There are over 100 networked sites in Knox County Schools with over 20,000 computers, 52,000 student clients and up to 6000 adult clients. There are over 300 servers in the district. If you feel overwhelmed, we are right in there with you!
Funding for technology in our district is typically provided through specific projects. Building projects usually result in replacing old equipment with brand new equipment for the whole school. New schools get all new computers, and then 5 years later all are obsolete at the same time. There is no funding in place to upgrade. Wireless carts went out almost 4 years ago. Each school in the county received at least two laptop carts with 16 computers on each one. This resulted in expenditures that year of around $125 per student. The average school system spends around $150 per child per year. Our average budget allows for around $4 per year per child. A 60% cut last year in the instructional technology department budget puts us at around $2 per child. There were more cuts this year.
Despite this, the student to computer ratio is fairly good, but it does vary from school to school. Mid-range schools have more trouble with purchasing than other schools. They seem to fall between the cracks of coupon book money and federal assistance programs. Purchasing playground equipment can understandably become more pressing than upgrading technology. Federal eRate funding provides a great resource for infrastructure (networks). Due to our participation in the Federal eRate program, we have a strong reliable network. Network and OM budget has $0. The cost for our internet access is around $2.5 million. With eRate funding, we pay closer to $300,000. In Knox County Schools, we have T1 lines going to every site. Many schools have multiple T1s. We are attempting to come up with a plan for a fiber network. The lack of funding has resulted in many creative ways to acquire and use equipment across the district. BLTC's across Knox County are experts at making the little funding they have available at their schools go an incredibly long way!
Some of problems that we have include the fact that acquisitions are not always used well. Labs have never been and are still not the answer. Many times, classes go to a computer lab where the content in no way relates to the classroom curriculum. They might be working in the labs on a math activity that relates to counting money and that may not even be in the curriculum for that grade level. Did you realized that using some repetative so called educational softwares actually casues student test scores to decline? There is research available online to support this statement. Technology activities should relate to the curriculum. Related activities support the learning goals of the classroom.
