IT Director - What is our role???

The past few years have been a great learning experience for me.  I’ve gotten to work alongside some really great and inspirational people.  I have recently moved into the role of technology director about a year ago now and I’ve really started to see and understand what our roles should be. Tom Murray in particular has guided and mentored me to become an extremely student focused IT Director.  Much of the IT world is turning into a cloud based service model.   The knowledge required to run systems is becoming less and less as these service driven models are being adopted.  How do we stay relevant?  I believe Tom Murray actually had a great article on this topic, however, I can’t seem to locate a link to it.  We need to constantly stay on top of Ed Tech and make suggestions based on research and more importantly student feedback, and avoid the marketing hype.  What do our students want and need, not what we think they should have?  I believe there should be some give and take in that process… They are living in a world that we only try to understand.  They are growing up when social media is the norm and not something that was new during their lifetime that they had to learn.  I think many times we deny access to these resources because as we were growing up that is what was done.  It’s a distraction or it causes problems because of ABC.  I would challenge any us to go into a meeting and not open a computer or use your smart phone.  You would likely be lost and feel disconnected, so why do we sometimes expect students to?  We need to meet them where they are and not try to make them live in the world of restrictions we grew up in.  Teach them digital citizenship and empower them with the knowledge to use these “distractions” properly.  The technology of yesterday is no longer a wow factor to this generation.  We need to discover what it is on an ongoing basis and mold it to our classrooms to create engaging and collaborative spaces.  I feel many of us are so concerned with technology and systems that we lose sight of our primary goal which is to help kids achieve greatness.  Many times in our roles as technology directors we are faced with requests and challenges that in a lot of cases are returned with an immediate “No”.  If you are not a technology director, but are in education, you will surely understand my last statement.  We need to not be a roadblock and be student driven solution specialists.  We must keep security and safety in mind, but ultimately make decisions based on student outcomes regardless of the amount of legwork that we personally or our teams put in if we expect to see our students reach their highest potential.  We must work alongside our curriculum and pupil services departments to have open conversations about needs and hurdles.  We need to envision the future needs of our kids in a world that is ever changing.  We need to meet our kids in their technology filled worlds.  One of my goals is to solicit more information from our students when making acquisitions or decisions and let them have a voice.  I am working on forming student technology advisory teams in our middle schools to empower those students to assist in making decisions for our one to one program that begins in 9^th grade.  Who knows better what device will work best for them, than the students themselves.  I plan to add more to this blog in my next post.  Stay tuned…

HP Stream - My Thoughts...

HP Stream Thoughts…

I was very excited to see a new offering in the cloud based computer world from Microsoft and HP.  Office 365 is definitely growing and felt strongly that this would end up being strong competition to the Chromebook community.  Being a Microsoft district running on mostly all HP equipment, I was very hopeful.  HP is a great company who always meets our needs each and every year.  It pains me to say that this really missed the mark.  To be honest, I’m not sure it even landed anywhere on the paper…  I will state that the construction of the device for the price point is very good and would easily rival Chromebooks, so in that regard I don’t fault HP.  What we end up with here, is a next generation, under powered netbook running a Windows 8 Pro OS.  I’m not sure why they are really marketing this any differently.  The thought behind it from what I gathered through discussions with various individuals was that the reduction in hard disk space would push people towards relying on the cloud platform.  I can understand and appreciate that, however, we have all seen what happens when you have an underpowered netbook running a full Windows OS.  They will be slow to boot, need additional software to protect from malware and virus infections.  They are now going to be managed by GPO in your domain which also adds to additional processing at boot up and login.  I really see this going the way of the netbook and don’t see it gaining any traction in education.  If Microsoft produces a cloud based OS, then they may have something, but until then… Save your money and frustration.  

Is there a perfect device??

Over the recent months, I have been evaluating different technology devices in order to provide more personalized solutions.  Many of us have been making purchases on an annual basis solely based on past practice as a one size fits all solution.  With so many devices on the market and capabilities ranging from device to device as well as cost, it’s often difficult to determine what fits where and if there truly is a solution that can suit all needs and budgets.  I’ve recently began looking at Chromebooks due to the continued adoption I’m seeing.  Well, whose Chromebook then is best?  Get demos from everyone willing and find out.  Each have price points and construction qualities that are of consideration.  What type of warranty can they each provide and what is the cost of it.  I’m finding out that I can see some adoption of Chromebooks, but not as a district wide solution.  Rather, an offset of higher expenditures where more computer power isn’t needed.  I’m waiting on a HP Stream which I see as a new competitor to Chromebooks in the personal cloud computing space.  Can HP and Microsoft pull it off?  The jury is out and I will reserve any remark until I get it in hand.  Once examined, it will be a decision moving into future years with either Chromebooks or MS offerings of similar devices.  I’ve examined devices from our current manufacturer and also sought out demo units from others.  Manufacturer’s quality, offerings, and pricing is constantly changing in this competitive marketplace.  There is something to be said for relationships that are made over years of business, however, it should not put blinders on you to other new/existing manufacturers that are out there.  It’s a little more effort to seek these new connections out, but I have stumbled upon great products I didn’t expect from manufacturers I may have dismissed previously.  The Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga being one of them.  Kudos to them for making a solid product!  Keep in mind, we are not a Lenovo shop in general, but this product fit a need that I could not get with anyone else at an acceptable price point.  Rather than give up, I looked deeper and found what I needed.  Tablets to notebooks to everything in between I’ve had my eye on and my thought is that there is truly no perfect device for all.  We must consider a mix of devices and tailor each device to its designated use.  Why pay more for a device to do A-Z when really it only will be used to do A-M?  Balancing a budget and increasing technology is an ongoing battle and learning experience that you must not become complacent with.  The market is constantly changing and it can become difficult to stay on top of it.  Just as in social networking, get connected with all the vendors out there and build relationships whether you actively use them or not, you might have an ACE in your pocket in the future!

BYOD: Can it be a reality??

                We have all heard the term BYOD/BYOT and many of us have even implemented such a program in our institutions.  The thought of offsetting district expenditures by having students supply their own devices is certainly an eye opening thought.  Can a BYOD truly exist without a district supplied One to One option or similar district solution?  It’s something I wrestle with each time I hear of districts doing one without the other.

                 The two terms BYOD and One to One are typically heard synonymously for the simple fact that in a BYOD only environment, those students who do not have access to their own devices will not be able to participate in online or computer based classroom activities unless provisions are made in each classroom to ensure every child has a device.  This in itself can pose its own challenges as certain personal devices may not be able to view resources required by the class.  Flash based activities will not be viewable on iOS devices, etc…  Most testing as of today states explicitly that personal devices may not be used, so in this case, we must still have enough district owned devices to tackle the growing number of online assessments.  Although BYOD can supplement other district initiatives, I find that there are a number of activities/situations that will still require district assets to make ends meet.  Is there a happy balance between BYOD and district provided options?  How can we encourage BYOD, but still provide adequate resources for students who don’t participate? 

                K12 marketing is a huge industry and I feel that often we are steered into directions based on the current marketing trends.  Is BYOD a trend brought on by marketing or can it really be a reality?  Personal devices will continue to infiltrate our buildings whether in teachers or students hands, this is a fact.  These devices certainly can be allowed onto our networks and be used for instruction if the user so prefers.  The real challenge presents itself during the times of assessments, specialized software which requires licensing, operating system limitations, and most importantly in my mind, students/teachers who don’t have a personal device to use.  The term has been around long enough now that it’s not going away.  What is the true answer to a successful BYOD ONLY program is still unanswered in my eyes…

Four Critical Decisions When Making Wireless Infrastructure Changes

As wireless systems in K12 institutions have likely been in place for several years now, prior to the large influx of personal devices and district owned devices, we are beginning to see the ever growing need for expanding wireless capacity.  There are many options and considerations that need to be considered.  Funding for these critical infrastructure changes happen infrequently, so we must do our due diligence to ensure we not only get the best value for our funding, but ensure it's future proofing us for devices that have not yet entered our districts.  I've outlined my top four as I have just gone through the transition to a new vendor and platform.  Easiest is not always the best!  I've purposely left this blog vendor agnostic, however, i'm more than happy to share my experiences directly with anyone interested. 

Below are four critical decisions we had to make which I think most K12 districts will also face and need to evaluate.

1. Cost to stay with current vendor versus cost to switch

One of the hardest things to do sometimes is to leave what you are comfortable with or a partner whom you worked with for many years.  It is our job as IT Directors, CIOs, etc. to make educated decisions and evaluate everything on the market for the best interest of our stakeholders.  I had met with literally every vendor on the market and really narrowed my choices down to two.  During the process of meeting and discussing our current environment with various vendors, one stood out for a few reasons as a solution provider we wanted to work with.  I was most impressed with their customer centric attitude and direct involvement with us through the process.  They took the time along with the partner to sit down and discuss where we are, where we wanted to be, and asked questions about our district, rather than simply pushing product which we saw from others.  They provided a LONG list of other K12 districts from just our vicinity that showed their market penetration.  References were of abundance and everyone we spoke to had given praise.   The number of customers who had been in our same situation and left for this vendor was quite large as well.  Other vendors could not provide this scale of references, so it was assuring to know we were moving in the direction of many other satisfied customers.  While the upfront cost may be a sticker shock to you when doing a rip and replace, comparing the cost of ownership over the term may surprise you.  What I found out was that it was actually a cost savings in the long term doing a rip and replace by offsetting service costs.  Don’t always take what you’re given at face value, dig deeper, you may be surprised what you find.

2. Controller versus cloud

The current trend in the wireless community seems to be that everything is going to the cloud.  For some, the cloud can prove to be extremely beneficial by offsetting initial costs and rolling them into many years.  However, for us, we knew we wanted to remain with controllers.  Not only did we want more control over our environment and more troubleshooting ability, but also didn't want to be in a situation where renewals were not feasible and thus services would be severed. We ended up going with redundant controllers with 40G uplinks to each one.  Considering we had a 1G uplink to one controller previously, this has removed a bottleneck in our environment.  We are extremely happy with the performance we are seeing. 

3. 802.11n versus 802.11ac

I’ve been seeing many districts replace 802.11n APs with the same.  Although “n” APs may be slightly less cost, I fight to see the long term value in staying at “n”.  I understand devices may not be running “ac” yet, or very few are, but in our environment the funding to complete a project like this comes once in many years, so to future proof our investment was my utmost concern.  Not only will/do we see better performance out of our “n” clients on the “ac” APs, but we will reap the benefits as more “ac” clients come into our district.  We were actually able to cut down on our overall number of APs through a better predictive study and post-deployment analysis which was enjoyable to see.  These opportunities come once in many years, so it’s our duty to make sure we provide the best product for the long term value of our funding.

4.       1:1, BYOD and future proofing our environment

This ties right into future proofing your design and decisions for the unknown.  We know that more and more devices will come into our buildings.  That is not a question, but a fact.  We don’t know what they will be in a year or two, but we do know we will be forced to support them.  This is why we chose the latest AC technologies for our deployment.  They will provide the capacity and growth we need in our environment for years to come. 

We have just completed our districts deployment and so far we have had little to no issues and performance has been notably improved on existing g and n clients.  We have little ac clients at the moment, however, they will grow after this school year.  Overall, this has been one of the most pleasurable acquisitions and large scale deployments I have been a part of.