn’t matter how great their technical understanding is. We partnered with Bluum to provide a range of technology, including Ozobots, virtual reality headsets, 3D printers, interactive flat panels, Chromebooks, and more. It all works together to create a comfortable, user-friendly experience for both educators and students.

Using professional development to earn teacher buy-in

The transition was hard for some educators because none of us wants to look like we don’t know what we’re doing in front of a classroom of young scholars. Some teachers also felt like we were telling them how to teach. I stressed that the change wasn’t about the technology, but about our scholars. We need to meet them at their entry points, and technology is a powerful entry point for young people today. Another thing that has helped is reminding all our teachers what a powerful and wonderful teachable moment it is when a teacher has the opportunity to show their scholars that everyone needs some help sometimes and everyone, even students, can be in a position to teach from time to time. That’s a valuable lesson for our scholars.

We provided our teachers plenty of professional development on how to use all these new tools to make their teaching more efficient, convenient, and engaging. I use the analogy of a dark room. No one has to go into it alone. I’ll hold your hand and go in with you and I’ll make sure you have support there in the form of technology coaches, technicians, and others who can provide one-on-one help. You may not be able to see everything around you and you might feel afraid and vulnerable, but you have the support to stay safe and find a light switch. Through this work, we have made new technology non-threatening, which has been successful. We had teachers on the verge of retiring after 30-40 years in the classroom that caught a second wind amid all these transformations.

It has made a difference in our scholars’ lives, too. One of our scholars recently achieved a perfect score on our mathematics statewide assessment. We asked her how she did it, and she told us that she was using the Chromebook and one of the programs we provided, iReady, to practice at home every night. She wouldn’t have had that ability without our tech initiatives, but those tools and her own hard work enabled her to excel in an area that she doesn’t even consider her best.

As administrators, we can’t be afraid to get out on a ledge. All that does is limit our scholars to what we already know and understand. We ask our students to be vulnerable and take risks every day. We can model that behavior by taking risks and learning to use new tools ourselves and relying on the partners and team members we have to hold our hands in the dark.

Key points:

• CIOs are up against the status quo as they strive for digital transformation
• How to make secure K-12 digital transformation a reality
• Solving the IT staffing challenge in K-12 education
• For more news on digital transformation, visit eSN’s IT Leadership page

Eighty-eight percent of CIOs say their role is becoming more digital and is increasingly focused on innovation, which begs the question: How is education, a notoriously slow industry, going to keep pace with digital transformation?

During a session at FETC 2024, Marlon Shears, CIO of IDEA Public Schools, offered a realistic view of what CIOs across all sectors are prioritizing and how digital transformation is driving changes and investments in education.

Defining digital transformation, though, isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, because digital transformation will look different for every organization. But while there’s no set definition, in general, such transformation can be defined as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, creating fundamental change around how business operates and how the business delivers value to stakeholders, Shears said.

But to drive this transformation, CIOs must challenge the status quo and must be comfortable with failure, Shears said.

“You must challenge, ‘We don’t do that here,’” he said. “You have to become the leader who challenges that. You may not always be liked, but you have to build a culture where you can lean in and trust one another to take on that digital transformation. It’s not an overnight success story.”

In pursuit of transformation, CIOs must be comfortable with failure. “This is one of the hardest ones,” Shears added. “No one’s perfect when you’re trying to change, integrate, and do different things to bring value into your organization. If we’re not comfortable failing, if the organization isn’t comfortable with us failing, are we really doing digital transformation? You have to push that to your superintendent.”

CIOs across other industries are prioritizing AI—80 percent are spending their time on AI and machine learning, up from 55 percent in 2023, according to new research on CIOs. Seventy percent are focused on cybersecurity, and 61 percent are focused on data privacy and compliance.

Challenges include staffing and skills shortages, changing business conditions, addressing security threats, and budgetary constraints/demonstrating ROI.

CIOs are looking for their tech budgets to increase in 2024, citing needs for security improvements, to keep pace with rising costs of tech and services, investments in emerging technologies such as AI, investments in new skills and talent, and modernizing or migrating infrastructure.

“Digital transformation isn’t just computers–it’s how to get your organization to the next level,” he said. “This is something we’ve all started, but we also need to know where we want to go. It means bold choices.”

AI isn’t the only acronym poised to create vast improvements in the way we teach and learn. Last month, eSchool attended “XR Training: The Next Frontier of Learning,” hosted by Transfr Inc. The event featured many speakers including CEO Bharani Rajakumar (pictured above), developers, and users in the corporate, not-for-profit, and government sectors that use simulation software to enhance job training programs. 

Conversations touched on a wide variety of topics from the distinctions of spatial computing, to how XR can reduce the skills gap, to how its application can become a powerful force in underserved communities. It was a great opportunity to listen to some of the leading experts in the field, get our chance to try the gear firsthand and hear how the tech is already impacting lives. Scroll down for some highlights of the sessions and some examples of the simulations in action.

Extended reality (XR) is considered a catch-all term for augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies. The technology intends to combine or mirror the physical world with a “digital twin world” able to interact with it, which gives users an immersive experience by being in a virtual or augmented environment.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Census Bureau, around 11 million people are either looking for a job or would look for one if they had the necessary skills. Transfr focuses on areas like construction, manufacturing, and healthcare, where almost 4 million job opportunities exist that don’t require a 4-year degree. The company believes in allowing everyone to pursue upward mobility by learning about their interests and acquiring the necessary skills.

The company has created over 300 training simulations, offering immersive experiences in aviation maintenance, diesel technology, and, more recently, healthcare. The introduction of Career Exploration 2.0 allows students to explore various career options through shorter, more engaging simulations, including new modules in health sciences and future occupations like electric vehicles and semiconductors. The platform has seen significant developments, including a new VR application for Career Exploration 2.0 with login options, diverse virtual coaches, multi-language support (including Spanish in 2024), closed captioning, and an enhanced dashboard for easier classroom management. Transfr has also launched a Career Exploration dashboard that helps instructors track students’ exploration paths and preferences, facilitating better guidance.

You can check out some of their simulation examples below:

The cutting-edge technology has implications beyond just improving job training. I had the opportunity to chat with Joe Jordan, the President and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Indiana, about how XR simulation training can help close the skills gap.

He envisions XR technology becoming an essential project within his organization, fostering economic development and providing essential skills for youth. The collaboration with Transfer is seen as a win-win proposition, aligning technology companies with educational institutions to create solutions for the benefit of the community.

The Boys and Girls Club’s partnership with Transfer demonstrates a holistic approach to child development, leveraging technology to bridge educational gaps, create opportunities, and contribute to economic development, all while emphasizing the importance of strategic partnerships. Have a listen:

Key points:

• There’s much to learn about securely introducing new tech into the classroom
• See article: Solving the IT staffing challenge in K-12 education
• See article: Now is the time to plan for next year’s technology upgrades
• Discover where K-12 tech innovation can take you

There is no shortage of devices on a school campus between students, faculty, and educators. Not only are there school-mandated devices, but the rise of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) linked to the school’s network has the potential to cause major strain on a school’s IT system, both from campus and at home.

In today’s digital age, one student alone might be using two or three different devices for their schoolwork – that’s more surfaces for security threats to creep in than ever before. Not only is personal device use on the rise, but since 2020, there has been a 19 percent average increase in the overall use of learning technologies.

As teachers and students alike are looking to implement the latest tech to improve lessons and streamline learning, there is a lot to learn when it comes to safely and securely introducing new technology into the classroom.

IT 101: Self-service procedures and remote support

No matter the size of an educational institution, IT departments are typically stretched thin while also working with a limited budget. For small tech teams, it’s essential to ensure as many people as possible are able to help manage the business-critical infrastructure like phone systems, internet connectivity, and remote educational tools, to minimize downtime and poor user experiences. Setting up a self-service tool can significantly streamline upkeep for these systems, allowing school staff to troubleshoot smaller issues without taking up the IT team’s time and resources. 

Remote support and management solutions also play a critical role in keeping technologies running smoothly, especially for problems that are too complex for regular faculty to solve on their own.  With it, IT teams can remotely view the device or software experiencing issues, investigate the problem, and guide staff through the fix or remotely take control and troubleshoot the problem directly – all from any location. That saves valuable time and resources, allowing teams to solve issues for teachers and students in the classroom, at home, or elsewhere.

Regularly updating your IT plans and solutions

The key to any successful classroom is ensuring the curriculum remains as up to date and relevant as possible. This holds true for IT teams, too. Students regularly use virtual collaboration tools, online chat rooms, machine-powered learning assistants, and more recently, AI-powered tools in and out of the classroom. McKinsey found that in 2022, “technologies that enable connectivity and community building, such as social media–inspired discussion platforms and virtual study groups, saw [a 49 percent] uptick in use, followed by group work tools, which grew by 29 percent.” These technologies are helping shape the education system, and IT professionals are a driving force behind making them accessible – and reliable – for students and teachers. 

Emerging technologies require teachers, students, and IT teams to develop new skills. IT teams should collaborate with educators to understand what technologies teachers want to implement in the classroom and to ensure that these technologies are deployed and used properly. A great way to foster that collaboration is by hosting regular meetings outlining recent technology updates, offering onboarding sessions, and providing a platform to answer questions that can help with initial adoption pains. 

While the COVID-induced learn-from-home era accelerated the adoption of technologies used for remote learning, faculty and students in classrooms or wherever the learning takes place are still challenged when adopting new technologies. By offering remote support tool options for educators, IT teams can bridge gaps between the classroom and tech. With a plethora of remote support tools available, IT departments should look for solutions that are simple and user-friendly for non-technical faculty members or students to receive assistance. Adopting support solutions that offer state-of-the-art security and effective troubleshooting functionality is vital in streamlining the problem-resolution process. 

A lesson in crisis planning

Today, it is hard to keep pace with the constant influx of new devices and technologies that education systems leverage. The rapid changes to the environment increase the risk to security and privacy. In fact, “the educational services industry [recently experienced] a dramatic increase in ransomware attacks, accounting for over 30 percent of breaches.” 

The rise in education sector cyberattacks proves why school districts, higher-level institutions, and IT leaders need to take the lead in cybersecurity crisis planning, outlining how to identify, respond to and recover from cybersecurity incidents. 

To reduce the risk, schools should focus on choosing products with proven built-in security measures, such as 256-bit AES encryption, multi-factor authentication, and zero trust network access, enabling students and staff to securely connect with multiple platforms and devices, while also proactively protecting against threats.

Educational decision-makers should also invest in IT remote management tools that are easy to deploy, use, update, and manage. Such tools will not only reduce cost, and improve efficiency of IT teams, but will be essential when responding to and recovering from a cybersecurity incident if the need arises. 

It’s an exciting time for the education sector as emerging technologies open a realm of opportunities for both faculty and students. With the above IT security measures and best practices in place, schools can reap the benefits of these tools while also keeping their students and faculty safe from cyberattacks.

Key points:

• A positive work environment goes a long way in staff retention
• Labor shortages are particularly persistent in the IT industry
• See related article: Now is the time to plan for next year’s technology upgrades
• For more on IT departments, visit eSN’s IT Leadership page

Even in the best of times, K-12 school districts often have a tough time recruiting and retaining IT employees, as it can be hard for budget-conscious districts to offer salaries and benefits that are competitive with those in the private sector. This challenge is further magnified by low unemployment and the fact that private-sector businesses are also struggling to hire IT talent right now.

While labor shortages are finally easing in the wake of the pandemic, IT is an industry where employers are still scrambling for workers. According to USA Today, 62 percent of job openings in the information sector go unfilled every month.

The lack of IT talent is a problem for all organizations, but it places an especially large burden on K-12 school systems. The Consortium for School Networking’s annual “State of Edtech Leadership” survey reveals that 56 percent of districts are understaffed when it comes to supporting classroom technology use, and hiring and retaining skilled personnel is the second leading IT challenge among school systems, trailing only budget constraints.

To solve the IT staffing challenge, K-12 leaders will have to try many approaches. Obviously, creating a positive work environment characterized by trust, respect, teamwork, and open communication can help foster a sense of community and keep IT employees engaged and motivated. However, here are four other important strategies that can help.

Empower your IT staff.

As best-selling author Daniel Pink writes in his book Drive, having autonomy is a powerful motivator for employees. Establishing a framework in which IT employees have the ability to offer input on important projects, be creative in their role, and make decisions or solve problems on their own can make their jobs more rewarding, while encouraging them to take ownership of their role.

Provide opportunities for professional growth.

The opportunity to develop mastery is another strong incentive for employees, Pink observes. With technology changing so rapidly, IT personnel continually need to develop new skill sets. Yet, many school systems fail to provide adequate professional learning opportunities for their IT staff.

According to CoSN’s survey, only 33 percent of school systems provide in-person training for their IT employees—and even fewer (28 percent) provide online training. Most IT departments stay up to date on their own, with 78 percent saying they’re self-taught. One IT leader was quoted in the survey as saying: “I feel that I am not adequately trained to wear all the hats that I wear in our small school. I know I have weaknesses, and I fear that those weaknesses will hurt the district.”

Providing training and mentorship opportunities for your IT staff not only makes them more effective; it’s also an important recruitment and retention strategy. Giving your employees avenues for career advancement can help you attract and retain top IT talent as well.

Emphasize the mission.

Having a strong and inspiring sense of purpose is yet another motivating factor, Pink writes—and this is an area where K-12 school districts might have an edge over many private-sector organizations.

In working for your school system, IT employees play a key role in supporting the academic and social-emotional development of students. Highlighting this benefit during the hiring process, and repeatedly reminding employees how their efforts contribute to student success, can go a long way toward recruiting IT staff and keeping them happy and engaged.

Give IT employees tools to do their jobs efficiently.

An important aspect of creating a positive work environment is making sure employees aren’t overstressed or burning out because they have too much work to do and not enough time to accomplish it all. Yet, given the budget constraints that many school systems operate under, it seems like IT staff constantly have to do more with less.

Think about how you might leverage technology to streamline key processes and help IT employees do their jobs more efficiently. By using the right tools and platforms, you can ease the burden on IT staff and make it easier for them to manage their workloads.

For instance, software can help IT staff manage, configure, and deploy teacher and student devices from a single, centralized console; see at a glance how technology is being used for instruction; manage software licenses more effectively; and instantly reset user passwords as needed. What’s more, modern service desk technology can automate important ticketing workflows and direct users to a user-friendly self-service portal, further reducing the workload for K-12 IT employees.

Reducing the stress that IT employees face, creating a positive workplace environment, and empowering them with autonomy, mastery, and purpose are critical steps in helping them achieve success and improving staff recruitment and retention. Although this is a complex problem that will require a system-wide approach to solving it, these five strategies are a good place for K-12 leaders to start.

Key points:

• Planning early gives ample time to examine technology upgrades
• A company specializing in IT upcycling or device buyback programs can help through the process
• See related article: How IT leaders tackle 7 digital asset management challenges
• For more news on IT innovations, visit eSN’s IT Leadership page

While school districts are well underway into their new year – and their new budget – many are already planning for the year ahead, and technology remains one of the top priorities schools focus on to keep their students, faculty, staff, and administration effectively moving forward.

There are significant advantages of planning technology upgrades over the winter, not the least of which is moving your school forward by giving your leadership team — including the technology and finance directors, as well as operations staff and even your school board —time to research, plan, and coordinate any upgrade initiatives that will need to happen over the summer. Here are just a few advantages to planning ahead of time for next year’s technology upgrades.

Comprehensive planning

Planning is essential to the success of any technology upgrade, and planning well ahead gives school districts time to assess current technology needs and goals for the future. This includes evaluating existing devices, software, and infrastructure to determine what needs to be replaced or upgraded.

With the help of technology experts, school districts can create a comprehensive plan that outlines the timeline, budget, and desired outcomes of the upgrade.

Many schools have varying devices with inconsistent ages and that can cause issues over time when it comes to quality, software updates, and the equity of devices. Districts should determine what is most important to them and what value add they need from technology. One of the most important parts of technology planning is knowing what you currently have and what students, faculty, and staff need from new devices.

Additionally, planning will allow schools to plan and respond to the end of the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF). In 2020, after the onset of the pandemic, the program was created to provide funding to schools and libraries to purchase eligible equipment and services for students and teachers who lack connected devices, including laptops, tablets, or even broadband access. This funding expired in May 2023, so any district that once leveraged the funds will no longer be able to moving forward. Planning is essential to being able to continue providing reliable technology.

Minimizing disruptions to learning

By planning well in advance – during the winter months – for the upgrades during the summer months, school districts minimize disruptions to the learning environment. With students and teachers on break in the summer, the transition to new devices and systems can take place without interrupting classroom activities.

Allowing time to plan gives the technology department a thorough understanding of the project scope. Once the project planning is complete, IT can focus on the upcoming year when teachers and students can return to a refreshed and upgraded technology infrastructure, ready to start the new academic year smoothly.

Safe removal and asset management

When schools have the necessary time to find and engage with the right third-party technology company, they mitigate risk and ensure a return on their investments. The right partner can effectively manage this process, providing expert assistance in old technology removal, data wiping, and responsible upcycling. It also helps ensure all sensitive information is securely erased from devices, protecting the privacy of all students, faculty, and staff.  The right partner can also assess the residual value of retired devices and offer schools a return on their investments.

Schools across the country typically have to hire extra support over the summer to assist with device collection and inventory processes because it is such a large undertaking. However, districts can’t use that extra help to wipe devices and prepare them for upcycling because of the sensitive nature of data wiping. A third party provides the manpower needed to collect devices and safely prepare the technology for its next chapter.  They do the necessary provisioning and provide schools with an accurate starting point to deploy new devices. In the end, they know what they have and provide you with an expert forecast of what your devices are worth.

Efficient implementation of new technology

The implementation phase of technology upgrades requires careful coordination to ensure a smooth transition. Students may be out of the classroom, but there are still support staff and administrators using technology in the summer. Communication is important and a necessary step in letting staff and administrators know when the server will be down or when their new device will be activated.

Training and support

Introducing new technology to educators and students necessitates training and ongoing support. School districts can take advantage of summer institute days prior to the academic year and provide educators with the time needed to be fully trained on new technology, devices, or software.

Comprehensive training programs tailored to the needs of schools and ensuring teachers and staff are well-equipped to utilize new devices effectively is crucial. Troubleshooting assistance and addressing any technical concerns that may arise are also important considerations.

Device preparation and training is something that requires taking proactive measures to ensure schools are set up for success. There is never a “good” time to deploy devices, so schools need to understand where they are and where they should go by executing proper preparation and planning.

Planning for technology and device upgrades during the winter months is critical so you are ready to implement during summer break. It is a strategic approach that allows school districts to minimize disruptions to learning. Schools can streamline the process, from asset removal to the implementation of new technology with the help of a company specializing in IT upcycling or device buyback programs.

With an expertise in responsible disposal, device procurement, and ongoing support, these companies offer comprehensive solutions that ensure a seamless transition and maximize the benefits of technology in education. Embracing technology upgrades paves the way for a successful and technologically advanced learning environment.

Editor’s note: This story on 10 back-to-school resources for edtech leaders originally appeared on CoSN’s blog and is reposted here with permission.

1) Digital Equity Dashboard 

CoSN’s Digital Equity Dashboard is an innovative and practical tool designed to help school districts and communities leverage data to close digital equity gaps. This powerful instrument integrates various national data sets into one comprehensive dashboard. By anonymizing the data and breaking it down into county, school district and zip code units, the Digital Equity Dashboard provides school and community leaders with valuable data to inform decision-makers and address equity concerns.

• To learn more about how school districts and communities can effectively employ the dashboard, explore CoSN’s informative video tutorials.
• Take a deep dive into the Digital Equity Dashboard at our upcoming webinar on September 13, 2023. (All registrants will receive a recording of the Webinar.)
• Explore the Dashboard here.

2) AI in Education

The advent of Generative AI presents an unprecedented opportunity for K-12 institutions. CoSN Resources on AI offer insight, advice and peer experiences that will guide EdTech leaders in harnessing the power of AI to enhance learning. The AI in Education Community, along with resources, blogs and webinars, serves as a platform for discovering innovative strategies for schools and districts.

• Check out the CoSN Blog Series on Artificial Intelligence. 
• Watch the CoSN Webinar Series: Generative AI — The New School Supply? (Recording available here [member exclusive], Podcast here.)

3) Cybersecurity

In today’s digital landscape, safeguarding our schools’ networks and information is paramount. CoSN Tools and Resources on Cybersecurity empower EdTech leaders to analyze their current security status, reduce risks, and contribute to effective teaching and learning environments. CoSN resources include information on Planning; Prevention & Preparation; Implementation; and Response.

• Read the CoSN Cybersecurity Staffing Resource for K-12, which identifies and addresses staffing cybersecurity across the K-12 organization.
• Read “Making the Case for Increased Investment in Cybersecurity,” which identifies actions a school system IT staff can take to better defend IT infrastructure.
• Check out the Cybersecurity Leadership Game, a valuable group cybersecurity professional development tool.

4) 2023 Driving K-12 Innovation

CoSN’s Driving K-12 Innovation 2023 series continues to provide trend reports that support the integration of emerging technologies in education. With insights from a global advisory board of K-12 leaders, practitioners and changemakers, this initiative delves into the themes driving, hindering, and enabling teaching and learning innovation at schools.

• Check out CoSN blogs on K-12 Innovation — including Be a Catalyst for Change: 10 Expert Tips for Driving K-12 Innovation in the New School Year and How Learner Agency Can Accelerate Innovation — to learn more.
• Read about the Top 2023 Hurdles and Accelerators and Top 2023 Tech Enablers  driving K-12 innovation for the year ahead.
• Stay informed by signing up for the CoSN Roadmap to Innovation newsletter.

5) K-12CVAT

The CoSN K-12 Community Vendor Assessment Tool (K-12CVAT) offers a framework for K-12 schools, districts and education service districts to assess vendor risk. Before purchasing a third-party solution, ask the solution provider to complete the K-12CVAT tool to confirm that information, data and cybersecurity policies are in place to protect sensitive school system information and constituents’ PII. 

• Download the K-12 Community Vendor Assessment Tool.

6) Disaster Preparation

CoSN cybersecurity expert Amy McLaughlin testifies before U.S. Senate

Before a disaster strikes, it is incumbent upon school system IT personnel to have emergency operations plans in place to ensure continuity of learning. Natural disasters can be spontaneous events, requiring school system leaders to implement and train team members on procedures so that they can act swiftly. Administrative and school personnel should be able to assess damage quickly, update all stakeholders, bring critical systems back online, and resume operations as quickly as possible.

• Building a Learning Continuity Plan 
• Building Your Disaster Recovery “GO KIT” (member exclusive)
• Strategies for Building Information Security Governance (member exclusive)

7) Asset Management and Budgeting

In the face of tight IT budgets, assessing the costs and benefits of educational tech projects is crucial. CoSN provides the tools to assist K-12 districts in estimating overall expenses and advantages, which aids in project assessment, validation and long-term viability. Grasping the complete computing expenses is vital for strategic planning, budgeting, and adapting to shifting needs and technologies.

• Explore CoSN resources on Value of Investment (VOI), Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Asset Disposal, Lifecycle Replacement planning and more. 
• Budgeting, TCO & VOI
• Implementing Asset Management (member exclusive)
• Implementing Asset Disposal (member exclusive)

Lifecycle Replacement Planning (member exclusive)

8) Trusted Learning Environment Seal (TLE Seal)

The CoSN Trusted Learning Environment (TLE) Seal is the nation’s only privacy framework designed specifically for school systems. The TLE program helps K-12 schools and districts build strong, effective privacy programs and a culture of trust and transparency. 

• Access the TLE Self-Assessment tool.
• Preview the CoSN TLE Seal Application.

9) Fall Courses

CoSN’s online courses target the skill areas in CoSN’s Framework of Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO, offer CEA Credits for CETL® recertification, and access to course materials for a full year. Register now for Early Bird & Bulk Pricing discounts!

• Student Data Privacy: Laying the Foundation
• CETL Foundation
• Cybersecurity in K-12 Schools
• Project Management
• Cybersecurity Online Workshop 101

10) CoSN Blogs, Webinars and Podcasts

Rev up your EdTech journey through a world of FREE blogs from our vibrant CoSN Members. From AI to EdTech Leadership, Cybersecurity to K-12 Innovation, our blogs cover it all. But that’s not the end of the adventure! Join us for our timely webinars, tailor-made for EdTech leaders like you. Members enjoy them free, while non-members get in on the action at a small cost. And guess what? We’ve got podcasts too, so you can catch up on-the-go. 

Stay up-to-date with the latest through CoSN’s FREE weekly EdTech Dispatch newsletter! Subscribe today and explore insights, trends, and innovations in edtech. Plus, if you aren’t already, don’t miss the chance to enhance your network and knowledge by becoming a member of CoSN.

Search the CoSN Website by topic to find exactly what you need! 

Questions? Email Dr. Jill Brown of Professional Learning, jbrown@cosn.org.

Related: Schools are at a greater risk for cyberattacks than ever before

Key points:

• Poor digital asset management can lead to lost class time, missing devices, and lost funding
• Innovative approaches to asset management let K-12 educational institutions optimize their operations
• See related article: 5 ways our district streamlines edtech ecosystems

With kids out the school door for the summer, IT leaders now face the daunting task of organizing, identifying, and managing the many thousands of devices per district that have been in the hands of students over the past year. In K-12 education, the importance of digital asset management–from Chromebooks to iPads to chargers and more–cannot be overstated.

Schools and districts run the risk of wasting class time, losing valuable devices, and incurring financial losses if they fail to effectively manage the hardware, software and systems that are essential in today’s classrooms. Fortunately for IT leaders, powerful new digital solutions can be leveraged to address many logistical and functional challenges.

In addition, working to introduce a device stewardship model can help address the issues around devices being lost, forgotten, or carelessly handled. When students take responsibility for their technology, they become good stewards of their devices. And when a culture of good device stewardship is embedded across schools and districts, key asset management tasks become easier, more accurate, and more productive for all.

But most of us in educational IT aren’t there yet.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

I’ve seen the full array of challenges that exist in digital asset management because I’ve been working in K-12 technology for more than 15 years. I started out at Knox County Schools (KCS) in Tennessee as a technology teacher and eventually became the district’s IT asset management specialist, responsible for more than 80,000 Chromebooks across 94 locations, along with technology issue ticketing and asset management.

When it comes to managing digital devices in schools, I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly–and that’s a bunch of middle schoolers handling anything breakable!

Top digital asset management challenges–and how to address them

Beyond the collision of adolescence and technology, there are a number of problems that school IT leaders continue to face when it comes to digital asset management. Here are the top challenges, along with suggestions to create greater visibility, communication, and accountability.

1. Outdated record-keeping systems: Deploying centralized record-keeping systems can help school IT departments meet the challenging task of maintaining accurate and up-to-date inventories of devices, ownership information and maintenance histories.

2. Difficulty in tracking missing devices: New technology can tag and track missing devices and identify missing tools and devices. Administrators can then take necessary steps to locate or replace them, minimizing financial losses and ensuring the availability of devices for future use.

3. Inefficient maintenance and repairs: Schools need to maintain comprehensive maintenance histories for devices, allowing for proactive repairs and minimizing downtime. This streamlines the maintenance process and ensures that devices are in optimal condition for student use.

4. Lack of streamlined device allocation and usage monitoring: Comprehensive device management systems allow schools to easily track devices, monitor their usage, and assign responsibilities to specific users or departments, optimizing device allocation and ensuring efficient usage.

5. Financial risks associated with accidental damages or losses: Offering optional insurance programs for devices provides families with the opportunity to protect against such risks and mitigates financial losses for both schools and families.

6. Insufficient planning for device replacements: By analyzing usage trends, device lifecycle, and future requirements, IT leaders can proactively budget for necessary device replacements, ensuring a seamless transition between academic years and avoiding unexpected financial burdens.

7. Too little communication, collaboration, and visibility: Providing a centralized platform for all stakeholders involved in the asset management process facilitates communication and visibility. This ensures clear lines of communication, seamless collaboration, and enhanced transparency among administrators and IT staff.

As the importance of technology in education continues to grow, so too does the need for efficient asset management processes. Schools and districts must recognize the significance of comprehensive device tracking, clear communication, and streamlined management systems.

By adopting modern, innovative approaches to asset management, K-12 educational institutions can optimize their operations, reduce financial losses, and enhance student learning experiences. With proper asset management, IT leaders can take the lead in helping schools unlock the full potential of digital devices, empowering educators and students alike.

Related:
How managed services empower edtech in small schools

Key points:

• Many school districts can’t afford constant technology upgrades and refreshes
• A managed services model can give districts more flexibility and more opportunities for savings
• See related article: How to make secure K-12 digital transformation a reality

The ever-present issue with technology is its inevitable obsolescence. No matter how groundbreaking an innovation may be, there always seems to be a superior alternative just a few steps away. This perpetual evolution presents a significant challenge for enterprises and large companies, forcing them into a costly predicament. For smaller companies operating on limited budgets, keeping pace with technology often necessitates making sacrifices elsewhere. This is where the concept of managed services proves invaluable.

Similarly, many not-for-profit organizations, like school districts, can’t afford to stay on top of the latest technologies. Even before a fiscal year starts, administrators have already earmarked the district’s limited funding for necessities like operation budgets, salaries, and health and nutrition programs.

Streamlining edtech integration: Small schools embrace DaaS

Managed services allow school districts to move from obsolete legacy IT systems without being bogged down by budget. Instead of brand-new IT equipment and hiring the necessary technical staff, managed services allow organizations to avail of these technologies on a subscription basis. Beyond solving the tech gap, they also cover maintenance, troubleshooting, and security.

Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) represents the latest innovation in managed services. Instead of the usual long-term agreement that comes with the outsourcing of IT hardware and services, DaaS provides the option of leasing the equipment on a monthly basis. Shorter commitments offer flexibility and significant cost savings to organizations with rapidly changing requirements.

Moreover, managed services come in two flavors—the main difference boiling down to hardware.

Option 1: Buying hardware with a managed services package

Using funds from the CARES Act, many school districts made recent hardware investments. However, these have yet to generate a healthy return on investment. Instead of opting for a DaaS subscription model, the district can enroll in a managed service package. This takes care of the school’s existing devices’ maintenance, management, and security.

Examples of this scenario are school districts that installed interactive touchscreen panels in all their classrooms. Designed to replace whiteboards as well as school projectors, these highly interactive devices are rated for use for over 50,000 hours. This roughly translates to a utility lifespan of 10 years.

Option 2: Leasing hardware with a managed services package

Meanwhile, school districts that avoided making substantial hardware investments during the pandemic can go directly into the DaaS option. This way, they can ensure that students will only use authorized devices. At the same time, only authorized content and official applications will appear on these devices.

More importantly, the managed service package included in the subscription actively updates and prepares all devices’ system software, firmware, and applications for use. It also means that a managed service IT team remains on standby to provide maintenance and security services to troubled devices at any time.

The central role of device management platforms

Whether subscribed to a DaaS model or to managed services, the IT team in charge will need reliable device management platforms. This ideal device manager maintains the primary role of monitoring, managing, and safeguarding each device connected to the school network. It ensures that only authorized users have access to each school device. In turn, each device must be configured to run the required software and can access the needed content.

Finally, the platform should also have the necessary tools to ensure that each connected device remains safe from unauthorized users and that any private data contained within remains safe from prying eyes.

Management

As part of its device management duties, the platform should provide administrators with the tools to create and assign various access levels for different stakeholder types. As such, admins can access system settings and perform the necessary procedures.

Users can launch applications and open, edit, and save documents. Instructors can manage connected users during remote classes, access student files, and administer lessons. Finally, school executives can look into user data and generate insights to help improve the overall learning experience.

Maintenance

IT admins can perform the needed software updates, patches, or rollbacks to each connected device using cloud connectivity. Whether it’s troubleshooting a single unit or updating the entire fleet, the managed services team can connect to each device remotely, access the tools and files from the cloud, and perform tasks without user intervention.

Security

Protecting each and every school device and its private data is priority #1 for any managed services team. With the right device management platform, schools can rest assured that all their devices remain compliant with privacy protocols such as GDPR, CCPA, and ISO.

Better yet, admins can remotely freeze or disable any device that unauthorized users are trying to access. Even if those malicious actors do successfully access the device, admins can remotely wipe its contents to prevent data theft. Similarly, admins can remotely activate geolocation services to initiate recovery efforts for devices reported lost or stolen.

Managed services and device management go hand-in-hand

When choosing the right managed services provider, you’ve got to make sure they check off all the boxes. That includes top-tier device management, maintenance, and security. Does their device management platform use cloud connectivity and robust security to keep all school devices secure, up-to-date, and ready for use?

The school district is responsible for guaranteeing that locals’ hard-earned tax dollars are being spent properly and are protected. A competent managed services company and a reliable device management platform go hand-in-hand in helping schools keep up with education technology while protecting those investments long-term.

Related:
3 ways a cloud-based ERP helps schools innovate
5 K-12 IT insights from IT leaders

Key points:

• More students and educators are connecting personal devices to school networks
• This makes network security–an already underfunded area–even more critical

The pandemic was a massive shift for school districts across the country, and even as we move out of it, we’re still feeling the impact. On the technical side, it prompted quick transformation to enable virtual schooling–and these changes were made as districts were already challenged by legacy technology, reduced budgets and understaffing. Existing problems were exacerbated.

In parallel, we’ve seen a rise in ransomware and other cyberattacks in the education sector. What’s needed is a digital transformation strategy that also prioritizes security.

A challenging landscape

There’s nothing mysterious or shocking about the rise in cyberattacks against the education sector. Today’s 21-century education requires up-to-date technology, but that’s a bigger risk for school IT teams. For instance, educational institutions are witnessing growth in the number of students, professors, and administrators who link personal devices to the network. A school district’s attack surface is expanded by this increased connection, making it more vulnerable to new threats.

And most schools are not equipped to deal with these threats; the Nationwide Cybersecurity Review (NCSR) risk-based assessment rates the cyber maturity score of K-12 schools at 3.55 out of 7. In fact, according to 29 percent of those responding to the K-12 Report, a cyber incident occurred in their district last year. Malware and ransomware were two of the most prevalent occurrences. According to the report, ransomware attacks pose the greatest cybersecurity risk to K-12 schools and districts in terms of overall cost and downtime.

As for malware, attackers have been opportunistically targeting K-12 districts over the past few years using certain strains, such as Shlayer and Coinminer. Consequently, K–12 schools must make sure their network connectivity is safe so they can protect sensitive student data and their critical digital assets.

What makes that harder is the fact that cybersecurity in K-12 districts is often under-funded.

School IT teams–many of them lacking proper staff levels–continually juggle a variety of tasks, from maintaining a wide range of devices to making sure the campus is outfitted with physical surveillance systems to keep children safe. Many IT workers find it challenging to set aside time to improve cybersecurity measures due to their expanding list of duties. To make matters worse, the typical school district spends 8 percent or less of its annual IT budget on security; 18 percent of districts spend less than 1 percent, according to the K-12 report.

One district’s digital transformation win

Let’s look at the example of one east coast district that recently declared it a top priority to equip all of its students with devices and implement a next-generation education platform throughout all of its campuses. But because of the rapid network edge expansion brought on by this transformation, the district’s aging systems and management infrastructure acquired serious security holes. Aging infrastructure was resulting in problems such as wireless access point failures, and service support agreements were about to expire.

With just one engineer serving as the district’s sole IT support for all its schools, a large portion of their time was taken by resolving problems with network infrastructure point products. The engineer saw the need for an integrated network platform for simple management, mitigation, automation and control. That led the district to start seeking a unified infrastructure that included switches, access points and security systems to enable its digital transformation.

Their approach combines SD-WAN and next-generation firewall capabilities with sophisticated routing and zero-trust network access (ZTNA) enforcement; it is quick, scalable, and adaptable. An endpoint detection and response solution is integrated into the network to provide cutting-edge endpoint security with real-time visibility, information sharing, analysis, defense and remediation. A network operations center (NOC) is responsible for centrally managing the district’s network and solutions. As a result, integration has improved and there is more control.

This is in line with what CoSN’s 2023 report has found: “Connecting systems or digital environments can form powerful digital ecosystems for enabling student learning and/or supporting education administration.”

The importance of ongoing training

Introducing regular security awareness training for teachers and staff is one of the simplest ways to improve cybersecurity. Though IT staff are crucial to safeguarding a school’s assets, everyone is accountable for cybersecurity. However, this is only achievable if they are aware of and are able to recognize the typical techniques employed by cybercriminals. All employees can and should be a solid line of defense.

Plotting a more secure course

By enabling novel experiences and enhancing communication and collaboration among students, parents, and instructors, digital technology has the potential to transform learning in American schools. The digital transformation process for K–12 education is essential in light of attackers’ increasing focus on this sector. Education IT leaders should consider security and networking as equally important with awareness training as the connection to safe operations and the path to the future.

Related:
3 ways MDM helps fight school cyberattacks
Ransomware attacks on schools are only getting worse

As school districts emerge from the worst of COVID-19, they’re bringing with them new priorities. Many of the changes that districts have made during the pandemic, such as giving employees the flexibility to work remotely, will be carried forward. Other processes are being reevaluated to serve the needs of students and other stakeholders more effectively.

In looking to update everything from teaching and learning processes to school district operations, one of the most basic steps that K-12 leaders can take to position their schools for success is updating their education resource planning (ERP) solution by moving to a cloud-based system.

We can’t really talk about modernizing and streamlining district operations without discussing ERPs. An ERP is the backbone of a district’s operations, helping administrators manage essential financial functions related to payroll, HR, accounting, and more.

Scalability, affordability, and reliability—hallmarks of cloud-based software—make it an ideal solution for any district that is ready to modernize its ERP solution. Migration can come with some up-front costs, but districts will save in the long run thanks to the lower total cost of ownership of cloud solutions.

While an ERP is a critical solution, many commercial ERP platforms are aimed at businesses. They aren’t tailored to the needs of education, and they could require costly customization to meet a school district’s needs. An ERP designed specifically for K-12 education would meet the needs of all district staff more effectively and improve operational efficiency.

Here are three reasons to choose an ERP designed specifically for K-12 education:

1. You’ll have better compliance.

Reliable reporting is paramount, and an ERP designed for K-12 ensures the data you need for state and federal reporting is captured and stored in a central system. This leads to fewer errors and more accurate reporting.

2. You’ll see improved collaboration and integration.

An education-specific ERP solution aligns district team members so that everyone is on the same page. Having a single source of data eliminates confusion and ensures quick communication.

3. You’ll benefit from a partner with educational expertise.

Migrating to a cloud-based ERP or upgrading your existing solution is a big investment. However, forming the right partnership with a company that has extensive experience in K-12 education will ensure a successful rollout.

Looking to the cloud

A cloud-based ERP allows for remote and secure data storage, enabling district employees to access all the information they need—including paperwork, applications, and services—in one place from any device, at any time. What’s more, it can be customized to fit a district’s unique needs. Districts that turn to a cloud-based ERP solution can manage and access the resources they need entirely online.

School districts are constantly changing and innovating to meet the needs of teachers and students. As districts change, their ERP needs evolve as well. For instance, you might see a greater demand on district operations when you renew contracts or begin a new fiscal year. A cloud-based ERP can shift with these needs, easily scaling up or down depending on your priorities.

Shifting to the cloud is also a cost-conscious move. New hardware implementations and upgrades can be costly, but cloud-based ERPs give districts the ability to implement new capabilities without upfront investments in servers and installation. Piloting the launch of a new application and then scaling it district-wide is less expensive with the capabilities of cloud-based software, because you only pay for what you actually need and use.

Security is of utmost concern, particularly as K-12 education has become an increasingly attractive target for cyberattacks. Cloud management systems use data encryption and other measures to keep sensitive information secure. Storing data in the cloud also ensures that your district’s information is safe in the event of a natural disaster, because it’s all stored offsite in multiple locations.

When you’re looking to modernize your district’s operations to keep pace with the needs of students, teachers, and staff, it’s essential that you choose systems that give you the flexibility to grow and innovate. With a cloud-based ERP, you get all that—and more.

Related:
5 ways to make your IT department more efficient
How to build community-wide support for IT transformation

IT leadership is an essential component of school and district operations, and in today’s post-pandemic landscape, K-12 IT security is critical in combatting increasing cybersecurity attacks that can cripple even the largest districts in a matter of moments.

It’s important to establish the right K-12 IT practices and policies that support teaching and learning–and it’s even better to share those best practices in the event that other K-12 IT leaders are seeking to establish the same kind of policies.

Here is K-12 IT advice from a handful of IT leaders:

1. The alarming disparity between prioritization and preparedness is indicative of the cybersecurity challenges school districts are facing. As the Director of Technology at Maconaquah School Corporation located in north-central Indiana, I know firsthand that implementing a proactive cybersecurity posture is a difficult and time-consuming–yet necessary–process. School districts are prime targets for hackers; therefore, we must be prepared.

In our own school corporation, we have adopted four key practices that enable us to continuously strengthen and advance our cybersecurity mitigation and prevention strategies. One of those strategies includes continuously identifying and addressing vulnerabilities. As with training, school districts should never remain idle when it comes to evaluating and addressing their vulnerabilities. We have spent the last few years identifying and fixing gaps in our cybersecurity posture and defenses. Conducting regular audits and evaluations has put our district in a stronger position, but the work is never complete. To be diligent, we must proactively assess our cybersecurity weaknesses and defenses regularly. [Read more]
–Chris Percival, Director of Technology, Maconaquah School Corporation

2. There is no doubt that cybersecurity is essential for all organizations in our modern world. However, security cannot be valued more than usability. The sad fact is that the only entirely secure computer system is one that have been unplugged and shut off. Cyberattacks will continue, and it will be important to ensure that every organization has strong backup and recovery plans in place. However, end user usability is just as important as security.

IT leaders need to ensure that usability is still the primary consideration in building IT systems. IT systems are of little value if they are not able to be used effectively by end users. Considerations of what level of additional steps end users are willing to take is essential. This is particularly important as many organizations still have a high number of remote workers. Make sure the warnings provided to end users are significant as well. Too many warnings can numb end users into assuming the IT department is crying wolf and they may stop paying attention to warnings. [Read more]
–Steven M. Baule, Ed.D., Ph.D., Faculty Member, Winona State University

3. For many of IT teams, challenges around cybersecurity are top of mind, with recent research revealing over half of lower education organizations were hit by ransomware in the past year. On top of this, concerns remain around cloud costs, including new limits on free cloud storage, leaving some wondering what they’re supposed to do and having to pay up. K-12 IT teams need to rethink their approach to cloud storage costs and security.

In order to modernize and innovate, education decision-makers will need to embrace hybrid or multi-cloud storage options that keep their data secure by moving away from mainstream, high-cost cloud providers. Further, to meet growing demands on schools’ IT departments, IT leaders will need to adopt a flexible cloud mindset that enables them to effectively and securely store and leverage the growing deluge of data they are inundated with–everything from student health care data to device and research data. A high performance, multi-cloud approach can help K-12 schools check major pain points off their list. [Read more]
–Kevin Warenda, Director of IT, Hotchkiss School

4. Sometimes it feels like a school district IT department doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Yes, technology is more a part of today’s education than ever before, but when tech is running smoothly, it is easy to forget IT departments and the staff that keep the infrastructure running exist. 

In my six years as the director of technology for the Pittsburg Independent School District, we’ve gone through many changes, not to mention what the pandemic put us through. But when COVID-19 forced us all to remote learning nearly overnight, my six-person team was able to move 2,500 students to a one-to-one program rapidly and quite successfully. There were numerous factors contributing to the team’s stellar work. One factor was support from administration, which is vital: It’s very helpful to have someone, both at the board level and the executive level, who understands IT and is equally invested in its success as my team and I are. Listening to your team members is important, too–it validates their importance as individuals and as part of a team. [Read more]
–Nele Morrison, Director of Technology, Pittsburg ISD, Texas

5. In today’s schools, nearly all aspects of student data reside on IT systems in the K-12 ecosystem. And the seamless use of that data through various technologies is paramount in ensuring a stellar educational experience for students and teachers. When teachers and administrators need to bring in student data, protect that data, and adapt to unique needs among various stakeholders who need access to the data, often the amount of time between data entry and usage is so lengthy that end-user experiences only lead to frustration.

I envision a scenario in which students and employees who move between schools in the same state lose no data, lose no documents, no video projects, no graded assignments. Open enrollment policies illustrate why school districts need to implement a cybersecurity system that works seamlessly outside of one specific district. This is a solid illustration of the potentially negative impact that cybersecurity and, more importantly, hands-on protection tools such as user authentication can have on a student’s experience. All learners need an individual path to flourish. If the data that follows them down their educational path isn’t comprehensive or lacks details teachers need, delays or setbacks can result. Retaining and accessing vital student data that teachers need immediately upon a new student’s enrollment is a process that screams for standardized methods. [Read more]
–Diana McGhee, Former Director of Technology at Fort Thomas Independent Schools & Former President of KySTE

Student data privacy has been at the forefront of district leaders’ minds well before the pandemic. However, since COVID-19 shifted schools and classrooms online, it’s not surprising that tech usage has reached an all-time high. Districts are accessing 1,400 edtech tools per month on average, and cybersecurity attacks in our nation’s schools are also increasing.

As an Education Technology Specialist at one of Colorado’s fastest-growing districts, District 49, I was tasked 5 years ago with the responsibility to ensure our district complied with federal and student data privacy laws. Both state and federal laws require vendors and school districts to facilitate safe online learning experiences. However, when the pandemic hit, our district was forced to rethink our approach beyond compliance to further vet our edtech tools and make protecting student data privacy a regular practice of our edtech ecosystem.

For the process to work, I knew we would have to work collaboratively, across departments and buildings, to confirm that our teachers and students were using digital tools that delivered value without exposing student data to risk.

Our district serves 13,000 students across four distinct zones, spanning 133 square miles of suburban and rural areas. Our school leadership has the autonomy and authority to choose whether or not one-to-one learning makes sense for their students and teachers based on their specific student population. Once the pandemic hit, this autonomy became one of our biggest hurdles. Some schools could seamlessly pivot to online learning, while others scrambled to put together folders of materials every week. We quickly found ourselves overwhelmed by the variation in tools used across our district and inundated by options. 

We knew we needed help to encourage consistent practices across school buildings, ensure compliance with Colorado’s student data privacy requirements, reduce frustration and confusion among stakeholders (including parents students, and staff), and begin to evaluate the impact of edtech on student outcomes. At the same time, we wanted to maintain local decision-making. For us, it was all about balance.

Districts like D49 can, and already are, doing this work. And like most things, while it may not be perfect, it’s getting better–that’s what the focus should be for all K-12 stakeholders.

Here are five best practices for other administrators and education leaders  to consider when reigning in their districts’ edtech ecosystem:

1. Audit what is currently in use, not just what’s being purchased. To better understand our district’s edtech usage, our tech team set up a free Inventory Dashboard. Within days, we realized that students and teachers were using a lot more technology tools than we expected–2,000 edtech tools systemwide! Taking stock of the education technology tools being accessed in a district is an essential first step for identifying immediate opportunities for improvement, spotting and eliminating any redundancies, uncovering potential savings, and creating and prioritizing improvement plans aligned to systemwide goals.

2. Understand K-12 laws both at the federal and state levels. Selecting technology platforms and apps needs to address a district’s unique challenges and also comply with state and federal law. For example, in Colorado, the state law requires the ability to “request and evaluate remote learning technology,” while the U.S. Department of Education says “when possible.” District leaders should understand the laws and ensure vendors comply as mandated by their state when applicable, as it may differ from federal guidelines.

3. Work with partners to streamline edtech processes. Being able to sit down with principals and point to the effectiveness of technology choices they made last year, last month, or at the beginning of the school year is an essential part of streamlining the selection and procurement process. We partner with LearnPlatform to gather, comply, share, and communicate our district’s edtech evidence-building protocol to continuously improve teaching and learning.

4. Establish professional development to inform teachers and principals of new edtech policies and ask for their feedback. When districts engage in edtech evaluations and potential change, educators may need to change how they integrate technology in their classrooms. Getting that buy-in is critical and this requires clear communication and built-in feedback opportunities. Leaders should take a hands-on approach, reach out and request feedback at the start of the process. New edtech policies and expectations must be communicated on an ongoing basis. Teachers must also be supported with valuable professional development opportunities that illuminate best practices to enhance technology usage for both teachers and students to optimize learning.

5. Be transparent with parents and local communities. Change can be hard, especially for parents and caregivers who have struggled with the multitude of ever-changing technology platforms that their children have accessed throughout the pandemic. District leaders need to recognize and respect the vital role that families play in successfully educating children to safely navigate the digital tools necessary for quality education. Giving them a consistent place to see what edtech tools are being used with their students goes a long way.

Tech-enabled learning is here to stay. Districts are responsible for taking a hard look at their edtech offerings and must collaborate with solution providers that comply with the law and embrace evidence-building and sharing to support effective and equitable learning.

Related:
How to maintain secure access and data privacy
5 tips to build community-wide support for IT transformation

As school districts emerge from the worst of COVID-19, they’re bringing with them new priorities. Many of the changes that districts have made during the pandemic, such as giving employees the flexibility to work remotely, will be carried forward. Other processes are being reevaluated to serve the needs of students and other stakeholders more effectively.

In looking to update everything from teaching and learning processes to school district operations, one of the most basic steps that K-12 leaders can take to position their schools for success is updating their education resource planning (ERP) solution by moving to a cloud-based system.

We can’t really talk about modernizing and streamlining district operations without discussing ERPs. An ERP is the backbone of a district’s operations, helping administrators manage essential financial functions related to payroll, HR, accounting, and more.

Scalability, affordability, and reliability—hallmarks of cloud-based software—make it an ideal solution for any district that is ready to modernize its ERP solution. Migration can come with some up-front costs, but districts will save in the long run thanks to the lower total cost of ownership of cloud solutions.

While an ERP is a critical solution, many commercial ERP platforms are aimed at businesses. They aren’t tailored to the needs of education, and they could require costly customization to meet a school district’s needs. An ERP designed specifically for K-12 education would meet the needs of all district staff more effectively and improve operational efficiency.

Here are three reasons to choose an ERP designed specifically for K-12 education:

1. You’ll have better compliance.

Reliable reporting is paramount, and an ERP designed for K-12 ensures the data you need for state and federal reporting is captured and stored in a central system. This leads to fewer errors and more accurate reporting.

2. You’ll see improved collaboration and integration.

An education-specific ERP solution aligns district team members so that everyone is on the same page. Having a single source of data eliminates confusion and ensures quick communication.

3. You’ll benefit from a partner with educational expertise.

Migrating to a cloud-based ERP or upgrading your existing solution is a big investment. However, forming the right partnership with a company that has extensive experience in K-12 education will ensure a successful rollout.

Looking to the cloud

A cloud-based ERP allows for remote and secure data storage, enabling district employees to access all the information they need—including paperwork, applications, and services—in one place from any device, at any time. What’s more, it can be customized to fit a district’s unique needs. Districts that turn to a cloud-based ERP solution can manage and access the resources they need entirely online.

School districts are constantly changing and innovating to meet the needs of teachers and students. As districts change, their ERP needs evolve as well. For instance, you might see a greater demand on district operations when you renew contracts or begin a new fiscal year. A cloud-based ERP can shift with these needs, easily scaling up or down depending on your priorities.

Shifting to the cloud is also a cost-conscious move. New hardware implementations and upgrades can be costly, but cloud-based ERPs give districts the ability to implement new capabilities without upfront investments in servers and installation. Piloting the launch of a new application and then scaling it district-wide is less expensive with the capabilities of cloud-based software, because you only pay for what you actually need and use.

Security is of utmost concern, particularly as K-12 education has become an increasingly attractive target for cyberattacks. Cloud management systems use data encryption and other measures to keep sensitive information secure. Storing data in the cloud also ensures that your district’s information is safe in the event of a natural disaster, because it’s all stored offsite in multiple locations.

When you’re looking to modernize your district’s operations to keep pace with the needs of students, teachers, and staff, it’s essential that you choose systems that give you the flexibility to grow and innovate. With a cloud-based ERP, you get all that—and more.

Related:
5 ways to make your IT department more efficient
How to build community-wide support for IT transformation

In this episode of Innovations in Education, sponsored by Promethean and Merlyn Mind and hosted by Kevin Hogan:

• 4 blended learning strategies for better student engagement
• Only out-of-the-box solutions will fix the real problems in schools
• The Promising Reality of AI

The new school year is upon us, and IT teams are ramping up strategic tech investments and systems to help ensure a smooth year ahead. For many of these IT teams, challenges around cybersecurity are top of mind, with recent research revealing over half of lower education organizations were hit by ransomware in the past year. On top of this, concerns remain around cloud costs, including new limits on free cloud storage, leaving some wondering what they’re supposed to do and having to pay up.

In light of these shifts and growing risks, K-12 IT teams need to rethink their approach to cloud storage costs and security. We recently experienced challenges at Hotchkiss School with our past cloud providers in this regard. We could not obtain the amount of secure storage we needed due to not only data consumption and performance challenges, but also because of their egress fees. In order to modernize and innovate, education decision-makers will need to embrace hybrid or multi-cloud storage options that keep their data secure by moving away from mainstream, high-cost cloud providers.

Further, to meet growing demands on schools’ IT departments, IT leaders will need to adopt a flexible cloud mindset that enables them to effectively and securely store and leverage the growing deluge of data they are inundated with – everything from student health care data to device and research data. Let’s dive into how a high performance, multi-cloud approach can help K-12 schools check the following major pain points off their list.

Data loss from ransomware attacks & other cyber risks  

Security is top of mind in every industry, especially in education where it’s important to keep our students’ and faculty information safe. In the face of growing security threats, protecting sensitive information by effectively backing up data to the cloud has never been more critical, and IT teams must operate not under the assumption of “if” an attack will occur, but rather “when.” This is especially important for schools that also rely on Microsoft Office 365 or other cloud-based SaaS applications for data storage. They must take additional backup measures as Microsoft does not guarantee that they will restore data if it is lost. In fact, Office 365 has remained the top target for SaaS attacks this past year.

While many IT teams may initially want to resort to the more traditional legacy approach of backing up their data on-premises, this strategy is less secure as it essentially acts as just one copy of data that can be easily targeted and destroyed. It also has limits as to how much information can be stored, which schools can quickly outgrow and need to pay in time and resources to maintain and scale. Cloud storage provides a more secure, easier-to-use, and cost-effective backup option.

Related:
Building community-wide support for IT transformation
5 tools every school tech director should use

Many cloud storage providers offer some key backup features that can help better mitigate the effects of data leaks and ransomware attacks including object-level immutability that prevents anyone from tampering with, modifying or deleting data for a set period of time, keeping files safe against disruption. The cloud also allows for backup diversification to help prevent schools from storing all of their data in one place to be targeted. A multi-cloud approach enables educational institutions to follow a ‘3-2-1’ backup strategy, otherwise known as keeping three copies of data, with two on different media formats and one off-site, that helps prevent hackers from accessing all storage locations and enables companies to continue functioning during an attack and restore operations quickly. At Hotchkiss, we’ve found these backup strategies to be vital to ensuring our data security, and leveraging these kinds of additional safety features will become even more critical for educational institutions as security threats grow.

Digital transformation

Schools around the world were forced to quickly digitally transform to support both remote and hybrid learning due to COVID-19, but with limited resources and IT budgets. While many have returned to in-person learning, budget and resource challenges persist while school districts attempt to get local municipalities to approve budget increases to cover increased costs for technologies.

It’s never been more critical for IT teams to move away from relying on costly on-premises options, or those that carry expensive tiers and additional charges for egress and API requests to support their technologies. In order for schools to successfully continue their digital transformation initiatives and innovate on a budget, they must adopt a more simple, cost-effective and high-performing storage solution that can better support their growing reliance on technology at a lesser cost.

Surveillance storage challenges

Earlier this year, West Virginia legislature passed a bill to increase video surveillance requirements for special education classrooms. This is one of the latest incidents of heightened surveillance demands for schools around the country, requiring them to store and produce surveillance footage for certain set time periods at a moment’s notice.   

This poses an issue for the education industry. The vast amounts of data being generated through these surveillance systems promise to completely overwhelm many schools’ existing on-premise storage systems, creating storage bottlenecks and preventing administrators from being able to quickly access the data when needed. By moving to a flexible, hybrid cloud approach that can scale with their growing surveillance data volumes, Hotchkiss and other schools can cost-effectively extend the value from any of their existing storage solutions while keeping this critical surveillance data securely at the edge for easy storage and access.

K-12 schools have undergone an especially complicated transition over the past three years. This period exposed the need for more technological innovation and IT infrastructure changes in school systems, starting with the cloud, to help address data security and storage challenges. At the Hotchkiss school, it was no different. Overwhelmed by the amount of data created on our busy campus, we recently turned to Wasabi to build a low-cost, high-performance and secure storage solution that fully protects our environment. For an industry seeing exploding data volumes and security threats while faced with limited resources, the time is now for IT teams to find a reliable and secure cloud solution that will protect their school’s most valuable asset – data. 

Technology’s role has been elevated to an integral strategic function in today’s school districts. But getting everyone to understand the value of digital transformation can be challenging and test the persuasion and people skills of even the most seasoned IT leaders.

Here are some strategies IT teams can use to help build a supportive culture for ongoing technology investments.

Set Up Direct Lines of Communication

Less than 30 days into my role at Judson ISD, our district was hit with a devastating ransomware attack that led to a total network takedown. While there were many lessons learned from that experience, one of the silver linings was how it brought to light across the district how critical our technology systems are.

This realization served as a catalyst for our IT team to develop direct lines of communication with every department.

Now, each department in the district has a dedicated IT staff member who manages their technology, system, and platform needs. This structure helps bridge any communication gaps between teams and creates trust that IT is there to support each department and their goals.

Develop Your Business Case

It’s not a question of “if” but “when” – cyberattacks or some other event will impact your district sooner or later. And the older your equipment, the more vulnerable it is to negative events that will impact student learning and staff productivity.

The key is to be as proactive as you can in shoring up critical infrastructure. But many IT leaders struggle when faced with pushback about the need for technology investments or requests for increased funds. In these instances, leaders need to present a solid business case factoring in the total costs and impact to the district should the system or network fail.

Related:
5 safeguarding tips for schools this year
5 ways to make your IT department more efficient

In addition to hardware and equipment costs, be sure to include direct and indirect costs such as loss in staff time and productivity, any disruptions to student learning, critical data or system loss, reputational damage to the district, etc. All these financial implications help build a compelling case about how failing to update systems is incredibly risky and costly in the long run.

Paint a Picture in Real Terms

It’s easy to get caught up in technical nuances when discussing district needs, but many community members don’t understand the depths of technology infrastructure. This requires us to step out of our tech bubbles and change the way we communicate. Tailor conversations to non-technical audiences by painting a picture of how technology investments – and lack thereof – can and will affect staff, students, parents, and the community at large. Ask yourself, “How can I relate this to an everyday person? If I was a teacher or parent, how would this impact me?”

For example, Judson ISD is in the middle of upgrading our camera systems to increase campus security; however, many of our older schools have switches – that power our cameras – installed in classroom cabinets that are simply plugged into the wall and easily accessible. Some individuals may not view that as a problem or liability, so I have to outline the ramifications of one individual unplugging a cabinet in order to demonstrate the need. Additionally, upgrading cameras requires more switches to handle the increased power supply and more cloud storage to store each camera’s data for 6 months. Citing real-world examples of how vulnerabilities can be easily exploited helps stakeholders understand the project’s full scope and foster buy-in.

Plan for Future Growth Sustainably

Like many school districts across the country, Judson ISD is growing rapidly. Over the past two years, we’ve gained almost 3,000 new students. With that kind of growth, planning for the future is paramount. If you don’t develop a plan for what growth looks like at your district, then your systems simply won’t be able to keep up and will become quickly outdated.

On top of this, funding sustainability is critical and can’t be overlooked. Many districts use bond funds to replace systems, which can be very effective, but they need to have a plan to sustain and maintain those systems long-term. Every system comes with a cost, so developing a plan to spread those management, maintenance, and optimization costs out over time is very important. If we’re going to ask for taxpayer dollars for IT investments, it’s our duty to be responsible and spend wisely.

One way we’ve been able to cost-effectively optimize and scale our services is through key partnerships with providers like ENA. Our hosted voice platform has enabled us to provide more advanced phone features to staff, increase system flexibility and expandability across campuses, and reduce maintenance costs for the district. 

Reduce Technology Footprint in the Classroom

One misconception about IT is that we believe more technology is always the answer. I often find more technology can mean more problems. Instead of tackling every issue with a new device or app, look for ways to strategically reduce the technology footprint on campuses and in classrooms while delivering the same or better results. As an IT team, we are constantly asking ourselves, how can we empower teachers and students with the best learning environments possible using fewer devices?

For example, outfitting every teacher with an overhead projector, smartboard, desktop computer, laptop, iPad, and more, can run you $10k-$15k per classroom. But with one interactive panel, a teacher is fully equipped to deliver high-quality classroom instruction and many of those previous devices become redundant. This philosophy not only leads to better allocation of funding, but it also reduces IT workload and the number of devices staff need to learn to operate – making everyone’s jobs and lives easier.