Legal Research

Tech Trends in Schools

eSchool news reported on a webcast by Gartner analyst William Rust.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tech trends every school leader should know

It's an interesting read. Here are some highlights:

"According to William Rust, research director for the IT research and consulting firm Gartner, there is a new digital divide occurring in schools. Whereas this divide used to refer to whether or not students had access to technology, now it concerns whether schools are using technology effectively to achieve results."

"Rust identified four key trends that school district chief technology officers (CTOs) should be aware of: accountability, the changing nature of learners, the accessibility of technology, and the "internal and external demands" that are now placed on ed-tech executives."

"Gartner predicts that by 2010, the IT profession will be split into four domains:

1. Technology Infrastructure and Services. Now composing 65 percent of IT staff, this segment will dwindle to 40 percent. This group should emphasize technical knowledge, such as: "How does this technology work?"
2. Information Design and Management--will rise from 20 percent to 30 percent. This group will need to focus more on business-specific knowledge, such as: "What makes this institution tick?"
3. Process Design and Management--will rise from 10 percent to 20 percent. This group will need to balance business knowledge with core process knowledge, such as: "What processes make this area unique," and with industry knowledge, such as: "What characterizes this sector?"
4. Relationship and Sourcing Management--will rise from 5 percent to 10 percent. This group will need to balance business knowledge with core process knowledge."

"Ed Zaiontz, executive director of information services for the Round Rock Independent School District in Texas, also said saving money was a major concern, prompting Round Rock to pursue virtualization at the server and PC level."

"Zaiontz also listed several areas and trends that Round Rock is taking an interest in:
- Energy efficiencies, such as green IT;
- Individual mobile devices and wireless environments;
- New safety and security measures that are needed for the connection of personal devices to school servers;
- Document management and eDiscovery in response to record-retention laws;
- Web and video collaboration;
- Online learning, to help cut the millions of dollars that go toward new school construction;
- Software as a Service (SaaS); and
- Creating a flexible AUP to reflect ever-changing technology standards."

It's a good list. Some will cost and many will save money over the long term, especially in TCO terms. If money becomes a bigger issue (and for whom isn't it?), this is a list well worth investigating.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).