Forbes Layoff Tracker highlights how bad the Economy has gotten, and what may be in store in the future:
Number of layoffs since Nov. 1, 2008, at America’s 500 largest public companies*:
362,335
On first glance at that number, and the data underneath it, I wondered, what would this report look like if we studied K-12 public schools? If we listed simply the top 20 school districts in Texas, how many layoffs would we see as a result of the bad Economy?
As school districts hunker down in the face of a tough economy, they may very well embrace cost-saving measures they eschewed in the past. The Government looks to bail out education, there is an opportunity. There’s always an opportunity in misfortune, a way of saving education by having it pull itself up by its own bootstraps. It may not work perfectly.
What if we took a long hard look at how we use technology in schools? Again, this isn’t new but…what if (and feel free to contribute via the comments or your own blog but link here so I know about it) we did the following:
- Student Model: Buy $800 Dell desktops with monitors but strip away Windows OS, MS Office, AntiVirus, etc. and instead use UbuntuLinux, OpenOffice. For every 10 student stations, buy a Macintosh Multimedia machine.
- Library/Classroom Labs: Use thin client, NComputing devices whenever possible with old machines.
- Teacher Model: Buy $1200 Macbooks but load only free, open source software on them in addition to the built-in Apple apps (e.g. iMovie, iDVD).
- Administrator/Office Model: Offer $1200 as the max for a laptop (their choice) that runs only free, open source software on a Windows operating system.
- Cancel recurring contracts such as anti-virus, Microsoft Office recurring contracts, covert tracking systems installed, eliminate engraving of the school logo on the machines, and all theft deterrence systems.
Regrettably, I don’t know enough about hardware to adjust the specs, but…I do know one thing. I want hardware and computers that aren’t locked down by Deep Freeze or Active Directory/SMS policies that prevent educators from installing content. And, I certainly would hate for school districts to fall into this potential trap of trusted computing that involves pay as you go access to hardware and software on a computer.
Since these ideas aren’t new, what would you do to slim down your technology spending in hard times in schools, yet maintain access to high quality tools that support instruction?
If only we could shed those expensive tools that prepare children for high stakes testing (not all of which are listed below and this list is for illustration purposes, not a search and destroy mission (smile)):
| OdysseyWare | 4 | 19% | |
| Plato | 9 | 43% | |
| Successmaker | 4 | 19% | |
| Surescore | 1 | 5% | |
| Learning for Sports | 0 | 0% | |
| Neufeld Math | 1 | 5% | |
| Pearson NNAT2 | 1 | 5% | |
| Penn-Foster | 0 | 0% | |
| mClass Reading | 1 | 5% | |
| mClass Dibels | 2 | 10% | |
| mClass IDEL | 1 | 5% | |
| mClass TPRI | 1 | 5% | |
| mClass RTI | 1 | 5% | |
| mClass Math | 0 | 0% | |
| mClass CIRCLE | 0 | 0% | |
| mClass Tejas Lee | 1 | 5% | |
| SubFinder | 3 | 14% | |
| Voyager | 2 | 10% | |
| FastForWord | 5 | 24% | |
| FitnessGram | 13 | 62% | |
| Digital Video (e.g. United Streaming/PowerMediaPlus) | 17 | 81% | |
| Renzulli Learning | 3 | 14% | |
| Other | 12 | 57% |
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Instead of $800 desktops, why not $400 netbooks? You could even hook them to a monitor/keyboard/mouse when in the classroom.
Instead of $800 desktops, why not $400 netbooks? You could even hook them to a monitor/keyboard/mouse when in the classroom.