Advice for Tom Luna (that he never asked for)

As part of the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools annual conference, I enjoyed the thoughful remarks of Idaho Superintendant of Schools, Tom Luna. And in spite of a few not so complimentary observations of my family who live in the gem state (and are educators), I found his comments to be spot on, with one small exception...

To avoid being political, I will simply observe that the challenges he addresses are real, the solutions are a little painful and scary for those so tenured, and his vision of the future for our kids is genuine. But his push for the state to buy an endpoint (laptop, tablet, digital device, etc.) for each student is misguided on two fronts.

First of all it will dramatically increase the cost of providing an education without a commensurate return on education outcomes. Second it's not about endpoints, Mr. Kuna, its about the infrastructure connecting the endpoints.

Let's look at the cost side first. Just how long will a laptop, tablet, or digital device (hereinafter "endpoint") last in the hands of a typical student? I can envision all kinds of funny explanations of the endpoints demise... dropped it in the toilet, used it for my food tray, left it on the bus, forgot to bring it in from the pool during a rainstorm, let it slip out of my hands, let my kid brother use it, took it to the beach..... you get the picture.

If the student had to do 40 hours of community service to earn the endpoint, then I would be all in. But with no skin in the game these endpoints will have no perceived value and will treated accordingly. Then the administration of those endpoints will become an enormous burden for the IT staff who are tasked with managing them.

Is an entitlement program for computers fundamentally different than other government entitlement programs. I think not, enough already!

Besides, just how many kids do you know today that don't have an Internet based phone, a PC (or two) at home, a dozen computers available at any time in the school, or an endpoint already of their own. Require students to manage their own endpoints outside of the school, it will help them be responsible for their own stuff. And manage school owned endpoints inside the school, where it can be done efficiently and with reasonable oversight.

Now let's turn to the infrastructure connecting our endpoints, which I can tell you is a bigger problem in rural Idaho than most places. All the endpoints in the world are of little value in transmitting knowledge if there is no connectivity. And even where there is connectivity, that in and of itself does not create the infrastructure needed to store, share, and collaborate on creative work. And Facebook is probably not the solution!

You need a system to transport, store, share, and account for information that is managed by the institutions who are guiding students in the learning process. You need reliable, SPAM free, and compliant email. You need shared resources, with permission based access control. And you need communication tools that engage students and connect them with instructional resources.

Happily, for the entire state of Idaho and Utah as well, Microsoft just announced a free version of Office 365 for Academic institutions. This is an amazing solution and really needs serious consideration. For a typical charter school with 25 staff and 400 kids, it is the equivalent of a $15,000 technology grant, combined with an administrative benefit  of a similar amount.

With Office 365 deployed (at little cost) into each school, you would then have all the infrastructure needed to deliver a 21st Century education. And you can do it on pretty much any endpoint you can think of inside or outside of the school. Office 365 works on almost any device, at any internet connected location, and at any time of day or night.

Vote No - for free endpoints, and Yes for Office 365!

That, Mr. Kuna, in all due respect, is how to fix your ambitious plan.

One Server or Seven – How many do you need?

One Server or Seven – How many do you need

Over the summer I have had occasion to visit a number of new schools. As I have done so, it is quite interesting to hear of the experiences of various school administrators.

One thing that surprised me is the wide variety of resources, measured by server count, which these similar schools possessed.

It would seem, given relative size and complexity that you would find an average server count – such as an average of 2.5 servers per school. But our experience suggests a much wider range of server capacity than you would expect. And while that is an interesting statistic (quite unscientific, I might add) what is even more surprising is the level of satisfaction we found between schools at the opposing end of the spectrum.

The school we observed having the most rational and functional information technology infrastructure had exactly one (1) server.  That school also reported the greatest degree of satisfaction in being able to manage their information systems effectively with very few outside resources.

On the other end of the spectrum was the school with the highest server count, seven (7) to be exact. Contrary to what you would expect, this school complained about irrational IT infrastructure, higher than desired management costs, and a very dysfunctional environment. 

I confess this is a very narrow sample and not a scientific study by any means. But, these are two very real schools, with very capable administrators and staff, each reporting a widely different technology experience.

One of the fundamental challenges we see with Charter Schools is that they are usually operated by administrators who come from traditional school districts, with conventional ways of doing things. That convention sometimes does not work in managing Charter School technology. Size and complexity of technology really does matter when managing a single campus freestanding charter school.

Without a thorough review of systems in either of these schools it would be unfair to characterize their technology providers as being irresponsible, but it begs the question – why so many or few. Sadly the answer may have more to do with the financial well-being of those recommending high server counts than what is best for the school.

Here is a list of common server roles and how you might outsource them at great savings:

Domain controller and active directory server

This common network environment provides user access control and group policy management to simplify administration of users. It requires a unique network ID or login for each user and individual passwords. While this may be necessary for schools that enroll older students, it can be very cumbersome for the younger grades. Students younger than 5^th or 6^th grade have great difficulty remembering usernames and passwords, so there is often a standard username and password published, which in effect invalidates your security policy.

Alternative – Office 365

Consider moving your user authentication to the cloud, where access is anywhere, anytime, and on any device. After all, the most common benefit for having active directory is so that your Desktop, Favorites, and My Documents follow you around.

Web server for hosting your website

Most organizations abandoned this practice years ago as hosting companies began stepping over each other to offer you website hosting facilities for a few dollars each month. But there are still a few diehards who insist on hosting their own website on their own hardware. This might be more of a job security play than a practical solution. Not only is this expensive, but the security ramifications are enormous. If your website sits inside your network perimeter, the chance of a security breach is greatly increased.

Alternative – West Host, Blue Host, or any other Web Hosting company

You honestly cannot even power a webserver inside your building for the cost associated with an annual hosting agreement at a website hosting company. And even if the power to run your web server was free, it would still cost you to maintain it. Only in the most unusual of circumstances does it make sense to host your own website.

Microsoft Exchange Email Server

Email is a critical business system in most schools, so up until recently we had an MS Exchange Email Server in every school we managed. But email as a hosted solution is a much more practical, reliable, and inexpensive solution.

Alternative – Office 365

 Don’t walk, but run to http://www.office 365.com and sign up for Exchange based email services that are now available free to academic organizations. It will be more reliable than your in-house email server, much less expensive to own and operate, and it will eliminate SPAM and Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE).

Exchange based email has so many advantages by way of features, security, and compliance that it is the gold standard communication platform for many organizations – large and small. If you are still using the email accounts that come free with your hosting account then your being negligent and probably spending much more time and energy than you would imagine dealing with the ramifications of such services.

Accounting Application Server

There are some really robust accounting packages used for education and hopefully you have found the right solution. But I have never understood why a charter school enterprise that has essentially one source of funding (State or Federal programs) needs an accounting program costing thousands of dollars each year, when a copy of QuickBooks will do.

But QuickBooks needs a server, right? Well, perhaps not  – a decent business class workstation, yes. A multi-core server with advanced drive arrays, gobs of memory, and expensive tape drive? Probably not.

Alternative – QuickBooks Online

And if you really want to simplify and cut costs, consider QuickBooks online. It requires “0” hardware and is available from anywhere at any time. And that’s pretty handy for allowing administrators access to reports when they are relaxing at home.

Server for Staff Shared Drive(s) or Student Shared Drive(s)

There are many challenges associated with managing documents on a “Shared Drive”, yet this seems to be a standard setup in every school (well except those we configure). This is a classic case of “We’ve always done it that way”, without considering the great improvements of technology advances.

SharePoint has been one of Microsoft’s fastest growing technologies for the past decade. It is the modern day version of a Shared Drive, with many advantages.  It provides all of the sharing capabilities of a shared drive, without the limitations.

Here are the challenges associated with shared drives that SharePoint eliminates:

·         Security – By definition a shared folder is available to pretty much everyone,  at least that is the common scenario. And some things just should not be shared – like HR records, medical records, employment contracts, etc.

·         Overwrites – Ever wiped out another staff members document changes after they spent hours  on a joint project. That’s not a fun experience, but happens routinely with a Shared documents.

·         Versioning – Have you ever edited a document only to discover that the version you had two iterations back was better? Or have you collaborated with someone on a joint project and needed to revisit changes of a month ago? Or do you simply not know which copy of your document contains the latest revisions? That is a common shared drive experience.

·         Notification – Want to know when a document is changed or a document is added to a Shared Drive – good luck, without SharePoint.

Alternative – SharePoint in Office 365

In addition to solving the above challenges associated with Shared Drives, SharePoint also provides real cost savings to your school in the form of reduced IT management costs. Here is how:

·         Eliminating servers will eliminate hours billed at your highest technician rates

·         Eliminating USB drives will save costs and improve access to documents

·         Eliminating access issues (remote access, different classroom access, etc) eliminates IT requirements

Summary

Charter schools, which typically have fewer resources for IT management, can tap into the economies of scale that are the basis of cloud computing. Many traditional “server” requirements can now be outsources with improved security, functionality, and cost. If you have more servers than you need, consider moving that functionality to the cloud.

OK, It’s time to get legal (names omitted to protect the guilty)

We recently met with a school director and their technology provider to discuss a solution that had Microsoft Licensing implications. When we asked about the schools software licensing, there was an uncomfortable shifting in the chair, a bit of hem and haw, followed by a very generic explanation regarding a previous IT provider a few years back and a school agreement. You get the picture….

What we heard was probably quite a bit different than what the administrator understood. And we left it at that. We are not the Microsoft Licensing police and frankly Microsoft Licensing is so ridiculously complicated that it takes a team of New York Lawyers to explain it, and a few CPA’s to calculate the costs. Alright, that is an exaggeration, but not much of one.

Having said that, I submit the time has come, in the world of Education that overlooking your Microsoft Licensing is really quite inexcusable. And frankly, unless you value your time at less than minimum wage, it really makes sense to just sign the agreement, pay the minimal licensing costs, and get on with life.

If you use the correct type of licensing, the process will literally save you time and money; not to mention that warm and fuzzy feeling you will have knowing you are playing by the rules.

Having seen firsthand the hoops that some go through to avoid legal licensing, it really makes no sense. You can now buy an umbrella Microsoft agreement that not only covers all computers in the school with Operating Systems, and core CALS, but it also provides a copy of Microsoft Office Professional Plus. Furthermore there are home use rights to boot.

And here is a little known secret. When you initiate a school agreement, there are a number of additional software licenses that magically appear in your Volume Licensing Center. Take for example the MultiPoint Server license and CAL’s for connecting to it. That’s right, they are included. Just try buying that software over the counter by itself.

Some school agreements also come with subscriptions to Microsoft educational titles, membership in the MSDN Academic Alliance, and Live@EDU services. Plus there are other Microsoft solutions such as the InTune Management software, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and others that are a fraction of the cost when associated with your Annual School Agreement.

And you can literally receive an entire truckload of donated computers, which as soon as they enter your building are also covered. And did I mention any Virtual Machines that you create using Microsoft Hyper-V technology – they are covered as well.

Like most of you, I have a real problem with paying $450.00 for a copy of Microsoft Office Professional Plus in the shrink wrapped box. And that is a challenge in the for-profit world. But educational titles are so incredibly cheap, it takes way more resources to find ways around licensing than it does to do it properly.

Enough already, while the odds of a Software Audit are very, very small; all it takes is the phone call of one disgruntled staff member,  former vendor, or competitor to the software alliance and things could get real ugly.

If you have a software licensing question or need guidance on selecting the right school agreement, please call us. As a freestanding charter school, you have options that are both sensible and affordable. And you might be surprised at all the freebies you get for being legal.

Do the right thing!

Oh, one last thing. You might consider making your school agreement align with the eRate fiscal year. Eligible expenses are more easily allocated and reimbursed when they line up with July 1 – Jun 30 timeframes of the eRate program.