If you're like many classroom teachers, sometimes it may seem like the but time you talk to your Information technology staff is when something is going wrong. The projector isn't working, the Internet is down, your kids are locked out of their tablets. … While most It professionals are at the top of their game in crisis way, it tin can exist helpful to talk to your IT folks before there's an event, non only and so you can anticipate and prevent potential problems but as well to become to know their friendly faces—and deep expertise. Here are six questions we think all teachers should ask their IT staff.

ane. Can I become to the software and sites I demand from my personal tablet or phone?
Increasing utilize of mobile devices, and especially smartphones and tablets, has inverse the mural for educators, students and parents. For you, using your phone to exercise some tasks might be the almost efficient. For IT directors, calculation devices not owned or controlled past the commune increases issues for security, safe and privacy.

Even if BYOD (bring your ain device) is non the district strategy, the It director needs to program for increased bandwidth and ensure that user-provided equipment has the security software and updates needed before being allowed admission to the school network. Their goal should be to allow teachers, staff and students to be productive on any device, anywhere, anytime. If non now, when will this be accomplished in your district?

2. Where tin can I get my questions answered virtually the new technology in my classroom or school?
Some progressive districts have created FAQs (frequently asked questions) so that teachers, students and parents can get their nearly mutual questions answered hands. Following a successful bond issue, Miami-Dade County Schools in Florida, with more than 300,000 students, is providing laptops in elementary schools and tablets in secondary schools. They posted a concise list of the near common questions with answers for the general public, parents, students and teachers at http://digital.dadeschools.cyberspace/faqs.asp.

If the IT manager doesn't have a list posted, propose the questions you lot would similar to see answered to assistance you and your students successfully use your technology. Students could fifty-fifty exist involved in writing the FAQ—or researching the answers to the questions.

3. If it'south not working, how tin I speedily get it fixed?
Another strategy that It directors are implementing is a portal or website where teachers can request help with software or hardware. Users of these systems often tin can track their requests. Large districts like Los Angeles and Miami-Dade find this essential to keep teachers informed of progress and to get together data on common bug. This helps speed upwards responses to requests for help and makes information technology easier to run into patterns with particular schools, equipment or software. Does a recurring software problem mean that an upgrade is needed? Do repeated equipment failures in one location mean that the staff is not properly using equipment or that an electrical spike is creating problems? Multiple requests from ane edifice can be combined to exist dealt with in ane visit. The Information technology support staff has accountability for their work, tracking how apace they tin can resolve problems and seeing patterns in bug, then that teaching and learning can proceed without problems.

6 Questions Teachers Should Ask IT

four. What data are you collecting on my students? And how are you keeping it private?
Federal rules on pupil information privacy require the It section to follow sure standards, and they may besides inquire teachers to think nigh privacy of pupil data. Parents are increasingly concerned near who can encounter information on their children and want to know that hackers cannot change a student's form or enter faux data into the online pupil records. FERPA is a federal law requiring privacy of certain educatee pedagogy information in both print and digital format. Parents don't want schoolhouse records to exist found from a Google search! An system for Thou–12 IT directors called CoSN teamed with Data Quality Campaign to provide 10 principles for using and safeguarding students' personal information.

5. Can you consolidate my passwords so I have simply one to call up?
Some teachers have accounts on more a dozen different sites. Signing in and out of these takes also much time every day. Many IT directors are going to "Single Sign-On" to make this easier and faster for both teachers and students. Y'all go a username and password, and that gives you access to various materials.

If you are chair of the math department, you may accept admission to some resource that other math teachers don't. If a pupil is in Algebra one grade, she gets access to the teacher- or commune-assigned Algebra I resources. The Information technology department sets up rules nigh diverse roles to decide who gets access to which resources that the district has provided. Likewise, your students don't have to have multiple IDs and passwords. They tin sign in and the arrangement knows what courses they are in and what software the teacher has them using. While it may take simply 15 or 20 seconds to sign into each account, over a week'due south fourth dimension this simplifying will salve both teachers and students fourth dimension.

6. Will the underlying structure of the schoolhouse's technology support what my students and I need to use in school?
Applied science has adult quickly, delivering more firepower for less cost. While some schools and districts try to fix old systems, educational activity leaders are redesigning and taking reward of new strategies that simultaneously increase speed and reliability and decrease costs. The Leominster Loftier School It staff reviewed and refreshed their Information technology infrastructure to comply with new standards and to provide students with reliable wireless access and Internet connectivity in schoolhouse. Working with skilled technology partners, they updated their storage and network arrangement to allow for more virtual learning and faster, better Internet access.

Susquehanna Township School Commune in Pennsylvania wanted to build a more than secure, flexible centralized network that would allow for BYOD access and deliver virtual desktops. The new infrastructure provided this power at one-half the toll of the former plan, while assuasive for growth as new technologies come into schools.

Questions like these six have led It directors to focus their attending on Education Enterprise Architecture. Using these concepts, they can program and implement more seamless, integrated, powerful and inexpensive ways to provide the increasing number of engineering resources that educators and students want to use. Learn more almost this concept in a two-folio brief from the U.S. Department of Didactics.

HP tin can help your school bridge the gap between the IT department and the classroom. Find out more!