VARtek Blog

As school district budgets have continued to be compressed I have seen an overall trend towards schools looking at alternative solutions to non-core educational systems. These non-core systems have included bussing, food services, custodial and technology. According to recent data from the Mackinac Center’s 2012 school privatization survey, 335 of 549 Michigan districts — 61 percent — now contract at least one major support service to the private sector — food, custodial or transportation services. That is a significant jump over last year, when 54 percent of districts embraced such privatization. If you have successfully or unsuccessfully been involved in these transitions please provide your experience. Click here to read the report....

Many teachers and administrators that we serve along with some of my VARtek staff members have yet to join the Twitter social media world. Before using Twitter, I thought it was primarily used by folks that posted endless updates on where they were and what they were doing. As a busy professional, that format didn't attract me. How wrong I was. Today there are over 100 million users actively using this tool! What I have learned from my use of Twitter today is this social media tool is a perfect way to sift through the endless volumes of content that is being produced through blogs, articles and other media formats and it allows me to quickly absorb highlights from narrowly defined sources. The real value is in picking the individuals or organizations that you choose to follow and evaluating those that create meaningful content related to your areas of interest versus getting caught up in all the non-value content that is being produced. Using social media does involve setting aside a few minutes each day or every few days to login and to be an active user. The best administrators and teachers that I know take their craft seriously and they...

Technology and Space Exploration have been inextricably linked since the 1960's, when John F. Kennedy challenged our country to put a man on the moon.  One of the most difficult aspects of putting someone on the moon was not the last 249,900 miles of the trip, but rather the first 100 miles into space.  Why?  Gravity.  The vast majority of fuel is used to counter the effects of Gravitational Pull to launch a rocket into space.  So what do I mean when I say "Gravitational Pull of Technology?" In the same decade as the race to the moon, Gordon Moore, Co-Founder of Intel accurately predicted that scientists would be able to double the number of circuits that could be imprinted on a silicone chip every 2 years.  Roughly translated, the performance of technology would double, or the cost of technology would reduce by 50%, or some combination thereof every 2 years.  This simple concept has influenced the business model of the computer industry, and the behavior of technology consumers that crave the latest and greatest products, thereby creating the "gravitational pull" of technology. Why use an analogy of gravity with technology?  No matter what you do as an IT Leader, you...

Many schools are expanding the use of social media and because this is a new arena of law in terms of what constitutes "free speech" and what constitutes libel remarks. This article talks about a recent NSBA article and how one such topic is moving to the Supreme Court to get clarification. How is your school handling these free speech topics? At some of the school districts we have worked with, we have found that the organization CoSN Consortium of School Networking has some useful samples of policies that some of the leading school in the country are using to establish guidelines for students and staff. I'm sure as the state and federal governments define some of the unknown areas that more updates and modifications of policies will be needed.However our view from working with many schools is that the benefits of utilizing social media within the delivery of instruction out-ways the current risks that will inherently come up from a few limited outliers. http://bit.ly/sobRxN  ...

  The web 2.0 format sure has changed the landscape of useful website that we in the classroom. Many of the teachers we serve are already using some of the tools outlined in this article with the URL below. If you have a favorite website tool then please comment on which ones have had the most positive impact in your classroom. Please let me know what subject you teach. http://bit.ly/vodyQI  ...

Understanding the changing landscape of the internet. I have recently found a book to be helpful in better understanding of the key elements of social media and how one might become engaged in this changing world. The book is by Jeffrey Gitomer and it's call Social Boom. It's a pretty quick read and he covers LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, e-zine and general points of view. This topic is changing as we speak so I think this book and others like it have a somewhat limited shelf life because in 12 months new tools and new players will assuredly be present.  ...

This white paper addresses the question, does your school's technology prepare students for their future, or your past? http://vartek.com/downloads/VARtek_White_Paper_PastorFuture.pdf  ...