Centralize, economize, depersonalize
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 06:46AM Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.
Henry Ford
Every pundit that covers MN state finance claims that the 2011-13 budget will be even grimmer than those we've been experiencing the last two years. Federal stimulus funds will be gone; accounting "shifts" and payment delays have been used up; and tax revenues are weak. The increasing number of geezers needing pensions and health care are competing with schools for state dollars. The "no-new-taxes" drum beat does not seem to be subsiding.
Especially in tight economic times, I hate spending education dollars on technology instead of teachers and library materials. I know, I know, as the tech director my goal should be to garner the largest piece of the funding pie as possible. My problem is that I sleep better at night when I think of myself first as a child advocate, second as an educator, and lastly as a technologist. The children in my district are somebody's grandchildren, after all.
The latest cost-savings proposal our district may be looking at is turning the management of our computer printer services to a vendor. This company will install, service and monitor all printer use throughout the district and somehow save us a whole bunch of money. Sounds good to me.
But this will mean a change that may not be just real popular. Instead of individual buildings making (and funding) printer decisions, the management will be done on a district level through the vendor. This means less control, less customization, and, perhaps, less immediate service in individual buildings.
The question our administrators will need to ask: "Is giving up control of our printers worth the equivalent of one first year teacher salary in the district?" I am not taking any bets on what the answer may be.
I expect this is not the last time this kind of question be asked. If it means substantial cost savings, should the district...
- Create one image and install a DeepFreeze-like program on all student and staff computers, reducing the need for tech staff?
- Increase the number of "hosted" applications we now use, eliminating the need for maintaining servers, security features and reducing (again) tech support needs.
- Tighten up on standardization of equipment, allowing bulk purchases, requiring fewer replacement parts be stocked, etc.
- Rely on on-line professional development tools like Atomic Learning, reducing staff development costs.
To me, the more centralized, more remote the service, the less personalized it becomes*. Teacher A wants this software on his computer? Ain't gonna happen since it falls outside the prescribed "teacher computer image." I am not sure this is necessarily a bad thing, but it is certainly different than the way we've operated in our district, allowing every teacher pretty free reign on what goes on her computer.
So what will it be: individualized and expensive or depersonalized and economical. Oh, we've already ruled on this for most of our students. Most communities have chose the economical route.
*One big mitigating factor is that about all most of us need anymore on our computers is a good web browser and relatively open Internet access. A huge range of tools, many customizable, are then available.
Reader Comments (5)
What if neither direction has made significant impact? The difference between "not much" and "not much", is... well... not much.
If changing from a low impact method to another low impact method saves a great deal of money, it would sure seem like an easy choice. But life is rarely logical.
The final point is the best in this day and age. We can do so much with a web browser...schools just need the grant money to afford more bandwidth. I haven't looked at it yet, but I read that You Tube has a video editor now. Need to check that out. I've seen countless hours wasted on adding this, that or the other Exam View program loaded special onto a teacher computer, then the program goes unused. Maybe workstaions should be less locked down....if a teacher wants a program, hey go nuts, install it. We don't have the time or money to have technicians chasing around doing that work. If you break the computer, it just gets reimaged. I'm sure someone may have a field day with this idea...
I don't think it is too wacky of an idea for schools and districts to consider moving away from the ownership and management of computing devices. Proctor and Gamble (and many other organizations, universities and companies) are utilizing the bring your laptop to work model-it is an evolutionary path that makes sense on many levels. I believe that this model would lead to greater personalization/customization AND greater cost savings than the current dominant IT resource management model.
Barbara Barreda asked the question, "Should schools be in the computer business?" over at Leadertalk earlier this year. She writes mostly about student ownership of computers, but I don't think it is a stretch to apply her thinking to staff ownership as well.
More on P&G's bring your laptop to work concept
I think outsourcing *printer* support is a win.
Hi Matt,
Boy, I remember the issue of the computer being a tool that teachers should provide themselves being hotly debated in the early 90s. The argument was that mechanics were expected to provide their own sets of tools - why not teachers too?
Right now most schools discourage the use of personal devices on the network for security reasons, but I think that is changing as well. For years, I've used only my personal laptop for both work and home, but now with the move to the cloud, I use a desktop at work and my laptop at home and on the road. No big deal.
Thanks for the links as well!
Doug