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Doing It Cheaper With Technology

By: John K. Waters

1/1/2009

Schools are looking for ways to use technology to save cold, hard cash

If you're looking for an in with your K-12 customers, find a way to help them use technology to do the things they already do-- but cheaper.

Rich Kaestner, project manager at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), says that turning to technology to bridge the budget gap isn't exactly a novel strategy in K-12 environments. What is new, he says, is that school districts are less interested in technology solutions that drive staff efficiencies than they are in technology that can save some cold, hard cash.

Topping their list of cost concerns they hope to address with technology, he says, are the price of fuel, energy, paper, postage, and software. Here are examples of how schools are using technology to save money-- you may be able to think of other ways that your products or services can help them do even more.

Saving Fuel

With gas prices heading for $5 per gallon, that field trip to the natural history museum isn't the cost-neutral outing it once was. Although most teachers would probably agree that there's nothing quite like being there in the flesh, virtual field trips facilitated by either videoconferencing software or web-browser-based applications, are providing some schools with a cost-effective alternative to boarding the bus.

Virtual field trips have been an option for more than 10 years, says Dr. Larry L. Fruth II, executive director of the Schools Interoperability Framework Association or SIFA. Cost saving was not the original appeal of this technology, but rather its ability to connect students with far-off locales. That has changed. "Gas costs are driving this even more," Fruth says, which opens up "a huge market for hundreds of players" he believes. Not just for the required software and hardware, but standards- aligned curriculum that wraps around virtual trips; templates and curriculum for student-led expeditions; and other products and services that support or enable this kind of distance learning.

Even less sophisticated online communications software, such as Skype's VoIP application, is gaining ground as a way to cut down on travel expenses. Shawn Nutting, IT Director at Trussville City Schools in Trussville, Alabama, says his district uses Skype to "bring" training experts to his district. "We heard of a great foreign language teacher in Georgia, so we brought him in using Skype," Nutting says. "It was a great experience for our brand new foreign language teachers, and we did not have to pay travel from Georgia."

Nutting says that his district is also currently considering the fuel-savings benefits of GPS devices. The geopositioning technology works as both an employee tracker (no more side trips to CostCo on the way to troubleshoot the district server) and as a means of getting people from point A to point B more efficiently.

A related fuel-saving technology that Kaestner points to is centralized client computer-management systems, which reduce the travel required by IT staff for maintenance.