The following 10 conditions represent those technology problems most commonly encountered by school districts and county offices of education. The presence of any one condition is not necessarily an indication of trouble. Unavoidable short-term situations such as key personnel vacancies can result in brief and acceptable periods of exposure to one or more of the following categories. Exceeding acceptable limits of exposure in one or more of the following categories is often the blueprint for districts approaching or currently experiencing a technology crisis. More detailed information on individual items within this Top 10 list will be provided within future DataBus issues.
1. Ineffective Leadership
Recruiting difficult
Ineffective or no supervision
No vision for how technology will improve education of students
No definition of annual goals and objectives for technology staff
No expression or marketing of technology vision
Lack of understanding of primacy of educational purpose
Inadequate attention to system life cycles
Ineffective Organizational Structure
Split admin and instructional technology
No Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for electronic resources
No annual evaluations of technology support staff
2. Ineffective Communication
No regular staff meetings
Inadequate interdepartmental communication
Inadequate site communication
Out-of-touch with needs of instructional staff
Lack of IT advocacy at cabinet level
Staff unrest and morale issues
Ineffective workflow
No help desk or central contact number
Users dont understand pressures of IT support
3. Difficulty Establishing Priorities
Multiple simultaneous rollouts
Missed due dates and cost overruns
Shortening implementation time lines
Increasing project complexity
Project creep
4. Inadequate Funding
Limited resources
Insufficient funding to offset total cost of ownership
Lack of partnering efforts
Lack of application efforts (DHS, E-rate, CENIC/DCP, other grants)
5. Inadequate Staff Development
Lack of continuing education for IS staff
Lack of instructional staff development
Inadequate instructional technology infusion
Lack of professional development for district staff
Inadequate training facilities
6. Ineffective Support Mechanism
Poor service orientation
Unmotivated staff
Staff dont understand basic mission (education of students)
Lack of supervision over technology support staff activities
Unacceptably long support response times
Unresolved support requests
Shortage of staff to support infrastructure
Excessive equipment repair turnaround time
No planned equipment replacement strategy
No equipment donation policy
No obsolete equipment disposal policy
Out-of-date minimum hardware and software standards
Burnout from 60-65 hour weeks
7. Different Levels of Infrastructure
Problems infusing technology into older school sites
Disparity of technology infrastructure in old versus new school sites
Proliferation of obsolete technology
Legacy hardware and software
8. No Distributed Access
Limited access to timely personnel, payroll, and budget control data and reports
Inadequate communications systems
Lack of e-mail access
Lack of Internet access
Failure to file E-rate telecommunications funding claims
9. Network Performance, Reliability,
and Security Concerns
Network resources configured poorly
Lack of proper network segmentation
Lack of efficient access list and routing tables
Lack of proper backup procedures
Lack of disaster recovery procedures
Server software patches not applied consistently
Excessive network downtime
Lack of or excessive concern for network security
10. Platform Wars and Territorialism
Macintosh versus PC
Microsoft NT versus Novell NetWare
Instructional versus administrative technology turf battles
Andrew Prestage
Director, Technology
Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team