OneNote – The Swiss Army Knife of Collaborative Work

Being a good Boy Scout, I appreciate having a single piece of equipment that serves so many purposes. And growing up in the troop, I always admired the Swiss Army Knife with so many functions in one little package.
 
Enter OneNote, a versatile and clever piece of software that does many things on many platforms.

As you go about organizing your digital assets, there seems to always be something that doesn’t quite fit. Over the years I have attempted various ways to track snippets of information I knew would come in handy, but did not have a rational way of organizing it. And for about the same number of years, I have noticed this little program in the Microsoft Office suite – OneNote- that I really did not know what to do with.

Recently my need to organize and my curiosity, compelled by a couple of glowing reviews, caused me to take a more serious look at OneNote. Now I use it every day and it has become an indispensable tool.

One Note is a free form (this is not insignificant) program to collect, store, and share information of every imaginable type. It can do text, images, links, tables, video, and all the variants of digital content of which I am aware.  It can be designated public or private, and can be shared with as many or as few individuals as you like in a number of cloud based storage/sharing platforms.

Free form simply means that you can place your pointer on any location on a page an add content in the exact location you desire. Unlike Word, where you start at top left and work your way down the page adding words and images as you go.And once your information is upon the page, you can easily rearrange it without difficulty
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OneNote is similar in function to an old fashioned Notebook, which has tabs or dividers, and pages. And it is useful to think about it in this manner. You can use it as a scrapbook to collect newspaper articles, photographs, handwritten notes, and drawings. You can use it as a small database to track all of your user names and passwords (and make it password protected). You can create tables which will actually calculate totals, much like a spreadsheet.  Then you can organize the various pages where this information resides in a hierarchical fashion with sub pages.

All this is good, but the most impressive feature of OneNote, for me, is the ability to synchronize my collection of information across all of my endpoints. It does little good to take notes on my iPhone, that are not synced to my laptop, my desktop, or iPad. And when I make changes to a notebook in OneNote while working at my desk, I want that information available on my mobile devices as well.

And now we arrive at the point where, with a little background, you can begin to see the potential of this program in the classroom. Imagine creating an instructional document that you wish to share with your students. You have a great teaching platform with OneNote, especially if you want to collaborate with your students on the document. And I don’t mean just share the document, I refer to real time collaboration, where notes and ideas from each individual in a group are simultaneously experienced by the rest of the group.

OneNote has deep integration into the Windows desktop, with special tools that allow you to take snippets of information from your screen and place them right into one of your OneNote pages. Just press the Windows logo key on your keyboard, followed by the letter “S”. Once you define the area you wish to save, the utility prompts you to select a OneNote location.

Another handy ‘built-in’ feature is the “Print To” function within windows, which allows you to redirect any print output into a OneNote page. This is very handy when you need to make a printed copy of something, but are without a printer.

And finally, the wide variety of “Save As” functions provides a way for you to save OneNote pages in a wide variety of formats, including .pdf.

Microsoft Word is great at composing and editing documents, Excel does a great job of organizing rows and columns of numbers, and PowerPoint does a superb job of creating slide shows. But sometimes you just need a place to organize a few paragraphs, a small group of numbers, a few pictures for clarity, and then add hand written notes. Then you need the ability to share your content with others and gain valuable feedback.

OneNote is the one program you can use to do a little bit of everything.  I ignored it for years, but now use it every day. And unlike the trusty Swiss Army Knife, you can actually get OneNote through security at the airport!

Give it a try, you'll be impressed!

Is your data in Synch or in the sink (as in down the drain)?

When it works, it’s a marvelous thing. When it doesn’t it is painful.

That was my observation this week after losing several hours of creative work that originated on my iPad and was supposed to be synched to the cloud. Somewhere between my iPad and the cumulus digitus, my files got zapped. Perhaps it was a cruel joke Apple was playing on me for daring to use a Microsoft (One Note) application on an Apple device, the iPad.

The cause was more likely the result of not following my own advice. Attempting to create content on a consumer endpoint (iPad) rather than a robust workstation did not turn out well.  Although the same thing can happen on a workstation, automatic backups make recovery possible. Not so in my case.

Do you face challenges sharing your files between end different end points and end users? It can be challenging, but once you master the process, it is very useful. Here are a few things you might want to think about.

•  Decide how you will create original documents
• Settle on a file format that is platform independent
• Use infrastructure that is device neutral
• Synchronize your programs automatically (or semi-automatically)

Let’s consider a scenario to demonstrate how this works:

 

Suppose you have documents that you need to diagram, outline, or notate, then share. This is common in the classroom where a teacher creates a lesson plan document, marks it up during a lecture, then posts the document online for students to review.

 

This is not so simple to do on your laptop or desktop (PC or Mac) alone. However, with an iPad or tablet and the right application, it’s a cinch. The problem is that much of the resources, in the form of documents, photo stock, spreadsheets, etc. exist on your laptop/desktop during the creative process; where typing text, inserting tables, or adding photos is a snap. Yet presenting that document during a lecture often means using another medium, such as an overhead or smartboard, where it is not easy to capture the doodles, drawings, diagrams, or annotations on the original document.

 

So the challenge is moving your creative work through its various stages; from your PC, to your iPad or tablet, while retaining the ability to access it on both, plus a web browser for sharing.

 

If you are simply copying an existing document, this is pretty straightforward. But that may not provide you the personalized original document you need. And it really doesn’t matter, because it is the same process described below, with a few steps taken out.

 

So let’s apply the four principles above to our scenario and see how this works:

 

Decide how you will create original documents

 

I start with Microsoft One Note as my creative solution on the desktop. It is a very clever program included in Office Professional and now part of Office 365 Web Apps. Within One note, you can clip articles, snip website pages, insert photos and notate with text on the location of my choice on the page. You can also create tables on the fly if you need to do spreadsheet-like calculations. And while you are at it, embed your video, audio, or other links.

 

One Note is truly an amazing program for organizing stuff in an electronic document on a PC or Mac. You may have another favorite or a program more oriented to the subject matter you teach. But I have not found an equivalent for doing this creative work on the iPad. While great at displaying content, the iPad is very limited with respect to creating original content.

 

Settle on a file format that is platform independent

 

Next I save my document in Adobe’s Portable Document Format. A .pdf is so common now that many don’t realize it originated as the output of Adobe Acrobat, a very powerful program used to manage documents with advanced features to transport, distribute, secure, sign, certify and otherwise manage digital documents.

 

Most of the advanced features in a .pdf are not necessary in the classroom, but the ability to create .pdf’s (as opposed to just reading them) has always been a bit challenging, due to licensing issues with Adobe – the creators of the .pdf standard. You can find an unlimited number of free readers on the internet, but you almost always have to pay (in one way or another) for software to create a .pdf.

 

The benefit of using a .pdf is the ability to view it on virtually any platform and device. Desktop, laptop, PC, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle, etc. you name a digital device and it reads a .pdf. And all kinds of websites, ftp sites, sharing services, etc., also accommodate .pdf’s.

And backing up one step, the reason I use One Note is that along with its versatility, it (like all Microsoft Office Programs) contains a “Save As” option that includes an option to save the document in a .pdf file format.

 

Use infrastructure that is device neutral

 

Once you have successfully created your document and placed it into a .pdf format, you’ll need to decide where to store it. The variety of choices in this step are mind boggling due to the sheer number of options presented in various apps available for endpoint devices, so be careful. Storing the documents is only one aspect of this process. The capacity to share, download, tag and find, and manage lifecycle or archiving are also important considerations.

 

I am not writing this article oblivious to Drop Box and Evernote, I use both. And you may know of others, there are some very clever apps and programs out there, but my platform of choice is SharePoint. The reason is simple. It is an enterprise level program with deep integration into my organization as a whole and provides a number of other important benefits aside from our discussion here.

 

SharePoint’s adoption is evident in most programs designed to synchronize your data. Just look in the setup menu and you will almost always have an option to save to a SharePoint (or WebDAV) site.

Bottom line is that SharePoint is very compatible with the other steps outlined here. And for users that are not inclined to try every new gadget program out there or are a bit technically challenged, SharePoint is very easy to use. It looks just like another folder on My Computer and saving to it is very much like saving a document to the My Documents folder.

 

Synchronize your programs automatically (or semi-automatically)

 

The final step in this document creation and display journey may very well take you back to your iPad which is synched to the cloud through one of the many clever .pdf programs. Otherwise use your desktop or laptop or tablet or smart phone or kindle, or… you get the picture. Synch your data and share it with others in your world.

 

If you choose the iPad, you’ll need a good .pdf program. Take your pick, there are dozen’s. I Like PDF Expert (by Readdle)  where I can doodle, highlight, draw circles, boxes and arrows and do all sorts of hands on notation of the document while I am lecturing from it. And with the right app, I can connect my iPad to an overhead projector or share it on a smart board for all to enjoy.

 

When my presentation is done, my document is automatically synched to the SharePoint cloud and available to the groups and individuals with whom you have shared it. And if you make changes to the document, they are available on all the endpoints.

 

Summary

 

What happened to me turned out to be failing to follow my own advice, although in fairness it wasn’t really advice if I had not yet advised it as such.  No matter, the lessons I learned have helped me to more effective. I hope you will find the ideas useful.

 

Decide upon the program you will use to create your specific content and ensure that it will allow you to "Save As" or export to .pdf. Use a .pdf document as the medium of transporting and sharing. Manage the .pdf on Sharepoint, and take advantage of any automatic synchronization of the documents.

 

Don’t feel like a dummy if you can’t figure out how to make this work on the first go around. There are a number of steps involved. But if you routinely create, share, modify, and archive documents in the process of instruction. These ideas should work for you.

 

Let us know if you other useful ideas.

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.

Virtualization - Part 2: Which Virtualization Solution Should I Use

Wading through the vast array of virtualization solutions is a challenge and frankly it will mostly be a waste of your time, until you focus on a specific solution needed for your school. I emphasize “specific”, because sometimes the process associated with the high tech virtualization strategy is a very low-tech and practical need to just get something done without an army of Network Engineers and a couple of hours on the phone with technical support.

You can virtualize servers, if you have a need to either consolidate physical hardware or add another server for a specific application. You can virtualize desktops and launch them in thin client sessions to create a sterile computer lab environment (such as required for testing). Or, you might want to use virtualization as part of your backup strategy for mission critical applications, such as computers running your financial software.

Whatever your circumstances, be sure you have a solid business case for implementing a virtualization strategy. Don’t get sucked into the IT department’s love affair with virtualization without a compelling solution attached to it. The one certainty about virtualization is that it will virtually guarantee (another intended pun), that your IT team will be on the payroll for as long as you keep that virtualized environment in place. This is a pretty complex solution, even for those of us in the business.

Here are three very specific examples of where we have used virtualization to the benefit of our school partner:

VoIP Management Server: Due to growing pains, one of our schools needed to setup a remote administration office to accommodate temporary office space during new facility construction. They did not want to spend on infrastructure that would be replaced within a year, and space was very limited.

The VoIP system they setup for the temporary offices required a server for the call manager (PBX functionality).

Using Microsoft Hyper-V technology, we created a VM (Virtual Machine) which had the sole purpose of running the call manager software. There were specific system requirements that differed from the configuration of the host server, otherwise we would not have needed a VM in the first place.

It ran flawlessly for the period of about 24 months (ever heard of construction delays) and then we decommissioned that VM and moved to the new facilities. Mission accomplished.

The business case for this virtualization was temporary computing requirements with the least amount spent on hardware, software, and electricity.

Server Migration: A rather old and inefficient server at partner school needed replacing. Simple enough, right? Well yes, except the school financial system was installed on this server and the orders were to not to interrupt it. It also did after hours synchronizing with a district system, which required point in time coordination.

Quick is not something that can be guaranteed with a single network engineer managing an entire school on one day per week (our model). So we employed a virtualization strategy.

The solution was to configure a VM and work through all of the network connection issues, configuration, and testing. Then at a pre-appointed time we quickly took a snap-shot (image) of the operating server and virtualized it. This VM then ran for a period of several weeks giving us plenty of time to install and configure the new physical server, without pressue on our part or interruption on theirs.

Why did we not simply keep running the financial system as a virtual machine? Good question, although it could have in theory been easily done. There were ownership (as in the district’s property) and licensing issues that drove the decision.

The business case for this virtualization was a time critical server migration. Not just the length of time it took, but the point(s) in time requirement as well.

Computer Lab:  A thoroughly trashed computer lab at one of our partner schools needed replacing, but budgets were very tight. We needed to find a way to refurbish/replace the computer lab for well under $10, 000 with the specific requirement to make them easy to use for state mandated testing.

If you read between the lines, what the administrator was trying to avoid was that very stressful “day of testing” computer problem nightmare you have all experienced.

Our virtualization solution in this situation was Windows MultiPoint server connected by HP Zero Clients. Using MultiPoint server, we were able to reduce the cost of the lab by 75% (we set up in a conservative 5 – 1 ratio) and provide a sterile computing environment on testing day.

The setup was easy, because MultiPoint Server 2011 is designed specifically to recognize and configure the HP Zero Clients. And after downloading the states thin client setup utility, we were able to quickly boot into a “Sterile” testing environment. That is where all computer sessions are identical, locked down, ready for testing, and capable of being administered by a proctor.

The business case for this virtualization was not only cost, but in delivering a sterile computing environment, (as we defined above).

Summary

Virtualization is a mature and well adopted technology used worldwide in a variety of circumstances. It may indeed be appropriate for you to consider. Before doing so, identify a specific computing problem and desired outcomes and a budget before calling your IT provider.

Hopefully your IT provider is wise enough to guide you in selecting your virtualization strategy, software provider, and configuration to accommodate your business case. And if you have a requirements for a temporary, time critical, or specific computing environment; then virtualization is likely a good choice.

And that’s virtually all I have to say about it… until next week. We’ll look a little deeper at virtualizing your computer lab.

What’s the big deal about Live@edu? It’s more than a free email account

Offering your students free email will get you about as much mileage as offering them free brussel sprouts for lunch. It's just not a big deal anymore to have an email account, with Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail, and Facebook mail all competing for young minds as an advertising audience.

However, there may be very good reason for your school to offer Live@edu services for students. Here are a few advantages of doing so:

• Increased collaboration and communication among students and teachers
• Security and control of your email environment
• Brand and community building with customized logos, color schemes, and campaigns
• Real world training for your students to communicate in a 21st Century work environment
• Reduced infrastructure costs

So, it’s not really just free, it actually pays you significant dividends! Let’s dig a little deeper.

 

Increased collaboration and communication

 

By giving students the ability to email, instant message, video chat, share documents, and store homework assignments in the Live@edu system, you give them a powerful set of creative tools. They can collaborate on project documents using Microsoft Office Web apps, free online companions to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and One Note.

 

Security and Control

 

Because the Live@edu is centrally managed by your internal staff, you have complete control over access to the system. And with Microsoft’s advanced email security you significantly reduce the risk of phishing, virus, and malware attacks on your internal systems. And in the event of a disciplinary matter, you have access to email communication and message archives.

 

Brand and community building

 

Think about every email sent outside of your organization as a small advertising snippet. As your students communicate around the world and across the community, your institution becomes more visible, relevant, and cutting edge. Your Live@edu email and workspaces are branded with your logo and school name.

 

Real world training

 

Live@edu services are built upon the same technology as Microsoft Office 365, a powerful and widely used business communication and collaboration system. Your students will gain valuable experience in real world communication by using Live@edu. And they can plug into the Live@edu from anywhere and on any device.

 

Reduced costs

 

How much are you spending for student servers? Maintaining shared drives, keeping track of student documents, managing student access, securing other student’s work, and keeping ahead of student hacks is a significant IT management cost. With 25GB of storage per student and access control by Live@edu account, you can eliminate a great deal of administrative expense.

 

Summary

 

Building a communication platform for students to email, instant message, video chat, share documents, and store homework assignments seems like a lot of infrastructure – and it is. An equivalent cost to build and manage such a system internally would be thousands of dollars, not to mention the administrative time diverted from more strategic initiatives.

 

Showcasing your school as a leader in technology and forward thinking will generate interest and improve your recruiting efforts.

 

K-12 institutions have a very specific set of requirements for cloud-based messaging and collaboration solutions. No one brings a richer set of free hosted solutions to the K-12 space than Microsoft Live@edu. Not only are our enterprise-grade services cost effective and flexible, but they also prepare students for the next step with professional tools used in higher education institutions and businesses the world over.

 

Let us help you implement a Live@edu solution on your campus.

Putting a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution to work in your school

A core assumption in the Charter School movement is competition. Most competitive measures are geared toward educational outcomes. But before you can compete in the area of outcomes you must compete in the arena of sound business management. Running the business side of a Charter School is enormously challenging. In addition to the key metric of recruiting students, you must manage all kinds of relationships with parents, teachers, administrative staff, board members, volunteers, the community, vendors, and regulatory agencies.
Managing a school is a relationship management intensive undertaking! And how well you manage these crucial relationships will have a far reaching impact on your organization. But how many of you are using any kind of a Customer Relationship Management program? More specifically, how many of you are using a CRM system that is deeply integrated into your existing information systems?
Increasing numbers and types of businesses are adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.  CRM systems cover a lot of territory: sales, marketing, case management, and documentation; so making general observation here is not really going to help. But try to imagine how different your school would look if you had a system in place that could help quantify measures of performance, more clearly define and manage processes, automate administrative tasks, centralize information, and increase the capacity of your staff to work in a more unified manner.
A CRM system is not a simple solution to implement, but managing the business of a Charter School is not a simple undertaking. And while complex systems require thoughtful planning, testing, and deployment; the complexity exists whether or not you have such programs. Traditional school districts have a huge advantage. Although they deal with the same array of relationships they also have significant resource advantages and economics of scale, often employing an entire team to accomplish what a solitary administrator is expected to do.
The best way to overcome this inherent disadvantage is a Customer Relationship Management System designed specifically for Charter Schools.
From a funding perspective, students and their families are your paying customers. But in reality you have a long list of “customers”, or groups without which you could not function.  And as simple as it may sound, keeping them happy is most likely to occur when using a Customer Relationship Management system designed just for that purpose.
Nobody likes a hard sell, and perhaps that is what comes to mind when you hear about CRM software. In fact effective CRM programs do more than just build brand awareness, deliver consistent marketing messages, and track interaction with potential customers until you “sell” them. CRM systems help you manage all of the aspects of the important relationships that define your organization and make it as easy as possible to do business with you.
Customer Relationship Management software has been successfully implemented in all kinds of businesses, and for the same reasons it makes sense for your school. Consider things you could do with a CRM system designed for a Charter School:
Contact Management

• Centralize the essential contact information for students and their families and tie it to their Student Information Records
• Consolidate all other contact lists for the school into a single source and enjoy a much more accurate source of information
• Identify relationships among the various contacts to better understand communication requirements and preferences
• Communicate effortlessly with any combination of individuals within groups and track those communications for accountability
• Streamline the records update process by distributing the task to the end points of interaction
• Provide financial and case management records for context (as allowed by security roles) within your contact information

Marketing

• Create, execute, and measure campaigns for recruiting, fundraising, and volunteering
• Communicate with potential students at the frequency and intensity of their interest level
• Track all interactions with potential students, donors, and volunteers and measure defined goals of those relationships
• Build better relationships through consistent messaging, improved responsiveness, and uniform processes
• Manage Social Media campaigns

Case Management

• Establish workflow and manage documentation for new student from application to entrance
• Manage facilities and contractors with workflows and centralized documentation 
• Manage support issues (help desk) for all kinds of issues - technical, personnel, facilities, finance
• Track grants and funding opportunities with better reminders of deadlines and tasks management
• Comply with Board Meeting minutes publications using permission based workflow and oversight
• Manage questions, complaints, or discipline with current students (outside of SIS)
• Streamline communication with key team members by centralizing information stores
• Develop a centralized policy and procedure knowledgebase
• Manage field trips, group events, and meetings

Fee Management

• Manage student fees and simplify the reconciliation process for finance
• Centralize accounting for all sales or service fee collection for all groups in or out of the  student store
• Improve the process for collecting library fees, yearbooks , DVD sales, and sporting equipment
• Integrate the accounting and development functions for fundraising and donation management
• Document and improve collection for property damage fines
• Improve inventory management for all product based items

As you can see, this is a pretty comprehensive list of features touching many departments and individuals both in and out of the school. As such the architecture of this system is vital. In order for this system to succeed it must have a common and familiar interface, utilize existing rather than new policies and procedures, and it must be a cloud based solution with unrestricted availability from anywhere on any device.
Our recommended solution is Microsoft Dynamics CRM online configured specifically for use in the Charter School Community and managed with familiar tools you use every day – Microsoft Outlook, Word, and the other Microsoft Office programs. But whatever solution you choose it must be capable of delivering administrative efficiencies to support the non-academic aspects of your school.
One last point - while we did not directly address the educational side of your organization, it too will be greatly enhanced by a CRM system.

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.