84: Edtech for Edleaders: Local Area Networks Local area networks (LAN) entered most educators’ experience in the mid-1990’s when the first servers to be regularly accessed by teachers and students arrived in schools. Early uses of LAN’s in schools included connecting multiple computers to a shared a printer and sharing files using a folder (or Read More
92: Edtech for Edleaders: A Rationale Opening the door and peering into the wiring closet where network devices are installed can be an intimidating experience. These rooms tend to be filled with white noise (generated by fans moving air which is cooled by air conditioners that operate day and night during all seasons) and racks Read More
85: Edtech for Edleaders: Computer Rooms Today While computer rooms have largely fallen out of favor, they continue to be maintained in many schools. As more diverse computing devices have entered the educational market and Internet-only notebooks became more popular, computer rooms have become more important for providing capacity for specialized purposes that require sophisticated Read More
93: Edtech for Edleaders: What We Want in IT Systems When describing the IT systems they build and manage, IT professionals use three words to describe their systems (or at least they try to build systems that can be described with these three): Reliable systems are available whenever users need them. Internet services providers, web Read More
The computer technologies introduced to schools in the last quarter of the 20th century were part of a long parade of electronic information technologies that were introduced first into the popular culture and then into education throughout the 20th century. In 1986, Larry Cuban, a professor of education at Stanford University, reviewed the history of Read More
It is only recently that educational organizations have adopted the practice of using “c-level” title for those in management positions. Chief financial officers (CFO) manage the business operations of schools and chief academic officers (CAO) are responsible for all aspects of teaching and learning within schools; individuals in these roles report to the chief executive Read More
Teaching and learning requires students access and consume information, analyze and manipulate it, and create and disseminate it. Some educationally relevant information tasks, such as consuming text-based web sites (e.g. Wikipedia) and composing text (e.g. writing research papers) require little computing capacity; the rate of data creation is a small, the necessary processing power is Read More
Data is atopic that has been addressed on this blog previously: Being Data Driven is Nothing to Brag About Data versus Evidence If you read those posts, it is going to become clear that I am not a fan of the fascination educators have developed for data. It can be a part of how we Read More
For networks to function, packets of information must make it to the correct destination (to the correct IP address). This depends on accurate addressing and also on effective routing. As the name suggests, a routing is the network function in which packets are sent via a route to their destination. Routing occurs between the LAN Read More
Edtech for Edleaders: What Computers Do We are all amazed at the power of computers. They can do so much that humans cannot… they extend our cognitive abilities… they can be leveraged for so many purposes. Or at least that is the narrative that surrounds computers and digital devices, but computers really can do only Read More