Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Educational Technology and Student Attention Spans

This is an article that I submitted for ISTE's Learning and Leading Magazine this month. Please read and provide any additional feedback or thoughts regarding Educational Technology and its impact on student learning.

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3620082009/AugustNo1/36108m.pdf


JDS | CIO
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IT Support

This is an interesting read I came across by Dr. Bill Daggett regarding IT Support in the Education community.

More IT Support

A lack of information technology (IT) staffing is keeping schools from realizing the full benefits of technology inside and outside the classroom, according to a recent survey conducted by eSchool News and SchoolDude. The survey included nearly 1,000 school and district leaders. Little funding and the lack of a clear vision were seen as key stumbling blocks to building staff and implementing a successful technology program within the curriculum. Of those surveyed, 64% said their IT budget isn't enough to support technology assets already purchased and nearly 70% said it is not enough to meet their district's IT expectations. One respondent, a technology manager from Irving, Texas, said he has two full-time technicians serving 2,900 students, 300 teachers and administrators, and more than 1,200 computers in a six-school district, with campuses spread across suburban Dallas. This is a far cry from a typical large corporation, which tends to employ one technology support person for every 50 computers at a cost of $142 per computer per year. According to this model, a school district with 1,000 computers would need a staff of 20 and an annual tech-support budget of $1.4 million.

Part of the funding issue has to do with being able to provide a competitive wage to potential IT employees, who can make more in the private sector. Some schools have used creativity to solve their technology challenges. For example, when an IT coordinator asked teachers to help implement technology for learning, the teachers formed a team that guides, assists, and supports their colleagues. The team focuses on the curriculum as the starting point and then suggests appropriate technology to support it. (See "By the Numbers" for more statistics.)

Source: www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?
i=51522;_hbguid=2d059a60-7877-4119-949b-20e90d76e90e


JDS | CIO

Monday, July 21, 2008

Articles of Interest

Here are some articles that caught my attention today:

Apple offers free month of service for new iPhone users

Educators assess open content movement

New resource helps teach 21st century skills


This one is not necessarily an article, but a blog that I read on a regular basis:

http://education.zdnet.com/

JDS | CIO

Monday, July 14, 2008

Articles / Projects

It has been two weeks since my last post, but I took some vacation days and much needed time out of the office.

Here a few articles that caught my eye in the world of K-12 Education Technology:

Before switching gears to our projects - has anyone purchased the new iPhone 3G? What are your thoughts? I am debating and researching whether the move would be a good one for me. Right now I am at 70/30.

Here are the current projects my district has embarked on:

-Mobile Carts/Labs in all secondary schools.
We will have a minimum of 30-60 laptops available in all secondary schools starting this fall. The purpose of these labs is to provide enhanced educational opportunities for our students. The laptops provide real-time learning in the classroom while allowing students to research, collaborate and share content.

-Server Consolidation / Virtualization
We are in the beginning stages of bringing our 25+ district and school level servers back into a central location. The new devices will increase storage capacity for all end users, provide more reliability and ensure the quality of our backups. (We will also provide off-site backups for critical data.)

-Wireless
As of the end of this month all educational buildings will have full wireless coverage throughout with each building also having the capability of providing "guest services" to outside users. These guest services are secured and controlled by our district's network administration.


These are enough to keep us busy during the summer months. School starts in three weeks. Wow.

JDS | CIO