In addition to the fleets of computers maintained for populations such as students and teachers, schools are places where special purpose computers and peripherals are found. In makerspaces, science laboratories, studios, workshops, and other special teaching spaces, there are computing devices necessary for specialized educational activities. Examples include:
School users are also well-known for trading reliability for functionality and ease. IT professionals know that systems can be configured to perform many more functions than are typically used. Further, many users will use only a fraction of the tools and features available in the applications they use. Of course, using these tools and features Read More
Virtual classrooms took on particular importance to teachers and students with the quick pivot to remote teaching necessitated by the COVID pandemic. Even before that, however, virtual classrooms were being managed by school IT professionals and teachers were using them to extend their classrooms and enhance information sharing and interaction. Like other cloud-based infrastructure in Read More
There are two types of tests that are typically administered to students: standardized and standards based. For IT professionals who are designing systems to administer the tests, there is no difference; devices must be able to establish reliable and secure connections to the servers where the test is housed, user accounts must be created, and Read More
I’ve seen the requests from many desktop support teams: “Before you add technology to grants, please include us in your planning.” I understand their rationale. They are responsible for installing, configuring, and managing it. It must integrate with existing systems and be reliable, robust, and secure. I would be sensitive to their requests and I Read More
The candidate for a vacant technology coordinator position, that filled the role of CIO but also spent a good deal of time sharing the work of technicians during high-demand times. When asked, “How would you respond to the teacher who returned from a conference and asked for help configuring systems to use a tool they Read More
When upgrading the computers in a school that enrolled students in grades K-12, the new technology coordinator did not change the minimum complexity requirements of passwords for the organizational units containing student users. When they first logged on to computers, they were prompted to change their passwords and were met with the complexity requirements. Students in the Read More
My blog has frequent posts with different takes on the three aspects of sound IT design within organizations. This post is a version of a summary of my ideas I prepared for a group of newly hired leaders. For IT to support efficient and effective operations, it must be appropriately designed so that it meets Read More
For several decades, several variations of the technology acceptance model have been used to explain and predict the use of technology by individuals and within organizations. In general, when users perceive IT to be easy to use, effective for their tasks, and similar to that used by others; they are more likely to use it Read More
Protocols and practices are ostensibly objective. The same rules apply to all users and, especially those that are controlled by technology are applied with precision. The reality in schools, however, is that not all users have similar capabilities and some protocols and practices appropriate for one group of users may not be appropriate for others. Read More