District Administration - October 2012 - (Page 80)

ciotechnology innovation Keeping pace with The addition and renovations to Brownsville Elementary School in the Albemarle County (Va.) Public Schools are designed to provide many opportunities to engage technology outside the traditional classroom walls. Students and teachers can use computers, iPods, and other connected devices throughout the school to supplement classroom instruction. District Scholastic, among others, says such partnerships can take many iterations. One model might involve a discounted pricing structure that would allow a district to buy software for one grade level while the company throws in an additional grade level. Or a district might get a year’s free product trial with a plan for renegotiation when the subscription is up. Beta-testing a product that is nearly ready for distribution and providing feedback to the company is yet another way to make a partnership work. Gooch also suggests employing efficiencies such as computer imaging to save IT staff hours of time. Imaging is copying the contents of a computer’s hard drive onto a single compressed file, or image, so that the hard drive contents can be easily replicated on other computers. At Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools, Gooch says installing software and other tools onto a single computer can take up to two hours. “Compare this scenario to creating the image once and pushing it out to groups of six to 10 machines at a time where you simply set them up and let them run through the install while you’re doing other activities,” says Gooch. Board Input School board policies may also have a positive and immediate impact on district efficiency. Clarence Savoie, a 26-year board member in the St. Charles Parish Public Schools in Louisiana, a suburbanrural district of 98,000 students, says that a systematic, layered, committee approach to reviewing software and hardware eliminates buying on impulse and buying unproven products. The district’s double-tier system of product review includes both a site-based Teacher Facilitators of Technology (TFOT) body and the school board’s technology committee. TFOT personnel at each school assist colleagues with software and technology implementation, evaluate technologies piloted on different school sites, and make purchasing recommendations to the school board’s technology committee. The committee then reviews the data on the success of each product and decides whether or not to recommend the product for purchase. The district rotates teachers in the TFOT program every two years so that all staff members develop an expert eye for product evaluation. Savoie also says that the district managers avoid buying “canned” products, opting instead to work with vendors to develop customized solutions that fit the district’s specific needs. For example, when the district was looking to implement a new information management system a couple of years ago, the technology committee prioritized ease of use, data collection, reporting and an overall cost-efficient packaging of services before deciding on a specific vendor’s solution. Rich Abramson, newly retired 11-year superintendent of Maranacook Area Schools-RSU 38 in Readfield, Maine, echoes Savoie in saying that districts must have a clear plan for handling new technologies and technology advances. “My advice is go slow,” he says. During his years at the district, Abramson implemented a two-tier technology piloting program over a two-year period. He asked vendors for samples to pilot and enlisted the help of the five or six most innovative teachers in each of the district’s six 80 October 2012 District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2012

District Administration - October 2012
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Facilities
The Democrats and Republicans’ National Education Platforms
District Profile
Administrator Profile
The Challenge of Assessing Project-Based Learning
Why Teaching Civic Engagement Is Essential
Superintendents’ Frustration Grows, but Intangible Rewards Remain High
Not Your Grandparents’ Vocational School
CIO News
Keeping Pace with Technology Innovation
Managing BYOD Effectively
New Products
Noteworthy Books
Professional Opinion
Professional Opinion
Problem Solution
Going Mobile

District Administration - October 2012