Ten cool things you can do with Lync 2010

We just completed our first migration from BPOS to the academic version of Office 365. Okay, so there is no academic version of Office 365, just academic pricing (as in mostly free). At any rate, we were anxious to show the new capabilities to one of our school partners.

Yawn… their lack of enthusiasm was underwhelming.

It turns out that Office Communicator, while present in the school for the past 9 months was rarely if ever used in the day to day operations of running the school. In fact this was the second Unified Communications solution that we enthusiastically rolled out, only to find that the users were universally unimpressed.

No doubt there was a need for better training on our part, but the biggest problem appears to be the lack of understanding about what Lync 2010 (formerly Office Communicator) offers. Most viewed it as a simple Instant Messaging client and never really bothered to even set their status, much less use the other features.

Maybe I just don’t understand the classroom environment, but the benefits to using Lync 2010 seem remarkably relevant to the classroom.  And I think it would improve communication, discipline, and security in the school immeasurably, here are 10 really cool things you can do in the classroom with Lync 2010.

1. Take attendance. No, not student attendance, but staff attendance! There is no simpler way for your staff to report present and accounted for than by setting their status when they are in their classroom ready for the day. With one quick glance you know the status of your entire organization.

2. Make announcements. Do you take into consideration how distracting the school PA system can be when you are trying to communicate to a small subset of your organization? Using Lync to communicate directly to small subsets can be done with ease and without interruption.

3. Make Phone Calls.  Are you having difficulty justifying the expense of telephones on every teacher’s desk? Use Lync instead, it is a robust VoIP system that takes “zero” real estate (space) on your desk.

4. Direct connect with parents.  Properly configured, Lync 2010 can communicate with virtually every messaging system in existence. Sometimes a quick one-liner is all it takes to resolve an issue about a student, with a parent.

5. Produce instant video recordings. Can’t afford thousand dollar IP cameras, expensive DVR servers, and all the connections? Place inexpensive web-cams on the top of each teacher’s screen and rotate them around when needed. Documenting discipline issues becomes rock solid and the principal can be watching… real time.

6. Hold virtual parent teacher conferences. Do you have difficulty scheduling and managing parent conferences? With Lync you can connect with parents in a video conference on the fly with no advance setup requirements. They can be across town or around the world and still experience face time with your staff.

7. Send lesson materials. Do you ever need a resource, such as a photo or document from the library or resource center right in the middle of class? Reach out to the media specialist and they can deliver that material right to your desktop, you won’t need to leave your desk.

8. Improve team teaching.  Improving teacher utilization is an important part of managing resources and team teaching is often part of the mix. But let’s make it a lot easier. Lync 2010 allows teachers to share their desktops (or portions thereof) with others. Imagine the rich dialogue of interaction if teacher “B” get’s plugged into the classroom with teacher “A” with just the click of a button.

9. Extend your presence via Mobile Phone.  Recently released iPhone, Android, Windows phone apps now let you set your presence on the go, and communicate with your team members via your mobile device. Good idea when you’re out running an errand on school time, not so good on the weekends – but the nice thing is that you can always set your presence, whatever it is you choose to display.

10. Instant Messaging.  Topping off the list, with the most common feature in Lync 2010, is instant messaging. It’s interesting that users who send thousands of texts per month on their cell phones fail to see the benefit of text messaging from their desktop. The difference with Lync is that by setting your status (Busy, Available, Do Not Disturb, Be Right Back, Away, etc.) your team knows whether or not to send a message and may think twice about interrupting you.

These are the immediate things that came to mind with respect to Lync 2010, there are probably a dozen others. From a larger view, the term “Unified Communications” is mostly techno-babble when used outside the technical support community.  But what it really boils down to is a set of software tools that connect people with one another using technology in ways that are convenient, deeply integrated on all devices, and driven by your stated availability.

Summary

Lync 2010 is a core piece of the Office 365 experience and offers significant communication improvements in charter schools. It allows users to communicate with team members in a variety of ways and from a wide variety of devices. By understanding the status of team members, communication can be tailored for the right time and place for delivery.

And for those schools we manage, Lync 2010 is part of our customer service experience… and our status is always “Available”.

What to do now that you have been approved

Congratulations on the state approving your new charter school. Take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and relax. OK, time to get back to work!

No doubt the application was challenging, and by now you have a board and a few eager volunteers to help, let’s take a look at the specific things you should do with respect to technology in order to be ready for opening day.

This is only from the perspective of technology, other things will certainly be required; but there are four key waypoints you should consider during the next year or so.

• Build your communication infrastructure as quickly as possible
• Create your Technology Plan and participate fully in the eRate process
• Ensure your critical network components get included in the construction/remodel
• Install your hardware and software  30-45 days prior to opening

Communication Infrastructure

Think of your new school as a product launch. How quickly you put systems into place that will help you market, build your brand, recruit students, engage the community, and establish management systems will in large measure affect opening day. And while that may seem a long way off, it will happen very quickly.

With the world’s finest set of collaboration tools available and free to any academic organization, your first stop should be at the Microsoft Office 365 website to sign up for a free trial. This cloud based suite of solutions will provide the foundation of a technology infrastructure which will serve you well during this critical start-up phase; and it will continue as the core communications infrastructure for years to come.

Included in the Office 365 offering is:

• Exchange based, SPAM free, secure, and compliant email that works on any device
• Lync 2010 unified communications client, with  live meeting, chat, and file sharing
• SharePoint  for document storage, collaboration, and access control

You’ll also need to decide upon a Charter School Management System, or outsource the business office functions. We believe keeping things in house is the best solution. See our post about Education Resource Management Software( eRM) powered by Microsoft Dynamic CRM.

Technology Plan (for Erate)

You’ve probably written enough plans to last a lifetime during the application process, but it’s time to review that technology plan one more time. It will probably need to be fine-tuned in order to pass the state Erate Plan approver. In a perfect world your application plan, eRate plan, and real life (what you will actually do) plan would be the same, but if they truly are, that would be the exception rather than the rule.

An important aspect of the eRate process is determining your discount rate.  Calculating your discount rate for the first year is a little tricky, since you have no financial measures of your student population.  Normally you measure free and reduced lunch percentages to calculate the eRate discount; and ultimately you should conduct a family survey to determine more accurately your actual discount rate. This will be especially important if you are close to reaching the priority two funding levels, which is the level at which you obtain the most significant reimbursements for eligible technology purchases.

You would be well advised to get some professional help with eRate because the dollars at stake are very significant. We know of one school that incorrectly calculated their discount rate and missed out on getting reimbursed for several hundred thousand dollars of eligible equipment. Ouch …. don’t do that.

One final eRate reminder, work on the front side of the eligible time periods for filing. Don’t even think about waiting until the deadlines loom large. Invariably you will miss something and the deadline will come…. and go, along with your opportunity.

Network Components

Ask any network cable installer about the ideal time to install cabling and they will universally agree that it is before you finish out the walls and ceilings. Waiting until the drywall is in and ceilings are hung will increase your cabling expenses significantly. And it increases the likelihood of damaged or improperly routed cables as well.

Having said that, don’t be too ambitious about the rest of the gear. Patch panels, maybe – but definitely not switches, routers, servers, or access points. Those all come in after finish out and several cleanings. Drywall dust is very destructive to electronics, so be sure to do a thorough cleaning of your server room before installing routers, switches, and servers.

If all of your hardware and software is on premise, you can easily wait until the month prior to opening to install this equipment. Please note that waiting to install the equipment is NOT the same thing as waiting to acquire it. While waiting a little may save a few dollars, waiting too long will ensure you are not ready for opening day.

Final Systems Installation

As you count down the month before opening, there will be plenty of tasks to accomplish. Desktops, laptops, and multipoint lab systems should be installed and tested. Wireless access points will be attached and configured. And the server room will come to life with servers, switches, and a good quality firewall.

See articles about managing desktops, UTM devices, Windows Multipoint, and other items not mentioned here for this final step.

Summary

The common, almost predictable experience we have observed in opening schools, is to wait until the building occupancy permit is issued to begin technology implementation. Don't do that! It will create a very shaky foundation for your information systems because you will be rushed, stressed, and making decisions under a great deal of pressure.

We speak of planning as though it only requires thought and conversation, it also requires a significant amount of time. Do yourself a huge favor and start the process early... as in yesterday!

Sidebar

One of the tremendous advantages of the cloud is the capacity to build infrastructure off premise and then connect it to the physical facilities when the time comes. This is a sound strategy in launching your new school.

By building your key infrastructure in the cloud (hosted solutions), you will not only have advanced communication abilities during the critical planning year; but, once you are comfortably housed in your new facilities, you will be using a familiar set of tools and features.

Working across town or across the country today might be necessary to get up and running, but across the hall later on will be necessary to operate smoothly and efficiently. And you may ultimately, as many have, decide that leaving your infrastructure in the cloud is a sound strategy.

Congratulations on your approval, feel free to call if you have questions.

How To Completely Undo Your IT Management

Truly this is not an article on how to dismantle the technical support mechanism at your school. It is however, a recounting of actual experiences – some of them unpleasant – that you should avoid; that is if you wish to have a better technical management support mechanism in place.

Although it is less painful to consider other’s mistakes, making them yourself has a silver lining. Your mistakes can always be used to point out a bad example, which can be instructive …. to others.

 Here are five of the most common self-defeating behaviors we have seen while managing charter schools:

1.       Paying for advice, then completely ignoring it
2.       Allowing everyone to develop their own agenda
3.       Making significant technology related expenses without involving IT
4.       Expecting short turnaround times for complex projects
5.       Assuming IT management grasps the political and leadership challenges in your school

Paying an expert for advice, then completely ignoring it

Several years ago a generous benefactor came to the religious community where we rented facilities for a small K-4 charter school. He had a terminal condition and was offering a generous gift of money to buy computers for both the school and the religious community (they had educational activities during the week).  I was asked to advise them about the best use of this generosity.

After considering the budget, the stated educational objectives, the current infrastructure, and the cost of managing the resources going forward; we proposed a solution to buy 20 laptop PC’s.   They would integrate seamlessly into the existing infrastructure at the school and add to the collection of PC’s currently used to form a full computer lab.

Unfortunately, at the same meeting, was an individual who had much greater influence with the kindly old gentleman, who was an unflinching MAC user; who, without any of the above mentioned considerations, persuaded the benefactor in the direction of using Apple Macs instead.

Please don’t misunderstand, I liked the MAC’s just fine, but given all of the other considerations it was not a good choice. Three months later I was asked to purchase software for the school/congregation to turn these perfectly good MAC’s into PC’s so they could be used with the existing systems and processes the rests of the school was using.

Presumably you have a relationship with a trusted technology consultant as part of your IT management. If that is not the case, you might consider making some changes. And when you seek advice, carefully consider completely ignoring it.

Allowing everyone to develop their own agenda

Want to stimulate creativity by engaging all levels of your staff in a brainstorming exercise of new ideas? Watch out! If you do this without a mechanism to vet those ideas, debate those ideas, and build consensus around the winning ideas you might be causing more damage than good. Trying to herd cats seems a helpful illustration of this concept, which has at its root great potential, but undirected creates chaos, division, power struggles, and politics.

We welcome creativity, the introduction of new ideas, insight into new discoveries, and the development of improved technology. We applaud all those who keep striving to do things better.

However, when those expressions of creativity become individual agendas, it can be detrimental to the organization as a whole – unless there is consensus building, implementation planning, and adequate training.

Several years ago an ambitious technology teacher determined that interactive white boards were an essential part of the classroom experience. And she was quite persuasive. The school purchased and installed the technology at great expense. The perfectly functioning whiteboards were rarely used by even the supporters of the technology and never used by those who did not want it in the first place.

When lesson plans and teaching styles have to be adapted to adopt a new technology, the failure rate rises in proportion to the change required. And without significant buy-in, a top down implementation, and significant training these kinds of projects will fail.

If you cannot manage the process of building consensus and properly implementing a project, then at least do it in a pilot program where the technology can be proved, and likely improved upon, without breaking the bank.

Making significant technology related purchases without input from IT

So common is this scenario that you only have to say these two words “Surprise, Surprise!”, and most technicians immediately know they have been handed a poorly specified, often incompatible, or otherwise problematic new piece of hardware or software to install.

“And could you have it installed yesterday?”

Not long ago we reviewed the USAC Form 471 for a small K-4 charter school that had been approved for over $25,000 of servers, switches, wireless controllers, and access points. While the expected reimbursement was exciting and gratifying, the components specified were not appropriate for the size and makeup of the schools infrastructure. It was the equivalent of putting Boeing 777 engines on a Piper Cub.

Granted, there are times when purchasing decisions cannot wait. And perfect scenarios don’t exists in every school where decisions are adequately considered and due diligence provided. And in a large view, this is a process of continual improvement.

Nevertheless, do yourself a huge favor and run technology purchasing past your IT team and avoid the headaches for both of you. There are two benefits in doing this. First, you will have a much greater chance of getting the right equipment and you may also spend less for the solution.

And this is especially germane to new construction or remodeling projects. Finding that you need a dozen new CAT6 network cables installed is exponentially more difficult after that final coat of paint has been applied.

Expecting short turnaround times for complex projects

Whenever I hear the preface of “How soon can you…” I wonder if adequate consideration has been given to a project or purchase. It’s understandable, logistics now make PC’s appear overnight and you can have an entire computer lab sitting in boxes ready for installation in a few days.

But that does not always happen. We recently placed an order for new lab equipment and were given a 10 day delivery notice. Three weeks later part one of two arrived and it was a full month before the final components were delivered.  It was embarrassing for us and understandably frustrating for the school waiting for the project to be completed.

From a cost perspective, rushing a project universally equates to added costs. And inadequate planning is the most common reason for projects to go awry.

Investigate early, specify clearly, and communicate regularly with your provider about order processing, shipping points, tracking numbers, and any known shipping delays.

Assuming IT grasps the political and leadership challenges of your school

Our management model and the model used by many charter schools are to utilize part-time support resources. In fact our most efficient model places support engineers in the school only a few times each week. And presumably that time is spent solving complex technical issues, rather than circumnavigating power struggles, personality clashes, and addressing individual agendas.

In large measure these are the realities of any organization, so one of the most powerful tools we have used to overcome these very normal challenges is to hold periodic (monthly at least) Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) meetings.

TAC meetings are an invaluable source of information for all involved. Problems can be better identified, the merits of proposed projects can be openly debated, and consensus can be built. A well formed TAC will consist of Technology Managers, Administrators, Department Heads, and representatives of other significant stakeholders. Parent and BOD representatives are especially helpful in this exchange and often provide invaluable “end user” insight.

Summary

Placing your technology team into the appropriate organizational level is an important first step in improving your IT management. Consider that most fortune 500 companies now have Chief Information Officers as part of the highest levels of their management team.

Information systems drive so much school activity and management process that you cannot afford to view IT as the guys who fix computers. And tolerating inadequate IT support staff is very costly. If you don't have the level of expertise you need, get it.

For concrete ways to do this, consider making improvements in the five areas listed above. A helpful moniker is “Just do it!”,… not “Let’s undo it”.

Data Management Plan

Sometimes the most basic concepts can really trip you up. That happened last week when a new school was asked to come up with a Data Management Plan for a grant application.

They reached out to us for insight, and here is our take on the subject. If you are struggling to describe a way to corral those wild 1's and zealous 0's, perhaps this will help. Please feedback your insight and suggestions.

Definitions

Data: digital information in any format utilized by a school for the management of people, processes, and things (resources) associated in any capacity with the school.

Management: awareness, oversight, and control of the aforementioned data.

 

Overview

Data management planning addresses three core components:

1. Ownership and oversight: Managing both the data and the resources that control information systems;
2. Data Security and compliance: Protecting  privacy, controlling access, and securing resources from within and without;
3. Data retention, archiving, backup and disaster recovery planning: Assuring data access in any circumstance for the timeframes specified by law and by policy.

These three core components are intentionally broad to address the wide variety of choice associated with implementing information systems which house, transport, and protect data. However, there are basic standards driven by industry, law, and state education agency guidelines that should be considered standard practice, as individual school boards implement policy.

The purpose of this document is to set forth broad concepts associated with Data Management Planning for Charter Schools and to provide a basic checklist to identify weakness.

Ownership and Oversight

Schools should have direct ownership or contractually delegated control of all resources which are used to store, route, and distribute data. Common examples of these resources are domain names, web hosting accounts, email systems, and hosted applications that store data in the cloud.

The seemingly small matter of legal ownership can cause enormous challenges if mismanaged. It is very common for well-intended parents, volunteers, or even board members to have control of these resources.  However, it can be very difficult to regain control of these resources if problems arise or relationships sour.

Imagine the damage a disgruntled former staff member or parent could inflict if they own your domain name, website hosting account, email system, or other hosted application. Don’t laugh, we have seen it happen.

Checklist:

• Do a simple ”who is” query on the internet and determine who is the registrant of your school's domain name. Is that individual or company still associated with your school? And do you have long-term confidence in that relationship? Is the address and contact information current?
• Determine who hosts your school website. Who owns the hosting account, who has access to control the web server (usually a control panel)? This is not the same as access to the website itself.
• Evaluate the email accounts used to communicate with students, parents, and the community. If your teaching staff is using Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, or other consumer based email system you have no control over the contents of those systems. In any kind of Open Records query or legal discovery, you will be unable to search messages without the express permission of the owner of that email account. This could be both embarrassing and costly.
• Review any hosted (Cloud) applications such as a backups, management systems (eRM or IEP), or desktop management systems. Do you have ownership of those accounts and termination processes when managed by a service provider?
• Determine who owns your social media accounts. If it is not you or someone in your organization, takes steps now to gain control of those accounts.

Data Security and Compliance

Fundamental to managing data is controlling access to that data in order to comply with privacy laws, ensure integrity in the education process, protect students and staff from data breaches, restrict sensitive or confidential information to authorized users, and provide safeguards for financial transactions. Infrastructure choices will impact these objectives and should be considered well in advance of any solution implemented.

Many of these challenges can be avoided by using the built in security and access controls provided in a  Microsoft Active Directory based network. But primary schools may find this security model too complicated. Other solutions may need to be considered.

Email systems should have central administrative capacity as well as the ability to do Open Records requests or legal discovery searches. These systems also need to be capable of addressing the wide range of employee changes without difficulty. Confidential email messages need to be archived and retained for the appropriate periods of time, and email destined for former staff needs to be redirected to an administrative user or replacement email account.

Computers and users need to have several layers of security protection starting at the perimeter and ending on the device in order to protect the data sets being accessed. This starts with a CIPA compliant firewall and is enhanced with added layers of protection through security updates or patches and anti-malware services (virus, spyware, malware protection).

Checklist:

• Review the age and feature set of your firewall, new generation firewalls (termed Unified Threat Management devices) provide a wide range of security services that directly impact data management. One of the foundation services is Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) compliance, which is a basic  component of eRate funding eligibility.
• Review your device based security services (Virus and Malware protection) and consider enforcing security compliance as a condition of internet access. This is a simple process with new generation UTM devices (firewalls).
• Consider implementing Active Directory services into your network environment if you are not doing so already. Couple this with group policies and automatic security patch updates.
• Avoid using personal email for school business, this not only dilutes your brand, but could be very embarrassing in the event of an Open Records Act inquiry or legal proceding.

Data Archiving, Retention, and Disaster Recovery Planning

The most frequent data management deficiency is the lack of planning for the retention of data and the lack of testing backup systems for the recovery of data and associated information systems in the event of a disaster. Typically, retention planning never happens and eventually, hardware failures always occur. Both deficiencies are an important subject for consideration in a data management plan.

Data retention requirements vary by subject matter and user class, each data set should be identified and described in terms of the following four criteria:

1. File format – the format type used to store the data (Word, Excel, pdf, database, image, etc.);
2. Archive length – the time required to retain data;
3. Storage location – the physical location of the stored data;
4. Access control – the security and user permissions associated with the data.

In a well managed environment, data is centrally managed, automatically backed up, and secured with a reasonable level of password protection and/or encryption. Far too often, we see data scattered across a wide variety of staff resources, poorly structured, improperly secured, and inadequately backed up.

The tasks of data archiving, retention, backup, and disaster recovery planning are really connected components of a well structured data management plan. The simplest and most effective way to address these tasks is to view them as a continuum, or a data life cycle – data is created, stored, then deleted at appropriate times, with appropriate security measures during each phase.

Checklist:

• Take inventory of data associated with your school and describe each data set by the above criteria.
•  Seriously question any tape backup systems that are not managed by a highly competent and trained network engineer – 80% of all tape back-up systems fail during recovery.
• Take advantage of the data retention features found in information systems you use. For example, there is no better email archiving, backup, and security solution than Microsoft Exchange Server – the program used to create the email system. Even better is when the Exchange environment is hosted offsite in Tier 3 data centers hosted by Microsoft.
• Consider a single system to manage this process to the extent possible, it will simplify your planning an  execution.
• Test, test, test – always do a full disaster recovery test to validate your plans and document your processes.

Summary

Data management planning need not be an overwhelming project. Rather it should be the logical conclusion to well-designed information systems. When implementing any technology solution, always consider it in light of your data management requirements. Be sure the system compliments your plan, but does not complicate it.

Keep legal and logical control of your data resources, ensure data is secure from all types of threats, and establish clear policies for data lifecycles – including the destruction of data when appropriate.

Contact us if you need assistance drafting a data management plan specific to your school, which may be required for your initial charter application or a grant.