Weekend 1, Day 2

I thought that yesterday was a case in point for all districts to embrace uniformity when it comes to platforms, operating systems, and software versions. Imagine the frustration and chaos in a district running several different versions of a program on several types of machines, as we were doing in class on Sunday.

Fortunately, in a class of 9, it was relatively easy for Dr. Closen to make his way around and help individuals work through issues. Multiply this problem across many buildings in a district, however, and you could see the headaches of management involved with such an issue.

As we mentioned in the review of the tech plan, it was nice to see that the Casey-Westfield district had adopted uniformity. I know in my own district it took about 7 years to transition everything over, but now there is a uniform purchasing requirement for all new machines across the district and all machines are imaged and set up the same way upon delivery. Older machines unable to be upgraded (we're talking 386's, 486's) are left in buildings for staff and students to use with the understanding that tech support will no longer be provided and when the machine dies, it will not be replaced. Many resources are saved in time and money as our district technicians can now simply log on to any machine on the network from one location and troubleshoot issues that arise.

Of course, keeping everyone on the same page comes with issues, as well. For example, with each new release of software comes several questions..."Do we upgrade at this time? What are the costs/consequences of doing so? What are the consequences of not doing so? What expense will there be in adoption of new software? Etc...."

As stewards of taxpayer money, we have the responsibility to use funds wisely to increase student achievement and provide our students with access to current, relevant technology designed to prepare them for real-world applications. If that means we all use IE 7 instead of switching to IE 8, that's the way it'll have to be... (Trust me, it's probably better that way anyway.) :)