1. IT Infrastructure: Bandwidth needs a lot of expansion in mobile learning programs to support the huge amount of devices that need wireless.  With ISP expansion, costs go up to access the pipeline and maintain it.  See more about this in an earlier blog.  Also, check out this great infographic from Education Week that maps out interesting K-12 technology stats.
2. Devices:  This is a big investment that can cost large districts more than a million dollars, although there are some interesting things happening in white label devices that offer good functionality at a fraction of the cost.
3. Staging and Logistics:  Whether it is BYOD or 1:1, tablets, smartphones, and laptops need to be tagged so that they can be tracked and managed.  Content and software needs to be pushed on them to support the classroom experience, track wireless spend, and control internet access for safe surfing.
4. 3G/4G Spend:  Many school districts are taking a hard look at how to help students continue their mobile learning experience off-campus to complete homework and other projects.  Nothing can shut down a mobile learning program faster than data costs that exceed a monthly plan.  Without budget controls that warn students they are nearing their limit and an MDM in place that can shut off access to 3G/4G (internet access still available via wireless), school districts could suffer thousands of dollars in overages.  The other critical part of data spend budgeting is adjusting to find the sweet spot in usage so that you are not paying for 4 Gig plans, when 1 Gig will get the job done.
5. IT Personnel:  School districts that have the internal resources to stay on top of infrastructure, track devices, manage wireless spend, contracts, and logistics are few and far between.

One other thing to consider is that the pace of change in all of these technology areas makes it likely that even with the most careful planning, K-12 budgets should include flexibility to absorb unexpected costs and changes in technologies.

FYI, if you are not familiar with it,  the website for the State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has some great case studies.

Interested in learning more about the ROI of our scalable and bundled solutions?  Let’s start a conversation.

It might be helpful to first examine why asset management is so crucial to K-12 mobile learning.

• The Numbers: When you are talking about thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of devices, it is not practical to task someone with manually updating an excel sheet. CTOs and Administrators need both a quick bird’s eye view of who has what asset and what is loaded on it, and the ability to quickly manage the particulars of each device.
• The Complexity: There are lots of moving parts in mobile devices: warranties, contracts, policies, and permissions. When we were designing Wireless Campus Manager, we knew we would need to build a custom solution. There are many licenses involved in mobile learning content and device management and each one has to be properly tracked. Also, as new and existing students enter and exit grade levels and schools and possibly lose or damage devices, there needs to be a quick way to track, transfer, and procure devices.
• Reporting, Compliance, and Billing: Funding is a big part of K-12 mobile device asset management. School districts need to be able to quickly produce detailed reports for E-rate and other funding mechanisms, as well as for taxes and depreciation.
• Security and Access to Data: CTOs and Administrators need to be able to access data from anywhere in the District and from home. A cloud-based solution provides that flexibility. Going to the cloud also adds redundancy and security and helps with Disaster Recovery.

The Asset Management process

So how does cloud-based Asset Management work? It starts with either an asset tag or a barcode on every device. Sometimes school districts do not have the resources to do this on a large scale so it is often outsourced. Whether thetagging is done in-house or outsourced, the tag or barcode allows for everything about this device to be tracked andmanaged through an administrative portal. With one click, CTOs can see:

• Device features and warranties
• Who has physical possession of the device
• Permissions and Policies signed by students, parents, and teachers
• Software and textbooks that have been imaged on to the device

Summary

Asset Management can make or break K-12 mLearning programs. We have a client that literally stacked their donated tablets in a closet because they realized they were not prepared to manage the assets and provide the right structure to best implement mobile learning. Taking the time to investigate what Asset Management system will work best for your district is critical to the successful launch and ongoing management of K-12 mLearning technology.

Are you looking for K-12 Asset Management that adapts to your needs, your systems, and your complex world?  Let’s talk.

Mike McGuire, CEO & President

The happy picture of a teacher and student leaning over tablets is the iconic symbol of mLearning programs in K-12 schools. What is not seen in these pictures is the essential infrastructure necessary to support students, teachers, IT Directors, and Administrators. It’s similar to a film. No scripts, no lights, no camera, no action. This week we begin an in-depth series on the unsung stars of mobile learning. The policies. The MDM and LMS. The filtering that provides safe internet access. The asset management tool that allows CTO’s and Administrators to know who has what device and what is on it. The IT infrastructure and Wireless Budget Controls. The Connection Manager to secure internet access even when off campus and outside the protective filter bubble. The Launch Plan. Think of this suite of invaluable tools as the Mobile Learning Stage Crew, content to work behind the scenes knowing that the show can’t go on without them.

Let’s start with an overview of 10 key components.

1. Sourcing and Procurement
Congratulations! You have obtained funding to buy tablets. But what kind? Each tablet has different functionality and limitation that should be examined during the Sourcing stage. What are the warranties and replacement costs? What is your workflow process for ordering devices and other equipment? Having a system in place from the beginning to execute, obtain approvals, and track purchase orders is an important part of building a mobile learning program for your school or district. It will also allow you to track where you are with funding and prevent both budget overages and losing precious funding to a missed deadline.

2. Policies
How will you handle break/fix? What responsibilities to students and their parents bear in using school tablets or laptops? In both BYOD and 1:1 deployments, students and parents should sign a use agreement.

3. Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Sometimes MDM and Asset Management are talked about as the same thing but they are actually two very different elements of mobile learning technology. MDM is the management of device features. Do you want to shut down the camera? Enable the recorder? Push content? MDM gives schools districts the tools to remotely lock or open device components, providing the control to decide which features best contribute to mobile learning and which features are more of a distraction

4. Asset Management
So now you have control over your device with MDM. But how do you track where it is and what is loaded on it? By placing a laser etched or barcode asset tag on each device, a wealth of information becomes available to CTO’s and administrators. Cloud-based software lets you know at a glance who has what device and what is loaded on it. We are passionate about the importance of Asset Management in launching and managing mobile device programs. We built our K-12 program on our deep experience in helping to manage and track mobile devices for universities, organizations like the DOD, the US Army and Air Force, large metropolitan cities, and Fortune 500 companies. Asset management is both an art and a science and next week our CEO Mike McGuire will take a deep dive into how it works and why it matters.

5. Learning Management Software (LMS)
Now we are getting close to the fun part. How do you make sure mobile learning is not just reading books on devices? LMS creates a private platform for the teachers and students to collaborate. They can ask questions, share notes, and work together on projects. Teachers can push quick quizzes at the students. Students can access tools to help them learn at their own speed. There are some interesting studies coming out that show real value in math “games” students can play to increase their understanding of concepts. LMS provides real-time assessment tools to track student learning progress and provide valuable feedback to teachers.

6. CIPA compliant filtering
This software keeps students safe on the internet by controlling access to websites. It’s also the law. http://www.e-ratecentral.com/CIPA/default.asp.

7. IT Infrastructure and Wireless Budget Controls
You need a lot of bandwidth to support mobile learning technology. Our CEO Mike McGuire outlined the challenges in a previous blog on the challenges to creating the right infrastructure to support literally thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands, of devices in schools and districts. And, no doubt, you have probably heard of the horror stories of schools ending up with thousands of dollars of overages at the end of a month. Such overages are no longer necessary with the availability of wireless budget controls that alert administrators to automatically send data usage warnings and then shut off 3G/4G access when a student reaches his/her allotted data for the month.

8. Staging and Logistics
Getting close to performance time. At this stage the devices need to be imaged with ebooks, the MDM is configured and the LMS loaded. The asset tag is installed and any additional apps and controls that are specified are installed on each device. At this point we set up training sessions and we alert our help desk to the specifics of each client.

9. Connection Manager
Wireless Campus Manager has a proprietary tool that allows school districts to provide secure internet access both on and off campus. The connection manager optimizes mobile learning by providing off campus internet access to complete homework assignments within secure CIPA compliant filtering.

10. Help Desk and Training
Once mobile learning technology is in place, administrators and CIO’s need access to support and training so that they are comfortable in using all the components to best advantage for tracking, reporting, and compliance. A robust training and help desk is also necessary to support teachers so that they understand prior to launch exactly how all the technology supports their teaching and can access quick help post-launch.

A Deeper Dive
So here’s to the unsung technology heroes of K-12 mLearning technology. Over the next few months we will go in depth on each of these key technology components. And we would be remiss in not mentioning the behind the scenes cast of IT Managers, CIO’s, CTO’s, Principals, School Board Members, and K-12 Business Managers who work so hard to establish the foundation and tools teachers and students need to achieve and succeed with mobile learning.

Stacy D. Chisum
SVP Strategy & Business Development
Twitter: @PowerOn_Stacy

http://www.setda.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=353&name=DLFE-1517.pdf

http://www.educationsuperhighway.org/index.html

Bandwidth is one of the many pieces of the K-12 mobile learning technology puzzle.  We can work with our partners to help districts build IT infrastructure.  And we know that our bundled solution gives school districts an opportunity to quickly and safely power on their mobile learning programs with other key pieces like staging and logistics, MDM, CIPA compliant filtering, Asset Management, wireless budget controls, parental/student and break/fix policies and more.  If you are an IT Manager or District Administrator at Brainstorm or CoSN 13, stop by and see us.  We’d love to meet you.

March 11, 2013, Brainstorm 14.0, Booth #705 (Wisconsin Dells, WI)

March 11-13, 2013, COSN 13, POD #20 (San Diego, CA)

The conference featured a mixture of thought leaders, vendors, CTO’s, and teachers sharing information. Over and over, I kept hearing the words K-12 cloud. Cloud storage is the natural way to increase efficiency and decrease the physical footprint of mobile learning infrastructure. Not to mention the cost savings going the cloud can bring.

Here is a top five list for why K-12 Administrators, School Boards, and CTO’s should look to the cloud, as they look to launch mobile learning in their schools.

1. Hardware. Launching mLearning programs requires an increase infrastructure to accommodate the huge increase in devices that need to be managed. Going to the cloud reduces equipment on the ground and creates a centralized data center.

2. Personnel. Managing and tracking devices in mLearning programs can be labor intensive. Adding physical hardware also adds to IT maintenance. Going to the cloud reduces the personnel footprint needed to manage mobile learning.

3. Convenience. Try tracking down the dozens of questions that come up daily when managing mobile learning IT and devices. Better yet, don’t. Cloud services allow administrators, CTO’s, and faculty to access the data themselves with a few keystrokes.

4. Budget. Reductions in hardware and personnel that result from Cloud migration bring significant ROI.

5. Storage and Security. K-12 schools manage a lot of sensitive information. Storing it in the cloud provides security, back-up, and redundancy that cannot be achieved with a paper trail.

Wireless Campus Manager™ uses the Cloud as a part of our bundled technology solution for K-12 schools. It’s an integral part of streamlining process and an increasing number of schools agree. I read an interesting post this week with stats on ROI and adoption rate of K-12 cloud on the Center for Digital Education website.

Check it out. http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Educator-Cloud-Adoption.html

Welcome to the Wireless Campus Manager™ blog.  We are very excited to bring our voice and capabilities to the critical and exciting development of mobile learning in K-12 schools. As the parent of young children, I can’t think of any other arena where our company’s ten years of mobile technology solution building and device management could be better applied. Our kids need every advantage to achieve and succeed in the classroom and later in the workplace. Our children, all of our children no matter where their family falls on income level, need to be able to compete in a global economy. Knowing that our company has built a solution that can quickly and cost effectively help spark that kind of positive change in our schools feels amazing.

A recent Unesco Study shows Mobile Learning has the potential to be an equalizer in education and is evidencing positive outcomes as part of K-12 curriculum.  Going forward, our Power On K-12 M-Learning blog will be part of our Resource Center for CTO’s, Principals, Superintendents, Teachers, and Parents who are passionate about the power of technology to ignite achievement in our schools.  We will include relevant content and links about E-rate, best practices, case studies, research, and more.  We will invite and include leaders across the mobile learning landscape to be join in the conversation and participate on our blog.  Please feel free to contact us with topics about mobile learning technology you would like us to address and to share your own experiences.  We look forward to being part of this revolution in K-12 education.

Warmly,

Mike McGuire, CEO and President