CoSN CTO Clinic

	About CoSN Chapters CTO Clinics Texas, June 2006 Colorado, January 2007

Session Descriptions

Session Descriptions Subject to Change

Calculating the Value of Technology in Education

Stakeholders are no longer satisfied with basing technology funding on metrics such as student/computer ratios. CIO’s and Technology Directors are increasingly becoming responsible for helping their schools and districts to better understand the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for technology, using the CoSN-Gartner TCO tool, and calculate the expected and realized value of their technology investments. Presenters in this session provide insight into how to understand the K-12 value proposition, communicate it to their stakeholders, and use it to align the technology effort with the school district goals, using CoSN’s VOI methodology and tools.

Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning

Alan November offers all school leaders insight into the transformation of teaching and learning in the digital age. Access to information and communication tools can:

• Empower educators to focus on individual student learning needs
• Help leaders build professional learning communities
• Engage students as critical thinkers

Federal Policy Update

How do you talk to elected officials about your vision and plans for education technology? Learn the skills necessary to become an effective education technology advocate, and make your voice heard in support of ed tech funding in your school district and around the US.

Hot Technologies for K-12 Schools

As K-12 schools adopt new technologies they have found innovative ways to transform instruction, assessment, professional development, community connections and operations. Learn about an exciting new report from CoSN on Hot Trends in Technology which highlights technologies from iPods to RFID to audio enhancement and many more. Attendees will gain an understanding of how to think about emerging technologies that meet education goals. Plus hear from Texas CTO’s who have been experimenting with new technologies.

IT—A Potential Linchpin to Transforming K-12

The session will report on a benchmarking study to gather process metrics from 23 districts on Managing IT to improve performance. But the speaker will also point out that IT has the potential not only serve as a utility or provide services, but also become a lever for transformative change for the entire district, provided it will also assist in focusing on processes, benchmarking, transfer, and enterprise-wide system on performance management.

Planning for the Inevitable: IT Disaster Preparedness

When there is the unexpected disaster of any kind, school personnel, students, parents and communities expect to rely on communication and critical services the district provides and therefore the technology that supports them. Disaster recovery of IT-related operations and information is critical to the 24/7 operations of your district and its overall business continuity planning. This strong reliance on technology presents significant challenges to today’s school technology leader. The time to plan and prepare for a disaster is before the event is imminent. Much can be learned from the experiences of individuals, schools and districts who have developed and tested plans and from those recently experiencing disasters. What preparations were made? What worked or needed modification in testing or in an actual disaster? What would they recommend to others now? Best practices will be explored and suggestions for effective preparations will be shared.

Reinventing Technology in K-12 Education to Make a Difference

Why is the U.S. no longer setting the pace globally around education technology? In fall of 2006 CoSN CEO Keith Krueger undertook a Work Study to examine how some Asian/Pacific countries are convincing their policymakers to make significant investments around ICT in education. Keith will explore where we have been, where we are today, and what actions need to happen to use technology and district school networks to transform K-12 education.