Dive Brief:

• Schools now deliver two-thirds of their IT solutions either fully or in part through the cloud, and while infrastructure like email and data storage have been key candidates for the move, improving the quality of instructional time and student performance are the two top drivers, according to a CDW-G survey.
• Ed Tech Magazine reports the cloud helps facilitate a shift to digital curricula, with 90% of districts surveyed by the Center for Digital Education saying they have or are planning to implement personalized learning programs with digital content, and about the same amount of educators expect to have at least 50% of instructional materials be digital within three years, according to Consortium for School Networking research.
• While 68% of schools report bandwidth limitations, the cloud also presents opportunities with open educational resources, and CoSN found 99% of educators plan to incorporate some digital OER content in the next three years.

Dive Insight:

While many schools have the financial freedom to charge ahead into 21st century classrooms, others are limited by tight budgets that simply cannot afford the infrastructure to support even free digital materials. Still, E-Rate provides a funding source. The government program uses telecommunications fees to funnel billions of dollars to schools and libraries each year. While some administrators complain the application process is overly complicated, the funds do provide a way to modernize infrastructure and shift to wireless.

E-Rate is also supposed to prevent schools from having to negotiate for the lowest possible price for services by requiring participating companies to offer it, though the FCC is alleging AT&T violated this rule in Florida.