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IT Solutions: Hardware and Management Guide

Everything You Need to Know. Everyone You Need to Reach.

• Ensuring accessible content • Focusing on innovation in the IT department • Navigating a tech upgrade • Managing digital transformation with success • Supporting multiple screens and devices • Securing district-wide buy-in for new tech • Top challenges for CTOs • Top 10 priorities for IT leaders

Produced by eSchool Media | 2275 Research Blvd, Rockville, MD 20850 | 301.913.0115 | eSchoolNews.com All-In-One Solution to Large-Scale Laptop and Charger Checkout from LaptopsAnytime Crazy but true. They said that Self-Service On-Demand Dispensing Kiosks would not work in the Public Sector. Now scores of installations later & 3+ Million Annual Automated Checkouts (mostly in Higher Ed and Public Libraries), WE are introducing ourselves to enhance “Bring Your Own Device” Programs in K-12.

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Duncanville High School as well. A few years ago, they installed a 12-bay Students return a laptop dispensing kiosk from LaptopsAnytime laptop by simply in- Supplements BYOD Program in the high school’s library. The kiosk proved to serting it into one of be so popular with students that the school has the empty bays. The In The News With Laptop Kiosks since added a second 12-bay kiosk to meet the kiosk automatically At Duncanville High School in Texas, a Bring Your Own demand. recharges the de- Device (BYOD) program allows students to use their vice and returns it From August 2018 through April 2019, the two personal laptop, tablet, or smart phone for learning. But to its original state. there are some students in this school of nearly 4,000 kiosks seamlessly handled nearly 3,000 laptop pupils who don’t own a digital device. And for students checkouts. “Every time I visit the library, the ki- Duncanville has whose only device is a smart phone, writing an essay or osks are empty—which tells me the laptops are stocked both of its producing other content can be challenging. being used,” kiosks with rugged Dell laptops. “I was a little hesitant at ﬁrst,” Cowan says, “but I’m proud to say that we hav- Students can borrow a laptop by scanning their ID “It’s much easier to use a laptop to create content,” says en’t had any broken, lost, or stolen laptops.” Administra- badge and typing their network password into the con- Shawntee Cowan, chief technology oﬃcer for the Dun- tion of the kiosks has been simple as well, she observes, sole. The kiosk takes a picture of them in case there is a canville Independent School District. noting: “This has not been one of my pain points.” problem, and it requires them to read and agree to the The Duncanville High School library has laptop carts terms of service. Once students promise that they will The initiative is meeting its goal of increasing stu- that teachers can borrow for instruction, but district use the device responsibly and will return it by the end dents’ access to technology, and Cowan is thinking leaders wanted to give individual students the oppor- of the day, the kiosk dispenses a laptop. about adding kiosks at other Duncanville schools as tunity to borrow laptops to complete their schoolwork well. “It has been very successful,” she says. laptopsanytime.com 877. 836 . 3727 Guides About eSN Guides

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We are excited to bring you the latest in the eSchool News Guides series. eSchool News Guides are full of resources, tips, trends, and insights from industry experts on a variety of topics that are essential to the classroom, school, and district. The March Guide, the eSchool News IT Solutions: Hardware and Management Guide, offers insight on the best approaches to IT priorities and management. The guide highlights how IT leaders have handled multi-device classrooms, large-scale Wi-Fi refreshes, digital transformation, and more. In the guide, we take a look at how IT leaders work with administrators and teachers to secure district buy-in for new technology, and we also check in with experts to outline a few ways to navigate a technology upgrade. We put a spotlight on examples of how real IT leaders make innovation a priority for their district, and we examine priorities such as content accessibility, broadband access, and supporting UDL. You also can find a complete list of IT hardware and management partners and companies in the guide. Thank you to our sponsor. We’ll release a new guide at the beginning of each month, and we’ll feature content We appreciate your support! focused around each guide’s topic throughout the month. Stay tuned for eSchool News Guides on library media technology, online/blended learning, and more. Each guide also offers a comprehensive index of all the companies involved in that month’s specific focus area. We hope you’ll share this eSchool News IT Solutions: Hardware and Management Guide with your colleagues and use it to learn a bit more about how school leaders and 2020-2021 MONTHLY GUIDE EDITORIAL CALENDAR educators can create engaging learning experiences for students. P.S. – If you missed any of our other Guides, such as the eSchool News STEM, April 2020 Online and Blended STEAM & Makerspaces Guide or the eSchool News Digital & Mobile Learning Learning Guide, you can find them here. May 2020 Curriculum, SEL & Instructional Tools Contents June 2020 Library & Media Technology Marketplace Update July 2020 Esports 10 priorities for K-12 IT leaders ...... 4 August 2020 Data Management K-12 STEM/STEAM Trending News & Storage CTO headaches: Five complex district challenges ...... 5 September 2020 Communication Technology (including Wireless Products) Helping IT teams manage digital transformation ...... 7 October 2020 Robotics These 10 things will either hinder or support innovation in 2020 ...... 9 November 2020 Digital & Mobile 5 priorities for broadband access ...... 10 Learning 7 ways to secure district-wide teacher buy-in for new tech ...... 11 December 2020 School Safety Here’s how to support multi-screen classrooms ...... 12 January 2021 Multimedia Presentation Systems 5 ways our centralized LMS supports UDL ...... 14 February 2021 STEM, STEAM, 7 strategies to navigate a tech upgrade ...... 15 & Makerspaces How we turned around our ability to support wi-fi innovation ...... 17 March 2021 IT Solutions: Hardware & Management Company Profiles ...... 18

© eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. 3 K-12 IT Solutions Marketplace Update Guides 10 priorities for K-12 IT leaders With increased data and connectivity come threats to school networks and a focus on equity—and K-12 IT leaders have their plates full managing these challenges, and more

BY LAURA ASCIONE Managing Editor, Content Services

School districts are moving to highly digital ecosystems, and K-12 IT leaders have more and more to manage to ensure that teaching and learning can go on uninterrupted by failing or clunky technology. CoSN’s annual IT Leadership Survey offers critical insight into what’s expected of today’s K-12 IT leaders. The survey’s findings help to identify areas where IT leaders might need more support and assistance as they work tirelessly to meet the IT needs of administrators, teachers, and students. “From managing infrastructure and cloud-based services to rostering and passwords, the sphere of IT leader school districts collect more data and 7. This survey identifies a number of responsibilities continues to expand. threats to that data are increasing. ways in which IT leaders are looking to Ultimately, IT leaders are connecting 2. The top 3 challenges faced by IT be more relevant to teachers and learn- administrators to operational efficiency, leaders for the past 3 years remain the ing, with 75 percent of IT Leaders say- teachers to actionable insights, and stu- same: budget, professional developing it is important to be more responsive dents to opportunity. As districts focus ment, and breaking down department to educator IT needs in the classroom. on closing the homework gap, IT lead- silos. 8. The largest percentage of IT leaders have another dot to connect–home 3. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) ers continue to have education back- access,” according to the survey. strategies declining in popularity. They grounds (40 percent), followed by those IT hardware and management com- are used by only 16 percent of school with technical backgrounds (35 per- panies such as LaptopsAnytime— districts, probably as a result lower cost cent), a growing number from busi- which offers kiosks that give students devices being introduced to the market. ness/management backgrounds (20 per- and educators access to the right laptop, 4. Virtually all IT leaders (95 percent) and other (3 percent). tablet, or combo device at the right cent) agree that addressing the home- 9. Lack of ethnic and racial diversity time--along with others such as work gap is a concern for their district. in school district IT leadership remains Impero, Classlink, and Skyward, are This is a significant change. Last year a serious problem in most school sys- just a few of the partners aiming to help 30 percent of leaders indicated digital tems, with no progress since last year. school and district IT leaders with this equity was not important issue for their “The ethnic and racial diversity of IT balancing act. district vs. only 5 percent one year later. leaders continues to look very different The survey breaks down the top 10 5. Print is not dead. Past predictions from the population they serve,” findings to help IT leaders manage have been overly optimistic. For 67 according to the report. their responsibilities and outline their percent of districts, print still comprises 10. The percentage of women in priorities. at least half of their instructional school district IT leadership roles has 10 things impacting K-12 IT materials. declined in recent years. In 2016, leaders this year 6. There is some progress on all areas women made up 36 percent and men 64 of interoperability, but only Single percent of IT leadership positions, and 1. Cybersecurity is the top priority Sign-On (SS0) has been fully imple- in this year’s survey, the breakdown is for IT leaders today. It comes as no sur- mented in more than a quarter of school 28 percent female and 77 percent male. prise, according to the survey, because systems.

4 © eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Guides K-12 IT Solutions Trending News CTO headaches: Five complex district challenges Tech leaders have their plates full—here's how many of them view some of the most stubborn district challenges

BY JOHN CONNOLLY AND MICHAEL ARENSDORF CTOs juggle countless district challenges—they have many high-profile systems, implementations, and changes they manage each year. At times, some of the biggest headaches are the low- priority projects that are complex by nature and time-consuming, but that also have a large reach in our districts. Technology leaders from across the nation shared and discussed some of these district challenges at CoSN’s 2019 conference. While the group shared a number of different solutions, the collective conversation for the ses- Solutions: automation, and does not offer search sion focused on the idea that CTOs have • Streamline onboarding and exiting of capabilities once papers are in a file cabi- not identified solutions to these district staff through automating systems and net. Challenges include looking at a mar- challenges and. scripting. (Systems referenced were ket that is broken into two segments: dig- With that said, following are the five Laserfiche, Smartsheets, and ital forms/workflow systems and docu- main issues CTOs discussed: Powershell scripts.) ment management systems. Both are Onboarding/existing staff • Leveraging Google forms and expensive and cumbersome. In addition Ultradox to automate part of the to the cost concerns, a number of others One of the most complex challenges onboarding process, suggested by received mention: workflow solutions in any organization is the one that Centralia School District (WA) with multiple approvers, finding time to touches the most departments: HR, • Maintain consistent and open commu- implement a solution with fidelity, setting Technology, Business, Facilities, nication/planning with Human up retention rules, change in practice for Curriculum/Instruction, School Resources and Technology depart- accessing digitally rather than print out Leaders, etc. It is the first impression ments throughout the year. Hold the forms, and an exit strategy to export of our district and schools for new standing quarterly meetings to address all documents if an employee leaves the employees and a huge risk footprint for hot-button items occurring at certain system are all additional considerations. existing employees if not managed times of the year (i.e. new staff is Solutions: well. Technology department chal- ready for orientation in August). • Systems that manage both digital lenges include ensuring awareness of • Use Cloud Migration Systems to sim- forms and workflow–Laserfiche to staffing changes before the start or end plify user creation and transfer owner- address the workflow and unreliable date, the timing for system access, ship between employees. (Systems paper passing process (For PD request transition plans for providing referenced were Bettercloud and forms, contracts, Special Education access/files from the outgoing staff Syscloud. transportation, field trip request) member to the new employee, manag- Paper to digital forms • Manage contracts with Docusign ing family name changes and timing, • Costs–leverage a subscription model managing multiple building access lev- Many districts have too many paper rather than a perpetual/expensive els, first day procedures, etc. Even with forms that are filled out and then filed option a system in place, making sure all into a cabinet. Moving physical paper and • Leverage the online student/family departments adhere to the defined multiple signatures is inefficient, costs registration process to include many of processes can be challenging. money and time, does not include any the paper-based forms

Application saturation IT staff training Solutions: • Define requirements–district leader- There is an application for every- Training IT staff is critical for devel- ship teams should define who will thing. Many districts and organizations opment and to make sure district tech have access, identify goals for the dif- are drowning in this challenge. When a leaders are investing in their teams. ferent metrics, and source information new district director takes over a busi- However, this is easier said than done. • Start small–these systems should have ness unit, it is almost a given that they Challenges include finding time to pro- a focus with leadership and adminis- will have an application specific to their vide the training, delivery method for trative teams. Many teachers do not part of the organization–HR, Business, online self-paced or face-to-face, relevant have time to navigate data dashboards, Instruction, SPED, etc. When looked at training that can be applied, industry so make sure scope and costs are in a vacuum, it may make sense and changing to simplification of enterprise adjusted properly. seem easy to set up and manage. technology, staff turnover, and costs. • Ongoing meetings and training with However, new district challenges arise Solutions: the key groups entering in data–pro- related to the costs when looking at all • Developing a consistent schedule of vide data quality reports that empha- district applications, end user experi- professional learning for staff and a test size standardizing on fields and entry. ence with having to navigate SIS inte- environment for staff to apply learning • External system that has a partnership gration, data de-centralization, data pri- • Bi-weekly IT department hangouts to with the SIS provider or integrates vacy, school year rollover processing, cover a specific topic seamlessly and training new staff. These are spin- • Encourage certifications and growth As CTOs start to share and manage ning out of control in many of our dis- with entry level staff the above complex district challenges, tricts. • Self-paced solutions such as Pluralsite they can then move on to additional Solutions: or curated free videos (i.e. Professor headaches if they are not already work- • Implement a standard application Messer) ing on the cyber security budget, data process for new online tools Data and data dashboards breach management, new password • Collaborate with attorneys to have a management strategies, emergency standard data service and data sharing Data will continue to become more communications, Artificial Intelligence agreements critical with programs like ESSA, the threats, managing the Internet of • Partner with Learn Platform to provide need to use analytics, and as district Things, etc. transparency in the applications that tech leaders begin to envision the future As each district plans for these tran- have been approved, denied and/or in with big data and automations. Building sitions, we’ve seen one key component progress in district; in addition; pro- a data dashboard is complex. Systems for success: the opportunity to network vides a tool to measure impact of ROI are expensive and can take up to a year and collaborate with others across the (return on investment) and ROV to get running. Costs for external sys- nation doing this work. District tech (return on value) tems are usually based on the number of leaders have an incredible opportunity • Educate leadership–provide a list of teachers or students to maximize vendor to learn from their peers in order for applications and costs to create aware- costs (not the true number of users). future implementations to be successful. ness of this issue Other challenges are data cleansing • Single-sign on solutions (such as (garbage in, garbage out), de-centraliza- John Connolly serves as CTO for Classlink, Clever, and Identity tion of data in multiple systems, defin- Consolidated High School District 230. Automation) ing metrics that typically change annu- Michael Arensdorff is the Senior Director ally, and data refresh rates all contribute of Technology for Oak Park School to this headache. District 97.

6 © eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Guides K-12 IT Solutions Trending News Helping IT teams manage digital transformation District IT teams are tasked with protecting distributed education networks from attacks, while at the same time enabling digital growth

BY PETER NEWTON attack surface. This challenge is compli- districts are becoming more aware of From educators, IT teams, and cated by the reality that IoT devices are the importance of developing broad and school administrators to parents and notoriously difficult for IT administra- robust cybersecurity strategies and poli- students, nearly everyone with a stake tors to discover, monitor, and secure, cies across distributed locations and in the education industry is aware of and continues to be compounded as net- networks. the promise new digital technologies works become more distributed–requir- Emphasis on security is especially hold to improve learning outcomes, ing education IT teams need to secure important as many schools are pledging increase student engagement, and add variety and depth to instruction and assessment. Whether they’re talking about one- to-one computing initiatives, digital textbooks, using “smart” interactive whiteboards and 3D printers in classrooms, or moving to full-scale “flipped” instructional models, educators are excited about technology’s potential. These innovations are making it possible for teachers to customize lessons to suit individual learning styles, extend instructional time beyond school hours, and better capture the attention and interest of students. But digital transformation is also threatening to overtax the resources of devices across multiple schools and net- to follow best-practice guidelines devel- district IT teams, which are already works, rather than limiting technology oped by external advocacy groups such challenged to accomplish a great deal deployment to a single, centralized as the Consortium for School with small staffs and limited budgets. location. Networking (CoSN). Additionally, all With increasing reliance on Software- Education IT budgets not must conform to state and national gov- as-a-Service (SaaS) learning applica- growing as fast as ernment mandates, including regulatory tions and growing numbers of student- cybersecurity challenges compliance requirements such as the owned devices connecting to school Children’s Internet Protection Act networks, educational IT environments The other half of the challenge is that (CIPA) – this stipulates that schools are more complex and heterogeneous across the United States, overall educa- establish internet safety policies and than ever before. tional expenditures have remained rela- enforce them with technology controls. In addition, school buildings are tively flat since 2009. The inevitable One of the biggest issues is that most incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) consequence is that IT teams are being school districts are comprised of a num- devices to boost the efficiency of their asked to do more without seeing corre- ber of geographically dispersed build- lighting and climate control systems, sponding increases in the resources ings. In rural areas especially, school and adding facility monitoring and they’re being allocated. buildings may be many miles apart. physical security systems into their Possibly as a result, several K-12 Despite this, IT administration is still networks. information security breaches have usually coordinated from a single, cen- The increasing numbers and new recently garnered national media atten- tralized facility. As a result, IT teams are types of connected devices represent an tion, so the pressure is on: as education- challenged to monitor and secure enormous expansion of the network’s al tools and strategies expand, school numerous endpoints in these various

© eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. 7 K-12 IT Solutions Trending News Guides locations, while attacks may focus on ty across the entire network. This visi- in SD-WAN capabilities can allow your the edge, the local access layer, or the bility is extensible to numerous device team to meet networking and security WAN itself. types, including school-issued, student- needs within a single solution. Traditionally, the solution was to owned, and IoT devices, even when Integrated switching management backhaul all traffic to the central net- they’re being used off campus and out- ensures seamless traffic management work for inspection, but these “hub and side of school hours. and availability, while secure wireless spoke” style architectures often intro- Another key to achieving maximum access points enable schools to provide duce latency and impede network per- results with a small staff is the intelli- students with in-classroom Wi-Fi formance for critical educational tools gent use of automation. The most access, a vital component necessary for and services. In addition, individual advanced next-generation firewall solu- one-to-one computing. Selective web classrooms increasingly require direct tions implemented as part of a distrib- filtering or blocking can dynamically connections to cloud-based applications uted school district or campus can auto- protect students from websites contain- and internet resources, circumventing a mate vulnerability and risk assessment, ing malware or inappropriate content. centralized security strategy. as well as the initiation of threat and These services, part of a true SD- Districts need integration, incident response playbooks. This Branch solution designed for any organ- ease and simplicity of relieves small IT teams of the burden of ization with a distributed footprint, not management in manually monitoring, logging, and only enable faster connectivity and bet- cybersecurity solutions reporting while facilitating rapid, highly ter performance at the edge, but drive coordinated responses to intrusions and that security deep into the local school Given the nature of the budgetary attacks. Tracking and reporting can also network, further simplifying and pro- constraints school districts face, it’s be automated for enhanced ability to tecting the management of their distrib- imperative that IT directors find tech- meet compliance requirements. uted infrastructures. nology solutions that can be managed Of course, distributed networks do Final thoughts most efficiently. Many have attempted not come with a distributed IT staff. to cut costs by assembling a medley of Solutions deployed on-site at schools to The very same digital technologies point solutions over time, only to dis- manage and secure local networks, that offer educators the greatest oppor- cover that they have become victims of devices, and connections, therefore, tunities to increase student engagement, vendor and device sprawl, making their need to include zero-touch deployment, improve learning outcomes, and indi- technology stack ineffective and diffi- remote management, configuration, vidualize learning and assessment also cult to maintain – especially across dis- patching, and updating, and automated lead to an expansion in IT network tributed networks. threat and traffic management services attack surfaces. The most effective strategy, both in to detect and respond to threats and To ensure that the digital privacy and terms of budget and manpower, is a maintain the highest levels of perform- security of students is not at risk, fully-integrated, consolidated security ance and connectivity without requiring schools must adopt comprehensive and fabric made up of interconnecting com- human intervention. integrated security strategies that ponents. This allows IT teams to secure Improving performance and include technologies that are simple to distributed and complex environments security at each campus deploy, remotely manage and adminis- far more effectively with far less labor. ter, and that incorporate intelligent In particular, educational institutions As educators at schools across automation. It’s important to select a need to look for solutions that offer all- regions come to rely on increasing num- converged solution that can meet indi- in-one single-pane-of-glass style man- bers of cloud-based applications to vidual schools’ network performance agement for their entire remote infra- facilitate learning in their classrooms, as and wireless access needs while also structure, including firewalls, switches, well as voice-activated and video-based offering deep visibility into the local wireless access points, and network teaching tools, the legacy WAN infra- LAN environment. access controls. structures of most districts are becom- Solutions designed for distributed ing less able to meet end-users’ per- Peter Newton is the Senior Director of locations – such as schools located formance demands. With this in mind, Product Marketing for Fortinet. He has across a district, satellite university education IT teams must seek security more than 15 years of experience in high campuses, or even different colleges solutions that enable them to extend tech product management and product and departments located across a policies and controls to distributed cam- marketing. Newton is the product market- sprawling university campus – not only pus networks while maintaining per- ing lead for Fortinet’s Operational provide cohesive end-to-end solutions formance, especially for latency-sensi- Technology (OT) solution, including ICS that are more readily scalable, but such tive applications. & SCADA. unified systems offer enhanced visibili- Next-generation firewalls with built-

8 © eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Guides K-12 IT Solutions Trending News These 10 things will either hinder or support innovation in 2020 Based on forthcoming reports, CoSN offers a sneak peek at what experts predict will be barriers to—or accelerators of—innovation in 2020

BY LAURA ASCIONE Managing Editor, Content Services

Digital equity remains a top hurdle to teaching and learning innovation in schools, while personalization and SEL will help accelerate innovation, according to a glimpse of CoSN’s next Driving K-12 Innovation report. CoSN’s Driving K-12 Innovation initiative is an ongoing effort to keep school IT leaders up-to-date on how new technologies impact different education stake- holders. The report and key findings will be available here in the coming months. Hurdles hinder innovation in schools, while accelerators support and buoy edtech innovation in teaching and learning.

The top hurdles for 2020 are: 1. Scaling and sustaining innovation 2. Data privacy and ownership 3. Evolution of teaching and learning !! ! ! !!! 4. Pedagogy vs. technology gap 5. Digital equity ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

The top accelerators for 2020 are: !! ! ! 1. Learners as creators 2. Data-driven practices 3. Personalization “This year we decided to combine projects, and resources that relate to 4. Social and emotional learning the Hurdles and Accelerators reports to 2020’s top two tech enablers (digital col- 5. Building the human capacity increase understanding of how the two laboration platforms and tools for priva- of leaders trends relate and encourage more cy and safety online). Those submissions nuanced discussions moving forward. could be featured on CoSN’s website and The research also identifies tech We hope this year’s findings lead to new in future publications. enablers, which are tools school dis- dialogues about how to transform learn- In 2019, the top five hurdles were: tricts can leverage to overcome hurdles ing and improve student outcomes as scaling and sustaining innovation, digi- and use accelerators as best as possible. we look to the future,” says Keith tal equity, the gap between technology Krueger, CoSN’s CEO. and pedagogy, ongoing professional The top five tech enablers for An advisory board of almost 100 development, and technology and the 2020 are: education leaders worked together to future of work. 1. Digital collaboration platforms identify the 2020 trends. Two forthcom- 2019’s top five accelerators were: 2. Tools for privacy and safety online ing reports will examine the trends and learners as creators, data-driven prac- 3. Analytics and adaptive technologies offer real-life case studies. tices, personalization, design thinking, 4. Cloud infrastructure CoSN also is inviting all CoSN mem- and building the capacity of human 5. Mobile devices bers to submit their own examples, leaders.

© eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. 9 K-12 IT Solutions Trending News Guides 5 priorities for broadband access A new report examines some of the critical components necessary to drive a robust broadband access program BY LAURA ASCIONE Managing Editor, Content Services ensure that digital learning needs are met. protected Internet backbone that Examples within the report focus on Connecticut provides to schools remains Equitable, reliable, and robust broad- states and districts where robust band- a critical component in allowing them to band access both on and off campus is width has already positively impacted take advantage of the tools, devices, and essential to support digital learning and teaching and learning. personalized learning methods that they prepare K-12 students for life and work. For instance, in California, the have adopted,” said Mark Raymond, The declaration is a cornerstone of Chaffey Joint Union High School Chair, Connecticut Commission for Broadband Imperative III: Driving District serves 23,894 students. Sixty- Educational Technology. Connectivity, Access and Student one percent of students qualify for free In the report, SETDA includes rec- Success, a new report from SETDA. or reduced school lunch. The district ommendations for policy makers and In addition to advocating for equi- office is connected at 100 Gbps via school leaders: table broadband access, the report dis- fiber-optic cable and shares that band- • Leverage technology for innova- cusses innovative technologies and ped- width with several other school dis- tive pedagogical approaches: Focus agogical approaches to personalize tricts. Schools connect over nine 10 on academic goals and use technolo- learning for all students. Gbps fiber-optic connections. Career gy to support learning experiences Seventeen percent of teens don’t and Technical Education (CTE) path- that prepare students for college and/or careers • Ensure digital access and equity: This will continue to be a challenge, but every child deserves access to personalized, student-centered learning experiences • Plan infrastructure for the future: School leaders should plan strategi- cally for reliable high-speed broadband access to ensure sustained and seamless access to learning tools • Build networks for the future: Sustainable and reliable networks will depend on school leaders’ exam- ination of every level of digital learn- have reliable access to a device, mean- ways are provided via schools preparing ing implementation ing they can’t complete homework. It students for future careers. • Influence federal and state policies isn’t always feasible for students to bor- Ohio’s Cincinnati Public Schools and funding: Federal and state poli- row devices from schools, especially if developed the AP Blended Learning pro- cies should keep broadband access the schools are in low-income areas gram to improve students access to rigor- and connectivity at the forefront of with limited resources. ous learning opportunities and improve their priorities Comprehensive broadband planning is equity of learning. The blended learning “Today’s students need equitable, another must-have to meet the needs of program consists of face-to-face instruc- robust bandwidth access to ensure that teachers and students while avoiding a tion and individualized student learning. engaging, personalized learning experi- technology disruption. Because digital The district provides every student with a ences are being implemented for all. learning isn’t one-size-fits-all, school and device and wireless internet access. Skills based on dynamic digital instruc- district leaders have to work collabora- Technology enables many more students tional materials, online simulations, cod- tively to determine their teaching and access to AP courses, improving their ing, and content creation are essential to a learning needs and how broadband access educational experience. student’s success for today and into the supports those goals. Designing network “Digital learning approaches have future. Connectivity is a key variable to capacity to support those goals, while already proven their power to support making this happen,” says Candice also allowing for future growth, will deep student learning at scale. The robust, Dodson, Executive Director of SETDA.

10 © eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Guides K-12 IT Solutions Trending News 7 ways to secure district-wide teacher buy-in for new tech Teacher buy-in carries a tremendous amount of weight when it comes to an edtech initiative's success—here's how to get it

BY SUSAN OEHLERTZ Parent engagement is a driving fac- tor behind any child’s success in school—but a recent nationwide survey of more than 1,000 teachers found that parents are often disengaged in their child’s learning journey. To har- ness edtech tools that can help school- home communication, it’s essential to first secure teacher buy-in. More than half of the teachers sur- veyed believe parents do not understand the importance of their involvement in their child’s school experience, and they assume education is a teacher’s job–not a collaborative effort between parents and teachers. As the district technology integrationist in a rural Title 1 district, I contin- ually look for affordable and/or free the most time – scheduling parent- the technology. You need teacher buy- edtech resources that will bridge the teacher conferences. Past practice had in. My motto is: Teachers need to be communication gap between teachers my teachers creating parent-teacher equipped with a big digital toolbox. and parents. But those resources also conference slips to “send home in back- They need to have the right tools in their require teacher buy-in. packs” where parents would “sign-up” toolbox to efficiently and effectively Up until four years ago, our district’s for times. When and “if” those slips perform the task at hand. main communication line with parents came back, teachers were spending Here are seven tips to encourage per- was the traditional “old school” format. countless hours “scheduling” those stu- sonal development and create district- We would send countless paper copies dents to coordinate times with other sib- wide teacher buy-in for new technology: of information home with students in lings, etc. 1. Allow six months of advance their book bags at the end of the week, As soon as I introduced the parent- prep time to identify pain points before and those same papers were coming teacher conference feature to my teach- you implement any new solution. Talk back the following week because par- ers, they were instantly on board. In to teachers and ask them what their ents weren’t checking their child’s fact, within minutes of teachers creating biggest challenges are. Look for trends backpacks regularly. their conference schedules, they were among these challenges so you can pri- A drastic change in our communica- seeing parents “grab” spots. This imme- oritize what to address first. tion efforts with parents needed to diate feedback by several parents really 2. Research possible solutions and occur. After researching numerous plat- reinforced the value of making a change identify the one that meets your criteria. forms to help with parent-teacher in the way we communicate with our Especially consider price, ease of use, engagement, I discovered ClassTag, a parents. We had nearly 100 percent par- and functional features. When trying to simple and free communication plat- ent participation too. find a way to fix my district’s parent- form to address the problem of stream- To achieve outcomes like this, teacher conference problem, I needed a lining teacher and parent conversations. regardless of the problem you’re solv- platform that was sophisticated while In order to get teacher buy-in, I knew ing or the solutions you want to gain, being intuitive for parents and teachers I needed to just introduce the ClassTag you need to get teachers excited and to use. Since budgeting is a big concern feature that would instantly save them engaged so they see value in integrating for my district, I also needed to look for

© eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. 11 K-12 IT Solutions Trending News Guides options that were free. provide positive feedback, and get classrooms in the school. 3. Don’t assume your students’ par- teachers excited. With ClassTag, once I Technology can solve a number of ents don’t have access to technology. showed teachers how quick and easy it problems facing educators, and it can do Although I work in a rural, Title 1 dis- was to sign up and all the valuable fea- so in a cost effective and easy-to-use way. trict school, we have a 1:1 student digi- tures, they became eager to use it. Professional development focused tal device ratio and every parent has 7. Once you’ve identified and solved on technology can secure teacher buy-in access to a smartphone. a pain point, excitement over the new by clearly showing teachers how new 4. Once you’ve narrowed down your technology becomes contagious. Many tools will help them build a better class- edtech tool search, create an account platforms do more than one thing. Even room. By doing this, you can effect and play around with the technology. though we initially introduced ClassTag meaningful changes quickly, in a way Familiarize yourself with how it works so to streamline parent-teacher confer- that motivates everyone–parents, teach- you’re prepared to get teachers excited. ences, this app encourages engagement ers, and students. 5. Run a focus group with key in many ways, Leslie Aden, our 5th and teachers. Have these teachers test out 6th grade language arts teacher, finds Susan Oehlertz is the District the technology for two or three months ClassTag an efficient way to contact Technology Integrationist at Pocahontas to acquire data points before setting up parents instantly on their communica- Area Elementary, and is passionate about administrative meetings. tion channel of choice regarding weath- finding purposeful ways to integrate tech- 6. Showcase the technology at a er announcements, party planning, or nology into all areas of education who faculty meeting at least two months student hurrahs and concerns. has presented at numerous technology before teachers will start to implement. Additionally, she’s also able to commu- conferences. Follow her blog here, and Use your focus teachers to reinforce, nicate directly with her class and other find her on Twitter @MrsSOehlertz. Here’s how to support multi-screen classrooms An IT director describes how his team unleashed teaching and learning by revamping their infrastructure and supporting multi-screen classrooms

BY DAVID SOEDE Damon Cooper pushed for more flexi- ing and learning benefits of multi- Today, education is far more flexible ble and collaborative classrooms, we screen classrooms, he convinced his and collaborative than a generation ago, knew we would have to redefine our colleagues to push for a refurbishment and technology is key in enabling teach- infrastructure. that would eventually include collapsi- ers to quickly adapt lesson plans to suit Prototyping a vision with ble walls for combining classrooms for the moment’s activity. Having multiple spare parts team teaching, writable glass panels for screens that a teacher or student can visual learning, a film studio to allow wirelessly project to, along with the For more than a year, Cooper piloted students to demonstrate what they are ability to switch between sources in sec- his vision of multi-screen classrooms by learning through multimedia produc- onds, means that teachers aren’t tied to piecing together whatever spare parts tion, and, of course, multi-screen class- the front of the classroom any more. we had on hand. If I retired a screen rooms to showcase those productions They are free to roam around to small from another part of the school or had a and enable student collaboration. groups, to see what students are work- spare from a bulk purchase, he wanted Understanding the need ing on simultaneously, and to call atten- it. Over that period, Cooper worked tion to particularly high-quality work or closely with me to prototype his vision. Like any school, we weren’t looking ideas that challenge and stimulate. That work functioned as a proof of con- at introducing multi-screen classrooms But all that technology does students cept and fit nicely with our strategic onto a blank slate. We already had a sig- little good if it can’t function properly plan, which called for an increased nificant challenge in supporting the because your school’s IT infrastructure focus on digital literacy, greater collab- tools our teachers and students were isn’t up to the job. At Central Coast oration, and developing students who using. We are 1:1 with a mix of devices: Grammar School in Australia, when can produce and publish digital work. iPads for grades 1–3, Windows 10 lap- Director of Teaching and Learning Once Cooper could show the teach- tops for grades 4–9, and a BYOD pro-

12 © eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Guides K-12 IT Solutions Trending News gram for grades 10–12. For faculty and 1. Quality and performance only necessary because the multi-screen staff, we offer Windows 10 2-in-1 2. Reliability and support classrooms created a high-density layout tablets and also support the smart- 3. Ease of use for staff and students with many sources and screens in use phones and tablets that most of the fac- 4. Cross-platform compatibility simultaneously. With more space ulty and staff bring in with them. 5. Affordability between the rooms or a single screen per Our wireless platform and web-fil- With those criteria in mind, we tested a class, we could have gotten away with tering system had to be robust, easy to range of WVP products. Some were very less bandwidth and no copper shielding. use, and device- and operating-system good in their own ecosystem but poor Our primary data center features a agnostic to support that variety. We across all operating systems and hardware generator backup and we have a second- knew that would also be true for our platforms. Others lacked necessary fea- ary data center with an uninterruptible wireless video projection (WVP) plat- tures like central management. Imagine power supply also on site. We run about form. Even our youngest students handling 150 firmware updates manual- 60 virtual servers across eight physical would need to be able to use it, after all. ly—or worse, having them auto-update Dell servers with approximately 100 Cooper’s early work showed us that and break your WVP so you have to man- CPU cores and 1TB of RAM. We have our existing wireless platform couldn’t ually fix each one via firmware rollback or a few hundred TB of storage across cope with WVP at the quality we needed configuration modification. That’s the SAN tiers of SSD, SAS, and SATA, all across the school, so once we had stuff IT nightmares are made of. from Dell. More than 60 enterprise approval to refurbish B Block, the area of Eventually, we settled on Vivi because switches, including three different the school we decided to focus on, we got it combines high-video quality with cen- models from UniFi, give us good net- serious about finding the right wireless, tralized management and designed-for- work capability, and 150 WAPs, also networking, and WVP platforms. education features that make it simple for from UniFi, provide both excellent site Finding the tools a teacher to allow or prevent a student coverage and high throughput. from projecting their screen to one or all We figured out really early during We tested four major wireless, three screens in a classroom. The ability to our WVP testing that the entire path— major networking, and nine WVP plat- extend (not just mirror) a screen allows device to WAP to network switch to forms. All told, we tried about 100 dif- teachers to multitask by streaming a cable to WVP—was critical in resulting ferent combinations, all with lots of dif- video while marking an attendance roll, video quality. Schools don’t need to ferent devices—including products for example, or presenting slides while wipe out their existing network and wi- from HP, Dell, Microsoft, and Apple— viewing speaking notes. The touch return fi hardware to adopt a WVP, but regard- running the full gamut of laptops, feature allows junior school teachers to less of the platform they choose, you tablets, and smartphones. run interactive projectors or touchscreens can’t simply install it and go without It was important that our wireless and be mobile in the classroom. considering the other elements. system be an integrated solution with a Fantastic video quality is great—and Untethering the classroom single management interface, which necessary—but it comes with band- ruled out multi-vendor network and width requirements of around 100 mbps We refurbished B block over a holiday wireless solutions. per stream. Supporting that much data break, and our high school students were Choosing a wireless networking sys- meant adding more wi-fi in a higher- downloading and connecting their smart- tem became a two-horse race, with density space than schools and office phones and laptops via the WVP app Ubiquiti becoming our provider. It was buildings typically have, and that in turn within minutes of returning to campus. the only product that could balance the meant we had to significantly increase When you have thousands of devices on wireless access point (WAP) load based wireless performance. the network, it has to “just work” all the on bandwidth instead of user connec- Remaking the capability time or the impact is so high that staff and tions. In a situation in which you have students will stop using it. the same number of students on two I designed copper mesh shielding to But with a little determination, solid WAPs that are balanced only according split B Block into four zones, a world- planning, and the willingness to reimag- to connections but several students are first building design, which allowed us ine what your school’s IT capabilities using the WVP on one, that WAP will to pack in 24 5GHz WAPs running can be, unleashing the screens—and the drop packets while the other has idle 40MHz channels to serve 45 screens learning—is easily manageable. capacity. If they can balance according and Vivis. B Block has two 10Gb fiber to bandwidth instead, the load is shared connections to our primary data center, David Soede is the director of infor- and quality improved. while all other buildings, which don’t mation and communication technologies We began our search for an appropri- have multi-screen classrooms, only at Central Coast Grammar School in ate WVP platform with clear priorities have single 10Gb fiber cables. Australia. He can be reached at in mind: The shielding and bandwidth were [email protected].

© eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. 13 K-12 IT Solutions Trending News Guides 5 ways our centralized LMS supports UDL Here’s how our LMS supports UDL and helps us create an anytime-anywhere learning environment for students who get taught from where they are—not from where we “think” they are

BY NICK WILLIAMS Applicable to every student in every classroom, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles of offering multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement help teachers leverage every child’s strengths while supporting a very personalized learning path based on student choice. When your LMS supports UDL, students reap the benefits. Unlike pedagogies that attempt to teach to a broader group of students with a broad brush, UDL encompasses a wide swath of learning content—lec- tures, lessons, videos, audio recordings, group projects, individual projects, support for UDL. Today, we have 98 learning content. They don’t have to etc.—to help the modern-day student percent usage across our K-12 district, teach the students how to share Google reach his or her fullest potential. which is 1:1 for grades one through 12 assets because they already know how As we’ve all come to learn, manag- (kindergarten is 3:1). Here are five ways to do it. This helps to break down some ing digital content along with making it our LMS supports UDL and project- of the barriers in terms of access to available to the people who need it isn’t based teaching while transforming the assignments and documents. It’s always easy. Enabling access for students and learning process: good to be able to give students the free- parents is equally as challenging, as is 1. Gives teachers and students dom to use tools like Google, which providing ongoing professional devel- freedom, voice, and choice. Choice is they’re comfortable with, instead of opment for teachers who are using UDL at the heart of UDL, a framework that saying, “you have to use this tool in every day in their K-12 classrooms. recommends flexibility and an option- order to make this specific design and 5 ways our LMS supports rich curriculum that offers learners mul- turn in the assignment.” UDL tiple means of engagement, multiple 3. Helps teachers break the “strict representations of content, and multiple curriculum” mold. As a former AP When we kicked off a new initiative means of action and expression. We biology teacher, one of the biggest chal- focused on student-centered learning, don’t evaluate based on how much tech- lenges I dealt with was having to follow our district started looking for an all-in- nology a teacher is using, and we don’t a strict curriculum. We just didn’t have one learning management system push out all the curriculum to our teach- a lot of time to teach in the first place, (LMS) that would serve as a staging ers saying, “You have to teach this on and then we had to give rigid tests at the area for our UDL and project-based this day.” Teachers have a lot of free- end of the course. There just wasn’t teaching models. Not only would it give dom about how they address curriculum much flexibility. A lot of teachers deal teachers and students the freedom to and how they reach their goals. Our with this issue, and getting them to uti- select their preferred tools, but it would LMS also goes hand-in-hand with our lize technology tools and to understand also integrate with Google, keep every- 1:1 initiative, which we use in grades that students can learn from videos, by thing in a centralized place, and enable one through 12. doing projects, and from reading, has high-quality professional development 2. Integrates with Google. This is a definitely presented a learning curve at for teachers. tremendous win for us. Our robust LMS our district. As a former teacher, for After a comprehensive review, we just links the tools together, so there’s a example, I found that homework was a narrowed the field down and opted for lot less work on the teachers’ end now good starting point for this transforma- itslearning because it offered strong in terms of organizing or collecting tion. I would always give them a study

14 © eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Guides K-12 IT Solutions Trending News guide that went along with the text and teachers, who can use video, audio, are quarterly check-ins with teachers to the unit, and let students make a video, Google, and myriad other free tools to make sure the UDL model isn’t too create doodle diagrams of a chapter, or create content. Instructors can then store overwhelming for them. Today, roughly write an essay—all of which can be the content in a single location that’s one-third of our new teacher orientation uploaded to, managed by, and stored in accessible to students, parents, or any- is focused on what UDL is and what it a centralized LMS that integrates with one else who needs it. means. All staff have individualized Google. 5. Serves as our professional devel- professional development through the 4. Provides a wide array of quality opment hub. Because UDL isn’t taught LMS platform to meet the needs of their academic resources. We currently have in every preservice undergraduate meth- busy schedules. Because all of this con- over 3 million pieces in our library of ods course, we do quite a bit of profes- tent is in our hub, it’s consistent across curriculum, plus various curriculum sional development for teachers, all of the district no matter where you’re at. assets that teachers can use by signing which is managed in our LMS—which Everybody knows how to use it, and into our LMS (which is accessible is basically our professional develop- everybody’s expected to be in it. 24/7). Using these quality academic ment hub. We have coaches or “UDL resources, students are free to express facilitators” in our buildings, conduct- Nick Williams is the director of tech- themselves in what they know, versus ing weeklong UDL institutes over the nology for Bartholomew Consolidated what we “think” they know. It also summer. We also offer new teacher School Corporation in Columbus, opens up an entirely new world for academies throughout the year which Indiana. 7 strategies to navigate a tech upgrade With 53,000 students, 6,500 employees, and buildings spread across 88 square miles, our network refresh at Klein ISD taught us a thing or twos BY CHRIS CUMMINGS AND pals, teachers, staff, students, and vol- BRETT WILLIAMS unteers. We provide them with a clear Several school district officials have understanding of our technology vision told us they want to embrace our philos- and the capabilities of our district infra- ophy of empowering students and structure. This information allows our teachers through technology innova- users to consider what classroom and tion, but lack the right infrastructure to operational innovations they can intro- support this vision. After our district duce to leverage the technology we pro- completed a three-year, district-wide vide to enhance classroom experiences. technology refresh cycle, we wanted to Lesson #3: Pursue an share our top takeaways to help our ongoing refresh strategy peers get more educational benefits from your network infrastructure. Instead of undergoing a massive Lesson #1: Organizational infrastructure refresh once every five structure matters tions by delivering the right technology. years, pursue a rotational schedule to Having a strong and collaborative rela- tackle parts of your network every year. Like many districts, in the past our IT tionship is critical for determining the This enables you to meet new demands department delivered products and serv- infrastructure our district needs for the as they arise while also smoothing out ices as a separate entity from our curricu- personalized learning and user experi- capital budget cycles and staying lum and instructional development staff. ences that support our district’s mission: focused on mission-critical tasks by Now we’re all organized under the same “Every student enters with a promise and eliminating the inherent distractions leadership and our joint team is headed exits with a purpose.” caused by major upgrade initiatives. by a chief learning officer. Lesson #2: Stay close to When pursuing this strategy, keep an This reorganization resulted in a users during a tech upgrade eye on technology innovations to deter- strategic shift to giving our curriculum mine which ones to adopt immediately, staff the voice that drives our services. In In addition to our curriculum and because they add value and are cost- other words, they provide the curricular instruction teams, we maintain good effective, and which to delay until a vision and then we meet their expecta- communications with building princi- later date.

Lesson #4: Partnerships are key to success district officials, school board members, device they’re carrying. and, if you’re taxpayer-funded, the pub- This discovery led us to discuss how lic. What’s more, you can stay ahead of everyone can relate to being in unfamil- Strong technology partnerships are new demands because you’ll know how iar surroundings, such as finding a sev- invaluable, such as the one we enjoy many devices your network can sup- enth-period history class for the first with wi-fi innovator Aruba, a Hewlett port. time, locating an elevator if you’re a Packard Enterprise company, for suc- Lesson #6: Ensure your wheelchair user, or attending a district- cessful user-experience outcomes. As network security solution is wide event at a building you’ve never mobility and wireless become table value-add visited before. stakes for successfully educating stu- We also considered location-aware dents, it’s imperative that your technol- With ever-more devices come added technologies from a safety and security ogy partners have an innovation security concerns that make it impera- perspective, as they can enable quickly pipeline and roadmap aligned with your tive to adopt a scalable, user-friendly grabbing the nearest automated external needs. In addition, solutions you pur- network access solution. The best tools defibrillator or, if there’s an HVAC situ- chase should include the flexibility to automatically build a database of every ation, show maintenance staff where the evolve your infrastructure, rather than device that connects to your network, valve is that they need to shut off. requiring you to rip out and replace allowing you to quickly establish appro- Externally, by providing an app and technology every three to five years. priate device profiles and policies. For maps to local emergency personnel, we Lesson #5: Get an intuitive example, a wireless webcam doesn’t can help our first responders navigate network optimization tool to need access to your email server, but a quickly during an event. manage the load teacher’s laptop does. What’s more, our facilities are used Further, we advise taking a detailed by the community during off hours, In addition to the demand for high- approach to profile mapping. For which typically requires printed maps performance connectivity by desktops, instance, differentiate between various and someone’s time to direct traffic. laptops, tablets, and phones, whether types of IoT devices to give smart TVs Wayfinding technology can eliminate district-issued or BYOD, it’s likely fast access to the internet while restrict- such waste and inefficiency by enabling you’re also experiencing escalating ing plumbing sensors to communicating people to get where they need to go. demand from IoT devices. These range with a specific internal application. In other words, truly empowering from webcams, VR/AR solutions, and For us, after establishing device pro- our district goes beyond providing wire- digital signage to wireless operations files, our network access control solu- less and wired computing access. It’s systems like HVAC sensors, bus-diag- tion automatically assigns the proper about thinking in broader terms and nostic systems, irrigation systems, and permissions and provides smooth expe- envisioning how innovations deployed security solutions. riences for thousands of connections— in other industries can improve user That’s why we advocate for intuitive with no further manual intervention. experiences and educational outcomes network optimization tools, which any- What’s more, we’re considering options while also contributing to safety, securi- one on your IT staff can use, to effec- for adding intelligence with machine ty and operational efficiency. tively manage infrastructure perform- learning to detect suspicious device ance across all of your campuses. With behavior faster than humanly possible. Chris Cummings is the IT director at such tools, you’ll uncover existing and Lesson #7: Think about user Klein Independent School District (ISD) emerging bottlenecks via visual dash- experiences wherever you are in the greater Houston community of boards, with drill-down granularity, Klein, Texas, with more than 20 years of enabling you to determine the best Last, but by no means least, we pay experience in technology and education, course of action before teachers and attention to how technologies are used including various leadership roles. learners are affected. The most innova- outside of K-12. For example, during Cummings also serves as a volunteer fire- tive tools are now incorporating the recent Aruba Atmosphere confer- fighter. machine learning for proactively identi- ence, we heard about the new mobile Brett Williams is a system engineer at fying where you should make improve- wayfinding and location-aware tech- Layer 3 Communications. He is the for- ments. nologies at large football stadiums and mer assistant manager network infra- In addition to managing perform- shopping malls. Among other things, structure at Klein ISD in Klein, Texas, ance, use your tools to continuously these innovations give users turn-by- with nearly a decade at the district in var- track usage trends. Doing so enables turn directions and can detect where ious IT roles. you to provide intelligent answers to users are within a facility, based on the

16 © eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Guides K-12 IT Solutions Trending News How we turned around our ability to support wi-fi innovation Enabling digital learning is important—here's how one district made wi-fi a priority inside and outside the classroom

BY MICHAEL UELSES Demographics:

Nazareth Area School District is an eastern Pennsylvania school district with more than 4,800 students across six schools. Biggest challenge:

Facing increasing demands to provide exceptional experiences for both students and teachers, our legacy network was simply not able to keep pace. We needed new network technology capable of supporting the digital curriculum within the classroom while also providing reliable wireless coverage outdoors to support the district’s new security strategy and emergency pre- paredness app. We realized that meeting fi to ensure that faculty and staff are • When choosing a wireless provider, these needs would require us to modern- able to use our response tool, NaviGate it’s important to consider how they ize the network from the edge to the Prepared, anywhere on campus in will support applications for the class- core and that the solution would have to order to quickly determine who is room, especially in a 1:1 initiative. be both utility grade and simple to accounted for and who isn’t during an • If you’re considering ways to deploy. emergency. enhance student security, consider Solution: Reliable wi-fi has also improved the your connectivity outside as well as use of innovation within our classrooms. inside in order to have reliable com- We chose to deploy new wired and Now that teachers are confident in the munication during an emergency. wireless solutions to ensure high per- wireless network, they are evolving their Next steps: formance. After a thorough evaluation curricula to include technology such as of our options, we decided to go with coding, robotics, Google Expeditions Our facilities management staff is Aruba and are now running two 8320 VR Classroom kits and a wide range of looking at new ways to add building switches as the foundation of our net- other digital learning tools. automation and access systems to our work. With the ArubaOS-CX operating Lessons learned: network. system, these switches give us a fully In order to ensure the advanced data redundant network that makes failovers, • When you implement the right net- security required for IoT devices, we are whether planned or unplanned, com- work, you’ll know it – when we first adopting ClearPass Policy Manager. pletely undetectable by our users. deployed Aruba wi-fi, all the connec- We are planning to enhance our stu- Here's how one district prioritized tivity problems we’d experienced in dent success with more cloud-based wi-fi access in and out of the classroom classrooms vanished. solutions for teaching, learning and Additionally, with Aruba we were • Everything ultimately connects back administration. able to deploy outdoor wi-fi for the first to the core of the network, so choos- time. As a critical component of our ing a redundant and reliable core Michael Uelses is the director of infor- new security initiative, we cover the switch is key to implementing other mation technology in Pennsylvania’s entire perimeter of each school with wi- technologies. Nazareth Area School District

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AGi Repair Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Blocksi, LLC 220 Huff Avenue #500 Enterprise company 228 Hamilton Avenue, 3rd Floor Greensburg, PA 15601 3333 Scott Blvd Palo Alto, CA 94301 (888) 325-5713 Santa Clara, CA 95054 (650) 521-9976 (408) 227-4500 AGParts Education Boxlight 220 Huff Avenue AVID Education 1045 Progress Circle Greensburg, PA 15601 72 Johnny Cake Hill Road Lawrenceville, GA 30043 (724) 838-1170 Middletown, RI 02842 (866) 972-1549 (401) 846-1300 Aleph Objects, Inc. Bretford 626 W 66th Street AVRover 11000 Seymour Loveland, CO 80538 1720 Military Road Franklin Park, IL 60131 (970) 377-1111 Buffalo, NY 14217 (847) 678-2545 (716) 684-8200 Alma BTI 240 N Broadway BandH B2B 16651 E Johnson Drive Portland, OR 97227 420 9th Avenue Industry, CA 91745 1-844-TRY-ALMA New York, NY 10001 (626) 336-6878 (212) 239-7500

Bump Armor Cisco Systems, Inc. CrisisGo, Inc. 458 Dansbury Road, B-3 300 East Tasman Drive 130 S Bemiston Avenue, Suite 501 Milford, CT 06776 San Jose, CA 95124 St. Louis, MO 63105 (415) 347-8039 (408) 526-4000 (314) 669-9022

Bytespeed, LLC Citrix Systems, Inc. CTL Corporation 3131 24th Ave South 851 W Cypress Creek Road 9700 SW Harvest Ct., #100 Moorhead, MN 56560 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309 Beaverton, OR 97005 (877) 553-0777 (954) 267-3000 (866) 814-9380

Casio America, Inc. ClassLink Datum Storage Solutions 570 Mt. Pleasant Avenue 45 E Madison Avenue, Suite 7 89 Church Road, PO Box 355 Dover, NJ 07801 Clifton, NJ 07011 Emigsville, PA 17318 (973) 361-5400 (862) 225-1540 (866) 875-9594

CDI Technologies Clear Touch Interactive DecisionEd Group 500 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 600 561 Keystone Avenue 9901 Valley Ranch Parkway East, Chicago, IL 60611 Reno, NV 89503 Suite 1060 (888) 226-5727 (775) 473-9199 Irving, TX 75063 (972) 462-1263 CDW / CDW-G Clear Winds Technologies, Inc. 75 Tri-State International 13001 Liberty Pkwy Dell Computer, Inc. Lincolnshire, IL 60069 Vestavia Hills, AL 35242 One Dell Way (847) 465-6000 (205) 986-4490 Round Rock, TX 78682 (512) 728-4200 Century Link, Inc. Coffman Media 100 Centurytel Drive 6365 Shier Rings Road, Suite D Discount Two-Way Radio Monroe, LA 71203 Dublin, OH 43016 1430 240th Street (318) 388-9000 (614) 389-3456 Harbor City, CA 90710 (800) 895-5122 Certica Solutions, Inc. Computer Dealers & Recyclers 301 Edgewater Place, Ste 110 Global, Inc. Distribu-Q Wakefield, MA 01880 615 W. Wilshire Blvd, PO Box 105 (781) 245-4515 Building 1100 Greendale, WI 53129 Oklahoma City, OK 73116 (262) 320-7345 Charter Communications (405) 749-7989 (Spectrum Business) Docusign 12405 Powerscourt Drive Connection Public Sector 221 Main Street, Suite 1550 St. Louis, MO 63131 Solutions San Francisco, CA 94105 (314) 965-0555 732 Milford Road (877) 720-2040 Merrimack, NH 03054 Cherry (800) 800-0019 Drobo 5732 95th Avenue, Suite 850 1289 Anvilwood Avenue Kenosha, WI 53144 ContentKeeper Technologies Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (262) 942-6508 5241 E. Santa Ana Canyon, (408) 454-4200 Suite 120 Chromebookparts.com Anaheim, CA 29807 Empow Studios 777 Harding Street, NE, Suite 100 (657) 224-1021 1776 Massachusetts Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55413 Lexington, MA 02420 (844) 840-4664 Crestron Electronics, Inc. (617) 395-7527 15 Volvo Drive Cisco Meraki Rockleigh, NJ 07647 Encore Data Products, Inc. 500 Terry A Francois Blvd (201) 767-3400 1729 Majestic Drive, Suite 2 San Francisco, CA 94158 Lafayette, CO 80026 (415) 632-5800 (303) 926-1669

© eSchool Media Inc., All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. 19 K-12 IT Solutions Company Profiles Guides En-Net Services Google, Inc. ICON Cloud Solutions 712 N. East Street PO Box 2050 480 Wrangler Drive Frederick, MD 21701 Mountain View, CA 94042-2050 Coppell, TX 75019 (301) 846-9901 (650) 253-0000 (972) 786-9000

Epson America , Inc. GuideK12 Illuminate Education 3840 Kilroy Airport Way PO Box 211223 6531 Irvine Center Drive, Suite 100 Long Beach, CA 90806 Eagan, MN 55121 Irvine, CA 92638 (562) 290-5156 (651) 452-8133 (909) 576-7303

Ergonomic Group, Inc. Hayes Software Systems Impero Software 609-3 Cantiague Rock Road 11910 Volente Road, Suite 6 823 Congress Avenue, Suite 1410 Westbury, NY 11590 Austin, TX 78726 Austin, TX 78701 (516) 746-7777 (512) 219-7610 (844) 346-7376

Ergotron Hitachi Solutions America, Ltd. InFocus Corporation 1181 Trapp Road 100 Spectrum Center Drive, 13190 SW 68th Parkway St. Paul, MN 55121 Suite 350 Portland, OR 97223-8368 (888) 743-1119 Irvine, CA 92618 (503) 207-4700 (949) 242-1300 Extreme Networks, Inc. Instructure, Inc. 6480 Via Del Oro Honorlock, Inc. 6330 South 3000 East, Suite 700 San Jose, CA 95119 2500 N Military Trl, #322 Salt Lake City, UT 84121 (408) 579-2800 Boca Raton, FL 33431 (800) 203-6755 (844) 841-5625 Extron Electronics iRobot 1025 E. Ball Road, Suite 100 Howard Technology Solutions 8 Crosby Drive Anaheim, CA 92805 36 Howard Drive Bedford, MA 01730 (714) 491-1500 Ellisville, MS 39437 (617) 945-8751 (601) 425-3181 Facilitron, Inc. j5create 485 Alberto Way HP Computer Corporation 1025 Cobb International Drive, Los Gatos, CA 95032 3000 Hanover Street Suite 210 (800) 272-2962 Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185 Kennesaw, GA 30152 (650) 857-1501 (888) 988-0488 FireFly Computers 1271 Red Fox Road HuddleCamHD JAMF Software St Paul, MN 55112 152 Robbins Road 100 Washington Avenue S, (612) 564-4088 Downingtown, PA 19335 Suite 1100 (610) 518-2200 Minneapolis, MN 55401 Frontline/ School (612) 605-6625 Improvement Network Huron Consulting Group, Inc. 32 West Center Street 550 W. Van Buren Street JAR Systems Midvale, UT 84047 Chicago, IL 60607 10530 Portal Xing (800) 572-1153 (312) 583-8700 Bradenton, FL 34211 (866) 393-4202 Fujitsu America, Inc. Hyperion Partners 1250 E. Arques Avenue 400 South 4th Street, Suite 650 JourneyEd.com Sunnyvale, CA 94085-3470 Las Vegas, NV 89101 5212 Tennyson Pkwy. (408) 746-6000 (855) 213-7500 Plano, TX 75024 (800) 876-3507 Girls Who Code IBM Corporation 28 W 23rd Street, Floor 4 590 Madison Avenue Jupiter ED New York, NY 10009 New York, NY 10022 5435 North Garland Ave, #140-237 (646) 629-9735 (888) 746-7426 Garland, TX 75040 (469) 236-1984

Kajeet for Education Learning.com ManagedMethods 7901 Jones Branch Drive, Ste 350 1620 SW Taylor, Suite 100 719 Walnut Street McLean, VA 22102 Portland, OR 97205 Boulder, CO 80302 (240) 482-3500 (503) 517-4447 (303) 415-3646

Kensington LearnPlatform Mangus Health 1500 Fashion Island Blvd., 517 W. North Street 323 W Martin Street 3rd Floor Raleigh, NC 27603 Raleigh, NC 27601 San Mateo, CA 94404 (844) 944 - LEARN (877) 461-6831 (800) 648-6323 Lenovo MAXCases Kiddom 1009 Think Place 130 McCormick Avenue, Suite 104 25 Kearny Street Morrisville, NC 27560 Costa Mesa, CA 92626 San Francisco, CA 94108 (919) 257-4808 (888) 799-6837 (914) 348-1837 Lightspeed Systems Microsoft Corporation Konica Minolta 2500 Bee Cave Road One Microsoft Way 101 Williams Drive Austin, TX 78746 Redmond, WA 98052-6399 Ramsey, NJ 07446 (512) 439-3995 (425) 706-3470 (201) 825-4000 LinkIt Mingtel, Inc. LanSchool 80 5th Avenue, Suite 1104 4108 W. Spring Creek Pkwy., 1009 Think Place Bldg 1 3J40 New York, NY 10011 Suite E300 Morrisville, NC 27560 (212) 242-5065 Palno, TX 75024 (888) 473-9485 (972) 378-5559 Lock N Charge 4510 Helgesen Drive Mobile Advance Madison, WI 53718 203 Lemon Creek Drive, Unit D Java Connections, LLC (888) 943-6803 Walnut, CA 91789 dba LaptopsAnytime (888) 995-5988 17304 Preston Road, Suite 800 Logisoft Computer Products, Dallas, TX 75252 LLC Mobile Edge (877) 836-3727 6605 Pittsford Palmyra Road 1150 N. Miller Street Fairport, NY 14450 Anaheim, CA 92806 LaptopsAnytime’s 10-years of (585) 598-8650 (714) 399-1400 innovations include configurable automated checkout kiosks that Logitech, Inc. MobileDemand dispense laptops/tablets/portable 7600 Gateway Blvd 1501 Boyson Square Drive, power chargers, recharge Newark, CA 94560-1159 Suite 101 devices, automatically return (510) 795-8500 Hiawatha, IA 52233 devices back to pre-set image, (319) 363-4121 Library ILS and/or LDAP/Active Lumens Integration, Inc. Directory authentication, email 4116 Clipper Court mytaptrack® by Inspired notifications, full suite of inventory Fremont, CA 94538 Futures AI management, audit trail and (510) 252-0200 PO Box 822 management reporting functionality. Enumclaw, WA 98022 Three million plus annual check- Mac to School (206) 295-7722 outs worldwide! 1530 Montague Expwy San Jose, CA 95131 NEC Corporation of America Visit laptopsanytime.com and (415) 891-7113 3929 W John Carpenter Fwy chargersanytime.com Irving, TX 75063 Makey Makey (214) 262-6000 For information email: 1729 Seabright Avenue, Suite B [email protected] Santa Cruz, CA 95062 (831) 460-6242

NEC Display Solutions Parago Software, Inc. SAP Concur 3250 Lacey Rd. Suite 500 3355 Lenox Road 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 800 Downers Grove, IL 60515 Atlanta, GA 30326 Vienna, VA 22182 (630) 467-3200 (404) 870-8519 (703) 506-7699

NetRef PCMG, Inc. Scale Computing 45240 Business Ct, Suite 200 1940 E Mariposa Avenue 525 S. Meridian, Suite 3E Dulles, VA 20166 El Segundo, CA 90245-3457 Indianapolis, IN 46225 (844) 638-7331 (310) 354-5600 x4106 (877) 722-5359

Newline Interactive PEPPM Schneider Electric 101 East Park Blvd., Suite 807 PO Box 213 200 N. Martingale Road Plano, TX 75074 Lewisburg, PA 17837 Schaumburg, IL 60173 (972) 468-9728 (570) 523-1155 (847) 397-2600

NetSupport, Inc. PIPER Scantron Technology 6815 Shiloh Road East, 2415 3rd Street Solutions Suite A-7 San Francisco, CA 94107 1313 Lone Oak Road Alpharetta, GA 30005 (415) 949-2083 St Paul, MN 55121-1334 (770) 205-4456 (800) 722-6876 PowerNotes NetSupport provides IT 820 West Jackson Blvd., Suite 350 affianceSUITE EDU puts the management solutions for Chicago, IL 60607 power of a nationwide team of schools/districts to manage, on-site network, hardware, and collaborate, and monitor student Promethean, Inc. printer experts at your fingertips. devices and school-wide IT 1165 Sanctuary Pkwy, Ste 400 Choose a la carte options or assets, while creating a safe Alpharetta, GA 30009 select the whole solution. learning environment. All new (678) 336-8053 You’ve trusted Scantron version includes features gauging assessment solutions—now trust student wellness, improving Quest Software our technology solution to efficiency, and controlling data 5 Polaris Way manage your critical IT systems. size. Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 (949) 754-8633 www.scantron.com/affiance www.netsupport-inc.com suiteedu Raise3D Marcus Kingsley Mark McGuire 43 Tesla Education Sales Vice President, Technology Sales Irvine, CA 92618 [email protected] [email protected] (888) 963-9028 (770) 205-4456 (402) 697-3211 Ricoh Americas 5 Dedrick Place NoteAffect West Jersey, NJ 07006-6304 School Device Coverage 1290 Bay Dale Drive, #324 (973) 882-2000 5010 Chesebro Road Arnold, MD 21012 Agoura Hills, CA 91301 (410) 974-0505 Riverside Technologies, Inc. (888) 978-3515 748 N 109th Court Nutri-Link Technologies, Inc. Omaha, NE 68154 SchoolPHONES.com div of 281 Mavericks Run (866) 804-4388 Connections Unlimited, Inc. Martin, GA 30557 3018 Ambrose Avenue (404) 437-7964 Robolink Nashville, TN 37207 (800) 286-3481 Optoma Technology, Inc. 5677 Oberlin Drive 3178 Laurelview Ct. San Diego, CA 92121 (858) 876-5123 Sector 5, Inc. Fremont, CA 94538 2000 Duke Street, Suite 110 (408) 383-3700 Alexandria, VA 22314 (888) 787-5884

SmoothWall, Inc. Technology Resource Advisors Sharp Electronics 8008 Corporate Center Drive, 5381 North 118th Court Corporation Suite 410 Milwaukee, WI 53225 100 Paragon Drive Charlotte, NC 28226 (888) 991-4145 Montvale, NJ 07645 (800) 959-3760 (800) 237-4277 Tembo, Inc. Sourcewell formerly NJPA 1639 N Hancock Street Sharp offers a range of content 202 12th Street NE Philadelphia, PA 19122 management and workflow Staples, MN 56479 (215) 427-3608 solutions to help educational (218) 894-5490 institutions enhance traditional Texas Instruments / printing and scanning using Spreaker.com emerging technologies. DLP Division 195 Montague, 11th Floor Additionally, Sharp AQUOS 6550 Chase Oakes Blvd. MS 8469 Brooklyn, NY 11201 BOARD interactive whiteboards Plano, TX 75023 provide advanced features to (214) 567-5281 make lessons more creative and Status Solutions, LLC collaborative. 999 County Line Road W, Suite A Texas Instruments, Inc. / Westerville, OH 43082 Education Division business.sharpusa.com/ (866) 846-7272 PO Box 650311, MS 3821 Vertical-Markets/Education Dallas, TX 75265 Staymobile (972) 995-3773 Christine Bush 1850 Parkway Place Senior Government and Marietta, GA 30067 The Douglas Stewart Major Account Executive (678) 695-8535 Company [email protected] 2402 Advance Road (804) 519-3703 Sunrise Hitek Group, LLC Madison, WI 53718 5915 N Northwest Hwy (800) 279-2795 SHI International Corp. Chicago, IL 60631 290 Davidson Avenue (773) 792-8880 The Social Express Somerset, NJ 08873 162 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road (888) 764-8888 Swank K12 Streaming Encinitas, CA 92024 10795 Watson Road (877) 360-0155 Skalable Technologies St. Louis, MO 63127 4300 Stevenscreek Blvd, (800) 876-5577 Think Tank NTG Suite 140 101 W 84th Drive San Jose, CA 95129 Sycamore International Merrillville, IN 46410 (408) 890-5066 431 W. Baltimore Pike (800) 501-3282 West Grove, PA 19390 Skyward, Inc. (866) 620-8434 ThinkWrite Technologies 2601 Skyward Drive 250 Rancho Bonito Stevens Point, WI 54482 TeamDynamix Fallbrook, CA 92028 (800) 236-7274 2200 West 5th Avenue, #220 Columbus, OH 43215 Thule, Inc. (877) 752-6196 Smart Tech Insurance 2420 Trade Center Avenue, Suite A 255 Primera Blvd., Suite 160 Longmont, CO 80503 Lake Mary, FL 32746 Tech to School (203) 881-9600 (877) 307-6777 1530 Montague Expwy San Jose, CA 95131 Tools4Ever, Inc. (877) 255-8450 SmartClass AS 300 Merrick Road, Suite 310 44 Tehama Street Lynbrook, NY 11563 San Francisco, CA 94105 Technology Integration (516) 482-4414 (415) 295-2513 Group-TIG 10240 Flanders Court San Diego, CA 92121 (800) 858-0549

TOPdesk USA, Inc. Ultimaker Vilros 12301 Lake Underhill Road 150 Cambridgepark Drive 150 Oberlin Avenue N, Suite 11 Orlando, FL 32828 Cambridge, MA 02140 Lakewood, NJ 08701 (407) 613-5410 (617) 714-4748 (855) 207-9254

Toshiba America, Inc. UNIT4 Business Software Vivacity Tech 9740 Irvine Blvd. 1000 Elm Street, Suite 801 213 4th Street E, #414 Irvine, CA 92618 Manchester, NH 03101 St. Paul, MN 55101 (949) 587-6842 (877) 704-5974 (877) 731-2069 TouchIT Technologies UziBull (UZBL) Wiremaid Products Corp 10222 Pecan Park Blvd, Suite 3 212 L Technology Drive 11711 W Sample Road Austin, TX 78729 Irvine, CA 92618 Coral Springs, FL 33065 (248) 764-1084 (949) 715-1174 (954) 545-9000 Trinity3 Technology 2550 University Avenue W, V7 Ingram Micro Products Xirrus Riverbed Suite 315-S 3351 Michelson Drive, Suite 100 680 Folsom Street Saint Paul, MN 55104 Irvine, CA 92612 San Francisco, CA 94107 (651) 888-7922 (714) 566-1000 (800) 947-7871 Varitronics, LLC Tripp Lite 7200 93rd Avenue, N, Suite 120 XYZ Printing, Inc. 1111 W 35th Street Brooklyn Park, MN 55445 20191 Windrow Drive, Ste B Chicago, IL 60609 (763) 536-6443 Lake Forest, CA 92630 (773) 869-1229 (949) 484-7755 ViewSonic TutorOcean 10 Pointe Drive, Suite 200 zSpace 329 March Road Brea, CA 92821 490 De Guigne Drive, Suite 200 Kanata, ON K2K 2E1 (909) 444-8888 Sunnyvale, CA 94085 Canada (408) 498-413 (888) 568-8867 About eSchool News eSchool News covers education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998, eSchool News is a monthly print and digital newspaper providing the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and the internet to transform North America’s schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals. The newspaper is read by more than 300,000 school leaders, and a companion web site— eSchool News Online—is visited by more than 500,000 unique visitors each month, including over 280,000 registered members. eSchool News is a marketing solutions company serving the education technology industry. Throughout our 25-year history, we have created the most comprehensive portfolio of products and services in the industry. We offer access to the broadest reach and deepest range of education technology professionals worldwide across the entire technology spectrum: the creators, sellers, and buyers of technology around the world. Every day, our editorial, sales, and marketing professionals share their content expertise to help our customers grow their businesses. We leverage the immediacy of online, the networking of face-to-face opportunities, the expert interaction of web seminars, and the breadth and depth of print to create compelling, focused media that delivers measurable results.

eSchool News covers the intersection of technology and innovation in education. We focus on how technology can help educators improve learning and deliver instruction more effectively, enhance the student experience, and transform their schools.

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