CTO Essential Skills

As described on the CoSN website, “CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) is the premier professional association for school system leaders” (https://cosn.org). CoSN has 26 chapters representing 27 states. It can be a very valuable resource for technology leaders. One area they are known for is the Framework of Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO. This is a reference for everything a chief technology officer (CTO) needs to know. CoSN bases all of its resources around this framework:

The Framework of Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO is comprised of three primary professional categories that sum up the work you do in the education technology field. These categories encompass 10 specific skill areas which outline the responsibilities and knowledge needed to be a viable educational technology leader (https://cosn.org).

During my time as a technology coordinator I have had a direct role in many of the areas covered in this framework. I would like to review a three of the ones that impact my position the most.

Category 1 - Leadership and Vision – 1A - Actively participate with members of the Superintendent's cabinet (e.g., district senior management) to create a vision for how technology will support the district’s strategic and operational goals

I have been blessed over the last two years to have a superintendent who embraces technology. I have had the benefit of numerous meetings with him about the future of technology within my district. I serve as a district administrator and participate in all of the district planning meetings. Some of the areas we have discussed includes the districts virtual school option, wireless initiative, content filtering, data governance, future one-to-one plans, and online registration.

One area that continues to be developed, grow, and change is related to parent and community public relations. This category tends to be in all of our improvement plans and the district strategic plan. Increasing parent and community outreach will always be an area we need to focus and improve on. These meetings have included representatives from sports, special education, child nutrition, and others. The results so far have amounted to us redesigning our website, www.bibbed.org, and adding a district Twitter account, @bcsboe.

Our most recent discussions have related to our school call-out system. Our current system allows us to call parents for announcements, emergencies, and absent students. This is completely reliant on having a correct phone number for parents. We have been in discussion about moving to another company and implementing an app for our district. This would allow students, parents, educators, and community members to download the app on their phone and receive up to date announcements and news. This would increase our PR footprint and would not be reliant on a correct phone number. School apps help others access and engage with content (Interactive Schools, 2011). See more about the Blackboard App we are discussing here.

Category 2 – Understanding the Educational Environment – 6E – Effectively communicate using emerging technologies to reach stakeholders

It is no longer effective for educators to communicate with parents through a printed letter or a phone call. Letters rarely make it home and into proper hands, especially for older students. Phone calls often go unanswered or to a disconnected number. To effectively communicate with parents, educators have to be willing to use same resources the parents do. This is often done using email or social media.

The Bibb County Board of Education adopted a resolution recognizing and honoring @WBcheerleaders at the March 13 board meeting. pic.twitter.com/TDJlM4P2XT

— Bibb County Schools (@bcsboe) March 14, 2018

The Superintendent and I have been managing a district Twitter account for the last two years. Although we do not keep it as active as I would like, it is still a good method of communicating with those in the community. We get new followers each time we post. I am hoping that this increases even further when we get the smartphone app. This will allow a larger portion of our stakeholders to see our feed.

Category 3 – Managing Technology and Support Resources - 7A – Plan all tasks related to technical systems, network infrastructure, and technology device Management

As much as I love working with some of the other areas of the framework, I find that the majority of my time is spent within one skill area, Information Technology Management. It does make sense, none of the other areas of instructional technology would work without the infrastructure and integration of technology. On average of 70 to 80 percent of my week is devoted to evaluating, implementing, installing, and trouble-shooting.

Here are a few of the things accomplished in technology over the last two years:

·                     Upgraded all DHCP and Domain Controller servers from 2003 to 2012

·                     Planned and Implemented a virtual school option through Edmentum

·                     Added all students to Active Directory for PC login

·                     Issued school email addresses to all students in grades fifth through twelfth

·                     Migrated to G Suite email for all faculty

·                     Purchased over 900 Chromebooks district wide

·                     Implemented Clever SSO

·                     Upgraded to 1 Gbps managed switches across the district

·                     New district and school websites

·                     Moved CNP server to a cloud based solution

·                     Purchased iBoss content filter and reporter

·                     Online school registration

·                     District Twitter account

An average day has me checking and updating servers, answering emails, helping users with programs and accounts, transferring files, and implementing new services. I occasionally get out of the office to help with PC, network, and printer issues.

I have a long way to go to master all of the Essential Skills of a K-12 CTO, but I feel like I have a good grasp on the basics. I hope to one day become a Certified Education Technology Leader (CETL) through CoSN. “Earning the CETL certification will demonstrate to your staff, superintendent, and other stakeholders that you have mastered the knowledge and skills needed to define the vision for and successfully build 21^st century learning environments in your school district” (https://cosn.org).

References

https://cosn.org. Accessed on April 26, 2018.

Interactive Schools. (2011) Benefits of a school smartphone app – access, engage, and advocate. Retrieved from http://blog.interactiveschools.com/blog/benefits-of-a-school-smartphone-app-access

Future Proofing

 “Future proofing means that a facility anticipates and supports educational change without expensive remodeling,” (Boschee, Jensen, & Whitehead, 2013, p. 200). In a system like mine, future proofing to meet this definition is impossible. With most of our buildings 40+ years old, we are well past any future proofing they may have had. With most facilities being outdated, I look toward other areas to try and future proof our system.

            I feel that G Suite has helped us future proof a lot. For my entire education career, we were on an old webmail system provided by Alabama Super Computer (ASC). This system was very simple and dated. It had very little functionality and even less threat detection. We also have a local file sharing server. With the introduction of G Suite, we are able to access the added functionality of Gmail and use Google Drive for file sharing. This also allowed us to increase the use of Google Calendar across the district. See more about the benefits of G Suite here.

Last year Bibb County had a unified wireless solution installed in all of our instruction buildings. "The direction is for schools to go wireless," 

(Boschee, Jensen, & Whitehead, 2013, p. 202).This solution allows us to connect up to 30 devices per classroom and many more in common areas. This solution can also be expanded pretty easily to grow with the demand. This solution is integrated with our Active Directory so that every student and teacher with a computer account can also securely access wireless.

Bibb County also recently finished replacing all of the switches within the district. Before making this change we had switches from four different manufacturers. Out of those switches some only supported up to a 100 Mbps connection. Now that we have made the transition, all of our switches are the same brand and they are compatible with our wireless solution. This will allow us to monitor and manage both solutions from one console.

            We are also in talks with AT&T about moving to a digital solution for our telephone service. Right now each school has two copper phone lines that connect with our VOIP system. Moving to the digital solution will not only remove the problematic copper lines, but will also save the district thousands of dollars per month on our phone bill.

            Another solution we are looking at is the Blackboard App for our district. This will allow us to communicate with parents without trying to keep up with phone numbers. The parents will also have the ability to check news from their student's school and also view their students grades and lunch accounts from a central location. "Other technologies are helping districts improve infrastructure efficiencies and reduce costs in functions like communication and alerts," (Dessoff, 2010).

References

Boschee, F., Jensen, D., & Whitehead, B. (2013). Planning for technology: A guide for school administrators, technology coordinators, and curriculum leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Sage Company.

Dossoff, A. (2010) Making your schools future-proof. District Administration. Retrieved from: https://www.districtadministration.com/article/making-your-schools-future-proof

[Ruckus Networks]. (2015, September 18). Ruckus Wireless: Education in the 21^st century. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9AaTk61WKw

Finding Technology Funding

   Technology seems to be evolving daily and parents, students, and teachers expect that schools will keep up with that evolution. The major sticking point for most of this comes down to funding. How are schools expected to keep up when the technology increases faster than the budget? In my school system the technology budget has not changed in four years. Within that same time frame we have upgraded 11 servers, added unified wireless, converted email to G Suite, added around 800 Chromebooks, and updated our website. This was all done while still having to repair and replace smart boards, computers, and projectors. Boschee, Jensen, and Whitehead (2013) tell us that "Meeting the needs of school funding clearly requires a rearranging of priorities at all levels," (p. 192). This is exactly what I have had to do. 

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     One option pointed out by Boschee, Jensen, and Whitehead (2013) suggests that "budgeting changes should involve cutting back or eliminating ineffective programs that will free up money for more promising approaches," (p.192). Since being in the position I have been amazed at the amount of waste that has been allowed to go on for years. Some of the areas I have been able to "find" money for other programs included licensing for underused programs, unused cell phones, and dead phone lines. In many cases upgrading to a better product has saved money. Moving all of our fire alarms over to cellular has saved $900 per month on our phone bill. That is after the increase in monitoring costs. When we make the final move from copper phone lines to a fiber solution we look to save an additional $3300 per month. These savings are multiplied by the loss of E-rate funding for phones. 

     I am always on the lookout for additional places I can save the district money. This might not lead to a direct increase in my budget, but it does give me ammunition when I meet with the superintendent over additional technology needs. 

     Another option that I rely on heavily is E-Rate. "The Federal Communications Commission provides virtually every school and public library with a specially discounted "educational rate" (E-Rate)," (Boschee, Jensen, and Whitehead, 2013, p. 193). Without E-Rate our district would not have 90 percent of the equipment we currently have. We would also not be able to get broadband speeds.

    We also leverage a lot of our Title 1 funds for the purchase of technology. Title 1 "provides financial assistance to local educational agencies and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families," (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). The problem with relying heavily on these funds is that they are not guaranteed each year and the amount changes each year. It is also in place to enhance your current funding not to supplant it. This means that you cannot purchase items that would normally be purchased with state or local funds. 

Image retrieved from https://giphy.com/gifs/sponge
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    Beyond these options, I am always on the lookout for grants and fundraising. We made full use of our Alabama Ahead Act (AAA) funds. This allowed us to leverage money from the state with our E-Rate funding to complete our unified wireless solution. We were also able to purchase additional Chromebooks and replace numerous outdated computers. We have also just been informed that we were awarded a Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant through the USDA. This was in partnership with our local hospital and will allow us to purchase $100,000 of distance learning equipment. Some of our teachers also use sites like DonorsChoose.org. These sites allow teachers to request help purchasing items for their schools and classrooms. You never know when you will get lucky like the 35,000+ requests last week that were "fully funded thanks to a single $29 million donation," (Chokshi, 2018). 

     We must remove limitations that have traditionally been placed on teachers and administrators and allow them to take charge of their schools, classroom, and technology (Boschee, Jensen, and Whitehead, 2013, p. 193) This will allow us to continue to evolve with technology to ensure we are preparing our students for the advance future they face. 

References

Boschee, F., Jensen, D., & Whitehead, B. (2013). Planning for technology: A guide for school administrators, technology coordinators, and curriculum leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Sage Company.

Chokshi, N. (2018) How to get $29 million for classroom projects? Just ask. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/us/donors-choose-donation-ripple.html

U.S. Department of Education (2015) Programs. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html