Dive Brief:
- Districts that have adopted the new Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager have reportedly seen significantly simplified maintenance timelines because of the ability to remotely control and manage thousands of devices.
- EdTech: Focus on K-12 reports SCCM allows IT administrators to group similar devices or those used by certain user types and remotely push out patches and updates in a targeted way.
- It also gives IT administrators more control over system access based on user type, and SCCM’s reporting capabilities allow schools and districts to monitor usage as well as power consumption to support savings initiatives based on use of unnecessary licenses and extravagant energy use.
Dive Insight:
IT used to take up the bulk of a chief information officer’s time, but in modern K-12 districts, there are too many other demands to allow basic technology maintenance to continue consuming the bulk of the working day. Products like Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager allow for greater efficiencies that can free up time and energy for other tasks, including analyzing student performance data to inform long-term strategic planning.
In some ways, shifting the main role of IT administrators requires changing the culture of schools. Teachers and other staff members need to learn how to do some of their own maintenance and trouble-shooting, for example, rather than always calling the IT Help Desk. It should also become normal for IT and curriculum and instruction departments to collaborate. This work, however, takes conscious effort.