What we have here is a failure… of Leadership

One of my favorite lines comes from Paul Newman, in the movie Cool Hand Luke. It is similar to this weeks blog title, and most of you over 40 have probably heard it. Newman repeats the phrase, “What we have here is a failure to communicate!” He repeats it often and until his eventual demise.

I substitute the word Leadership, because communication is the single most important aspect of the Holy Grail called leadership.

This is not an article criticizing anyone in leadership at any school. Leadership is a tough business, a worthy objective, and a never ending quest. It is very hard work for most of us average folks who don’t possess the skills of (pick your favorite leader).

And I hesitate writing about leadership, because I have my own failings. But I’ll do it anyway – mostly because I can, and also because I believe there are a few key ways that leadership can be enhanced in the area of Information Technology in a Charter School.

It’s pretty simple, really. Somebody has to be in charge and everybody needs to follow. How you get there is not so simple.

We recently had an exceptionally talented teacher approach us about a new online learning system that she was excited to share with others. Fair enough, we always welcome new ideas and ways of improving things. Problem is, she wanted us to essentially pressure the other staff members into seeing the world in her particular view. Of course we could have pushed her agenda and made it difficult to use other similar services had we been so inclined, but that would be a conflict of interest and contrary to sound and ethical leadership.

Do you have similar challenges in your organization? We frequently see these shooting stars of good ideas hurling across the proverbial campus sky, only to flash one last time and crash to the earthy reality of resistance to change and failure to get people on board. Change is hard and change requires leadership.

Again, this is not about criticism, but better ways of doing things.

May I suggest a very old fashioned approach to this very common problem? We have observed positive results at schools that have implemented these ideas.

It starts with a committee, okay if the label of a committee is a turn-off, try “focus group” or “change engineers” or whatever you like. But assemble a group of enthusiastic individuals - preferably volunteers who enjoy technology – to meet as a Technology Advisory Committee. Include one or more individuals from the following stakeholder groups – students, teachers, parents, administrators/BOD, and IT.

Establish a set time to meet and give it a high priority, perhaps even throw in some perks for participation.  Don’t waste time or meet without an agenda, be organized and serious. Then begin the process of listening to ideas, problems, suggestions, and challenges and collectively formulate a game plan that is agreed upon by the group. Don’t rush things. If more information is required, delay a decision rather than rushing forward for the sake of decisiveness.

When ideas are vetted in a fair and open manner, the best ideas will ultimately bubble to the top. A wise leader can encourage this process by maintaining order, giving all stakeholders a fair voice, and ensuring the dialogue does not become personal or vindictive.

You should observe three important principals in these interactions:

1. Most good ideas come from the troops – teachers and students are where the rubber meets the road. They often have great ideas that bubble up because they are the primary consumers of IT.
2. Wisdom and perspective comes from experience –administrators will guide the conversations to avoid the pitfalls of policy limits, government mandates,  and budget realities.
3. Practical aspects of implementing are best addressed by your IT managers – building upon existing infrastructure is often a necessary compromise with new ideas.

Individual efforts, by any one group alone will never win the day. There has to be an agreed upon direction, with buy-in from all the stakeholders after vigorous debate, and a practical implementation plan put together that doesn’t completely undo the infrastructure already established.

Is your school missing the proverbial forest for all of the trees when it comes to Information Technology? Do you apply the same seriousness to deploying IT assets as you do financial assets?
Or is the culture at your school focused on position, power plays, and pet projects? 

By implementing regular Technology Advisory Committee meetings you are more likely to have a single, rational, and agreed upon process to determine what is best for the school.

Summary

It is possible to provide concise leadership in the area of technology. In our view it starts at the top by establishing a Technology Committee, with representatives from each stakeholder group. The committee meets regularly and deliberately to evaluate the desires and needs of the students through the advocacy of teachers, tempered with the wisdom and experience of the administrators, and guided by IT.
 
Bonus: A suggested methodology for your periodic TAC meetings:

1. Start Positive: Begin on a positive note.  Report on a new implementation or project that highlights success in your efforts.
2. Train Constantly: Have a 5 minute training session about something really useful that needs wider adoption. It may be the very issue you report on in the first item.
3. Encourage Participation: Have each stakeholder representative review one or two high level technical challenges or ongoing problems. Avoid getting too deep into the details.
4. Find Consensus: Informally poll your group to discover which challenges are your most pressing issues, then discuss it in more detail.
5. Propose Solutions: Encourage each stakeholder to propose a course of action associated with your top issue(s) without interruption.
6. Debate Proposals: Open the proposal up to vigorous, but moderated debate. Explore alternatives, question every aspect of the proposal, review cost/benefits, and consider implementation challenges.
7. Assign Action: Develop an implementation plan or resolution plan for the issue. Complex issues may take multiple meetings to solidify, but act to the extent possible.
8. Require Reports: Make assignments and reports on those assignments the subject of your next meeting – agenda item 1.
9. Repeat as needed: You might need weekly TAC meetings at first. Eventually you should be able to meet just once each month.

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.

Virtualization - Part 3: Solving the Computer Lab Conundrum

In the two previous articles we explored the concept of Shared Resource Computing, termed virtualization, and described a few ways to deploy virtual machines in your school. Let’s get a little more practical and focus on the benefits of using virtualization in your computer lab.
A computer lab is the one common denominator in virtually (there goes another pun) every school we have managed.  Computer labs come in all sizes, shapes, and conditions. Although universal in usage, they vary widely in functionality, ranging from a collection of mostly broken, outdated computers donated to you after the end of their useful life to a collection of brand new ‘out of the box’ desktops.

Regardless of circumstance, there seems to be 5 universal challenges associated with computer labs:

1. Cost to acquire the hardware, network, and installation
2. Cost to maintain the high usage in a semi-hostile environment
3. Noise and heat levels that can distract students
4. Distractions of an endless variety  (as in the internet) during instruction
5. Consistent computing environment, especially during testing

Managing your computer lab may in fact be the most time consuming technical support requirement in your school. That tends to be the case in schools with higher grade levels (see my previous article about managing computers in a hostile environment). So in addition to reducing upfront costs, reducing ongoing costs will also be of great benefit.

 

There are many virtualization solutions available that address computer desktops (as opposed to servers), but don’t invest a lot of time exploring them.  In my view there is only one solution that adequately addresses the specific challenges associated with the computer lab in education.

 

That solution is Windows MultiPoint Server 2011, a computer operating system designed specifically for the computer lab at your school. It is the only solution that addresses the above listed challenges completely.

 

Let’s look at each one:

 

1. The cost savings experienced is directly proportional to the number of multi seat sessions you provision per server. We have tested 5:1 (five computing session to one server), but Microsoft advertises up to 20:1. Even at 10:1 you are only buying a fraction of the computer hardware.
2. There are no moving parts in the T200 Zero Clients we recommend, no hard drives, cooling fans, disk caddies, etc. Far fewer parts require far fewer repairs. Your administrative costs for the lab will plummet.
3. Put 25 – 30 computers in an average sized room and you are going to have heating and cooling issues. And the noise level of that environment has never been conducive to instruction and learning.
4. Having tried to instruct adults in technology training with the internet staring them in the face is a challenge. With kids it is nigh unto impossible. With MultiPoint Manager you control access to the internet, and point all computing sessions at once to where you want the students to go.
5. Testing preparation becomes a breeze. You simply sign in differently on testing day and the students are presented with a sterile testing environment, with appropriate controls in place to insure testing integrity.

A worldwide study conducted by Forrester Research concluded the following with respect to Microsoft MultiPoint Server technology:

 

• Teachers and students report that using a Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 station is as good, in terms of speed and performance, as if they were working on a traditional personal computer. 
• Overall student energy and enthusiasm is boosted when more students have a modern computing station to work on, instead of sharing an older machine and dated operating system amongst their classmates or having no computer access in the classroom at all.
• Teachers very much appreciate the administration and monitoring capabilities of the new MultiPoint Manager, with which they can direct and control class and individual students' lessons more effectively. The console is reported to be easy to learn, even for non-English speaking and non-technical instructors. 
• A Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 system is relatively easy to set up and deploy, according to interviewees. This is especially valuable for schools in remote areas where IT skills are scarce.
• Power cost reductions are important in the many areas of the world where electricity is a large line item in the school's budget — assuming it is available. 
• The overall cost savings compared to a traditional PC environment is substantial and analyses of these costs comprise the bulk of this study.  All schools reported being able to re-allocate these savings to other assets for enhancing the education of their students.

So there you have it. A three part series about what you need to know regarding Virtualization. For most of you, the sweet spot will be your computer lab(s). Using virtualization will reduce both the initial and ongoing costs of the computer lab, improve the learning environment, and simplify life for your teachers.

And I will virtually guaranteed (my final pun) you will love it. Our early adopters are already coming back for more.

One final note; in order to use MultiPoint Server 2011, you will need to address your Microsoft software licensing. See my earlier article about this subject.  After all, you don’t expect Microsoft to allow creation of all those virtual computers without licensing them!

Driving Efficiencies in Desktop Administration

Let’s do a quick math test to give you an idea of the time typically spent doing routine maintenance on the computers in your school and then discuss ways you can dramatically cut those time requirements. We’ ll use round numbers to make it easy, starting with the assumption that you have 100 computers to manage.

At least once each month, you should be doing software updates, security patches, and system scans – the routine maintenance that keeps computers in optimal shape. Doing this maintenance will help keep your computing experience consistent, remove unwanted virus’ and spy ware programs, and apply the latest improvements in operating system and software program functionality.

In a perfect world this process would be entirely automatic, but there are a number of reasons why automation fails and part of desktop administration is monitoring and resolving those failures, proactively.

Back to the math quiz….

How much time does it take update 100 computers each month? If you do it the old fashion way and allow yourself 20 minutes per computer (that’s optimistic) you are looking at 2,000 minutes – plus travel time (between computers). That is roughly 35 hours; which approximates the amount of time we normally spend in an entire month managing infrastructure at a typical school. Not a sustainable model because there are more tasks required to manage technology resources than just updating computers.

The way to improve desktop administration is a three point approach consisting of automation, reporting, and remote control. These actions should be taken simultaneously and there are a wide variety of solutions to help you.

Whatever system you use, and there are several, you should focus on the following three areas:

1. Automation – implementing automatic updates that work within your security model
2. Reporting – providing a centralized inventory of computers and their current status
3. Remote Control – installing remote control tools for efficient technician access

Automation

At the most basic level, you should set your computers to do automatic updates from Microsoft,  but depending upon security settings or user account privileges, this might not work. Finding the right balance between local user access and security of the environment is tricky, but as it relates to automatic updates it can cause the process to fail.

In an enterprise the size of a charter school, the single biggest problem we see (in terms of wasted resources) is having an open desktop security policy, with local install permissions. Managing this is the first order of business when struggling to gain control of computer administration costs.

With no security (access control) in place you will quickly find every single computer in a different state. There will be different backgrounds or wallpaper, butterfly or alligator pointers, and a wide variety of default program settings, browser toolbars, and freeware (accompanied by malware) installed.

The conflict between automatic updates and access control is best managed by a programs such as  System Center Essentials, Windows InTune, or other third party desktop administration tools that provide sufficient security access to accomplish the automatic updates required, with no intervention on your part. The sooner you get control of your desktops – the sooner your support costs will plummet.

In order to measure the success of your update automation, you’ll need some kind of centralized reporting tool.

Reporting

Quickly evaluating the state of your desktop computers is the essential job of a reporting tool. Rather than waiting for a user to call the help desk to address a computer issue, a good reporting tool will notify your help desk well in advance of a pending computer problem.

Applying support resources in advance is almost always more efficient than resolving a problem after the issue has caught the attention of an end user.  And sophisticated reporting tools are both inexpensive and quite robust.

Not only will a reporting tool disclose the state of your computers, with respect to software updates; it will also report impending hardware failures, disk space limitations, device driver conflicts, and other developing problems. And often these are represented in very clear color coded graphs and charts to not only give you a realistic overview of system health, but allow you to drill down to details of a given issue.

Remote Control

Simply stated, Remote Control is the ability for your technical support team to reach across the limitations of physical space and control your computer.  This allows technical support to happen as though the support engineer were sitting physically at your desktop, when in fact they are on the other side of the building, city, or country for that matter.

But there is much more to the advantage of remote control than remote access. Most remote control solutions are Internet browser based and as such, a support engineer can open multiple support sessions at once – as many as a dozen or more, depending upon bandwidth, browser limitations, and the ability to keep track of a large number of simultaneous support sessions. This is the model of efficiency.

In a recent upgrade scenario involving a major Windows Service Pack, we measured the time to do it manually vs. remotely. The time required on site was more than four times greater than doing so remotely.  One significant benefit that is often overlooked with remote support is the ability to provide support services while the class is in session, which is not practical on site.

One of my favorites remote tools is LogMeIn.com, a free browser based program that works well, is easy to install, and can be configured by having end users click on a link within an email message and follow a short installation routine. There are many others that work equally well.

Summary

An efficient desktop management model looks at your infrastructure once each day to view the state of computers. It proactively manages required updates, mostly through automation, but manually if required;  then resolves any computer errors using remote tools that do not interrupt your class.

Our experience suggests that by investing 20 – 30 minutes each day, you can proactively manage 100 computers. That of course does not include repairing intentional damage caused by students, catastrophic hardware failures, or major operating system upgrades, which require physical access.

Want to improve the score on your math quiz stated above? With automation, reporting, and remote administration your total will be a little more reasonable than what you are doing now.  Contact us if you would like a free recommendation on the automation, reporting, and remote support tools that will best suit your situation.

Managing Computers in a hostile computer lab

OK, so the notion of a hostile environment may be a stretch, but hear me out on this one. Jr High and high school students are not always the sweet and innocent models of decorum we would like. But having been there once,  I  understand. Managing computers in a lab can be frustrating, but with a little forethought you can keep your sanity.

Whether it’s showing off, flirting with a classmate, or just plain horsing around; stuff happens in the computer lab. Keys get popped off of keyboards, mice get ripped free of their chords, and the best one I’ve seen yet is a perfectly sized slice of baloney in the DVD drive. Being able to laugh about it is probably a good place to start.

However, if the problems are getting a little overwhelming with your resource constrained staff, here are some suggestions that might help.

Start with the right equipment

To the extent possible, use desktop computers in student labs, rather than laptops. They cost less to buy, are less expensive to repair, and tend to grow legs less often.  For real savings and administrative advantages, see the article about Multipoint Server in a computer lab, it will reduce the cost of the lab by 75%.

Desktops can often be mounted in cages that prevent physical access, which is an important step in your attempts to secure a computer.

Keep the network simple

Whenever possible, use a wired network connection for student labs. The bottleneck of twenty simultaneous You Tube videos will always impact a wireless network more adversely than a wired network. And wired adapters are much more reliable, given the security protocols passwords, keys, etc. that accompany WiFi.

Once configured, wired network devices rarely need management and access to the hardware is less apparent. In fact normal access is preventable through group policy settings. Speed is much faster on a wired network where even the very fastest wireless internet connection is about half the speed.

Provide Adequate Supervision

Adequate supervision is paramount in a computer lab. And this is the most common challenge we observe. If your staff is unwilling to provide accountable supervision and you as an administrator are unwilling to require it, then you might want to consider a teachers aid or parent volunteer. Even a non-technical individual can readily discern when a student is dismantling a computer.

It makes little sense to assign the task of student-sitting to your desktop or network support engineer. In a well managed environment,  they  are better utilized spending time resolving more complex issues.

Install video surveillance

This may seem  an overreach, but there may in fact be a very good case for this – especially in those schools with high risk populations  or special education requirements. Not only will this reduce vandalism, but in extreme cases may provide a solid defense against litigation. And there may be other very good reasons for videos surveillance.

Just knowing the possibility of videos recording exists can change behavior.

If you elect to use video surveillance, be sure to use digital cameras that are correctly specified as to focal length, field of view, and pixels per foot.  In most cases you can use your existing network infrastructure and Power Over Ethernet to eliminate much of your installation costs.

Summary

Remember that the only way to completely secure a computer is to prevent physical access to the computer.  Even the most hardened computer can be compromised if a student is given access to the physical device. By rebooting a computer with a bootable USB device, a very secure computer can be easily compromised by a clever student hacker.

So start with the right equipment, improve your supervision – either in person or by camera – and be suspicious if you see a student in the lunch room with a baloney sandwich, without the baloney.

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.

Windows Multipoint Server - Reducing the cost of computer labs by 66%

Visualize for a moment a complete room filled with computer equipment that delivers the equivalent computing horsepower that you now hold in the palm of your hand. It probably does not require much imagination, as many of you have witnessed the advances in technology that have made this possible.

But is another exponential improvement in computing capacity possible? Indeed. It has been with us now for several years.

Introducing one of the latest (drum roll): Windows MultiPoint Server! Tah dah…

Okay, so advances in computer technology don’t excite you? Here is something that will. The cost to provision a full computer lab for your school just dropped by 66 percent. The technology that brings this huge cost savings is Windows MultiPoint Server, a new operating system designed for education.  Offered by Microsoft, it is roughly a marriage of Windows 7 Desktop Operating System and the Windows Server Operating System.

Because of the tremendous power in a single desktop or workstation, you can now literally power multiple and unique computer sessions for several students using one computer, with extra keyboards, video displays, and mice of course. This might take a little imagination, so follow along.

Think about a basic desktop computer that has been configured with two keyboards, two video displays, and two pointing devices such as a mouse. Two students sit on opposing sides of a library desk and view their respective computer sessions, which are individual and unique in every sense. They can run programs, browse the Internet, and do everything they currently do on a Windows based computer. The only commonality in their experience is proximity and connection to the same physical PC.

Now let’s stretch your imagination and the library table cited above. Think about four students or more, (up to twenty) all sitting at the same table connected to that single computer each with their own keyboard, video, and mouse. And you now have a conceptual view of Windows MultiPoint Server. And aside from the matter of how to physically connect all of the keyboards, video displays, and mice, the configuration is a function of the Windows MultiPoint Server Operating System design.

Of course there are limits to how many users you can attach to a basic computer workstation. We recommend four, unless you invest in more powerful workstations. Even basic computer workstations now come with four processors (Quad Core) and with memory capacities previously found only in server-class computers. If you provide sufficient memory to accompany the powerful processors, you end up with a very similarly equipped PC that you would find in traditional configurations. The difference is you are only purchasing cables and devices to make the physical connection, rather than an actual computer workstation.

Now let’s start adding up the cost savings: 75 percent savings on computers, annual maintenance, and power consumption, a serious reduction in the cost of cooling a computer lab, and a significant reduction in help desk calls to replace parts or to fiddle with configuration issues.

Some of you with “thin client” experience may be thinking this is just a modern day version of a rather old centralized computing setup of years ago. Not so. While similar in appearance, the essential difference is Microsoft Hyper-V technology. This is an advanced computing concept where computer sessions are created “virtually” and on demand. Each session is just like having a brand new computer with a fresh copy of Windows 7 installed and configured according to the type of user experience desired.

Only specially designed “thin clients” (actually termed "zero Clients") work with Windows MultiPoint Server and they exist primarily to provide a more efficient and cost effective way to connect so many keyboards, video displays, and mice to a single piece of hardware. In fact a “zero client” connection is just one of three supported configurations using Windows MultiPoint Server. You may alternately choose to connect via USB or by adding video cards directly into the host computer.

There is one other cost saving we recommend in this solution. By using a Microsoft Open Volume Subscription for Education Services (OVS-ES) you would have all of the Software required to operate all of these “virtual’ computer sessions. And FYI, the cost savings numbers we quote are not ours alone. They come from a study done by Microsoft. Your savings may in fact be more.

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.