Why you should consider membership in Microsoft's IT Academy

Microsoft IT Academy provides Information Technology training resources for students, teachers, and administrators. Deliverables are Microsoft certifications for students and staff, real and measurable outcomes improving technology instruction and increasing operational efficiency. Here are four reasons you should consider membership in the Microsoft IT Academy:

1. Your students will obtain real 21^st century skills propelling them into careers as information workers, straight from high school, or providing college credit for their post-secondary journey.
2. Your teaching staff will improve their ability to both use and instruct technology in the classroom.
3. Your administration will become more efficient, functionally and financially.
4. Your enrollment will increase as students seek out a more relevant and challenging curriculum.

Grandiose promises, perhaps. But consider the scenario found too often in charter schools today - reduced funding, lackluster enrollment numbers, task saturated teaching staff, and an endless stream of regulation and compliance matters, communication challenges, and budget realities facing administrators.

But can a simple add-on to your annual Microsoft school agreement really change all of that? We believe it can. And here are the transformations we envision:

Students

In addition to traditional academics, students need better information technology skills. This is universally true no matter what career or education pathway they pursue. IT Academy offers a world-class curriculum providing hands-on skill and experience needed to succeed in any career. End of course exams provide actual Microsoft certifications which are recognized world-wide as standard measures of technical competence. Many of these certifications count for college credit after graduation.

Teachers

The curriculum is "ready-to-teach", allowing teachers to focus on delivery, not research and course content creation. This curriculum is managed on-line, by Microsoft, and easily integrated into both new and existing classes. All teaching staff have access to professional development normally costing hundreds of dollars per course, and earn their own Microsoft certifications.

Administrators

Visionary technology plans often get lost in the day-to-day challenges of operating a school. Improving that vision will help, but improving the skill of staff members, relative to the specific technologies introduced, is much more effective. Empowered staff members will drive efficiencies into the entire organization by better communication, collaboration, and access to information.

Community

Schools that produce outstanding results are the pride of their community and that will be reflected in their enrollment. And that is the critical measure of viability for your school.


Is your school a good candidate for the Microsoft IT Academy? Are you eligible? Contact us to find out more, or look for a link on our blog. Ready to join? Let's review your Microsoft licensing agreements and see where you stand. Some of our schools have restructured their annual licensing agreement to include an IT Academy subscription and actually reduced their overall licensing costs.

Important changes to Microsoft academic software licensing

There are two general methods of licensing the core Microsoft technologies running your school; perpetual (single purchase) licensing and subscription (recurring payments) licensing.

But let’s be honest, a perpetual or lifetime software license is an oxymoron!  Disagree? Answer a simple question. How long was your last Microsoft Office suite current? There was Office 2000, 2003, 2007, and now 2010.

The same is true for Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, and now Windows 7. Of course there is software assurance to protect you, but at what cost? Subscription based software will almost always save you money - not to mention the licensing headaches.
For those of you still buying “perpetual” software licenses for your Microsoft technologies, listen up. It has not made sense for years, and the disparity just grew larger.

Starting this year, Microsoft introduced a new subscription based licensing model called Enrollment for Education Services (EES). Similar to the School Enrollment program, EES provides blanket license compliance for all of your organizations PC’s (desktop and laptops).

EES is different because instead of counting devices (desktops and laptops) you now count employees instead. While the annual cost per license is roughly equivalent, there are no schools that we know of which have more staff members than computers!

Let’s compare a typical license program which would include the latest Microsoft Operating System (Windows 7), Microsoft Office Professional Plus, core Client Access Licenses (CAL’s), and home use rights:

 200 Computers @ $53.00 per year = $10,600.00
     VS.
 50 Staff members @ $60.00 per year = $3,000.00

Notice how much money your school will save by using the new enrollment model, which is accomplished by merely using a different enrollment form. And don’t forget to add any server licenses you might need into the equation, while the savings are not as dramatic they are significant when you factor out ever needing to purchase a server software upgrade.

Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES) is an easy, cost-effective program that provides qualified academic customers a simplified way to acquire Microsoft software and services under a single, subscription agreement. It offers coverage for desktop platform products with one annual count of employees, the ability to easily add additional products in any quantity, self-service tools for simplified asset management, and immediate access to benefits such as product upgrades through Microsoft Software Assurance so you can boost the productivity of your faculty and staff and optimize the return on your technology investments.

Let’s summarize the benefits:

• Easy Compliance:  Count and report  full time employees (FTE) annually
• Customized Solutions: Add software during the subscription term
• Simplified Asset Management: Download and update software online
• Low Administration: Eliminate the need to track software licenses
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership: Reduce the cost of software

Finally, for those not using a Window’s desktop environment, there are also benefits to an EES agreement. Office 2011 for Mac is a great solution.

Contact your Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller today for more information.

Size really does matter

There is a fundamental difference in managing technology resources among organizations of different sizes. Microsoft defines a small, midsized, and enterprise organization as having less than 50, 50 – 500, and greater that 500 computers respectively.

The infrastructure design of these respective organizations is significant and can have far reaching impact on costs, both to implement and then to manage the organization. There are management tools and methodologies for each respective organization size.

Very few Charter Schools fit the Enterprise model of management, yet there is a tendency to build the technology infrastructure on an enterprise level. This tendency stems from the “Best Practice” information found in the education community at large.

Many Charter School managers come from traditional school districts and implement the solutions with which they are familiar.  Furthermore, the state does not provide a different set of data gathering tools for Charter Schools; they are the same as found in all public schools.

So without deliberate and thoughtful planning, a Charter School can start down the road of enterprise level thinking and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on technology solutions, when a fraction of that might be adequate.

One of our goals is to disseminate “Best Practice” information that applies specifically to the small and midsized Charter School. Doing so can have a significant impact on start-up and ongoing costs for information systems.

Managing Technology Resources

Too often we think about technology in terms of acquiring it and fixing it, with only secondary consideration to how it is managed as a powerful asset.

Once the technology infrastructure is in place, it requires ongoing oversight and administration. This is the most significant challenge facing charter schools, which tend to inadequately staff the infrastructure, for good reason.

The level of complexity demands much more than a part-time staff member or a part-time parent volunteer. And prevailing rates for competent network engineers typically exceed the compensation for charter school administrators or principals —a situation that is not sustainable.

We suggest a different management model to addresses this dilemma. It starts with competent technical support using consistent (weekly) scheduling, automated monitoring systems, a robust help-desk system, simplified integration, and unlimited 8 X 5 support.

Most freestanding schools can be managed in one day per week, unless you are working on new projects or on major upgrades. This keeps the annual costs of managing your infrastructure in line, yet provides the level of expertise required to manage these complex systems.

Let's get started - Charter School Technology

Managing technology in a freestanding charter school is fundamentally different than most public schools for two compelling reasons.

First, reduced funding in all areas limits the resources for technical innovation. Second, staffing is problematic because the breadth of technical subject matter is equivalent to a district-level organization. This combined effect, without proper management, can lead to an environment where neither the resources nor expertise required to manage the school is viable. This can leave the school in a continuous break-fix or reactive mode, rather than a proactively managed model.

After a decade of managing technology in freestanding charter schools, we have learned a good deal both from our mistakes and from mistakes made by the schools we manage. There are many ways to manage technology. And we don’t pretend to have all the answers to all questions. But by experience, we have learned a great deal about what works and what does not work as it pertains to managing technology in this unique environment.

This blog outlines the principles we have found to be consistently useful and, to the extent possible, we have implemented these practices in the schools we manage. These ideas are general in nature and may not apply directly to your organization.

For a specific proposal that addresses your individual school, please contact us. Not only can we help you address the technology infrastructure of your school, but we can also help you draft a technology plan or assist you in grant writing to receive funding for your school.

Best wishes in your important endeavor!