Technology Without Breaking the Bank

These are tough times for school budgets. At least 23 states face budget gaps in 2009, according to a recent survey from the National Conference of State Legislatures--and school board members from across the country say they're bracing for a new round of budget cuts forced by the nation's weak economy.

With every dollar at a premium, school and district leaders are looking for ways to cut costs without sacrificing their education initiatives. The good news is, new advancements in technology make this scenario possible. Strategies such as software virtualization, software as a service, open-source software and open technologies, and a new breed of low-cost computers enable school IT directors to streamline their operations and bolster their ed-tech programs-without breaking the bank.

With the generous support of GovConnection, we've assembled this collection of stories from the eSN archives that highlight some of the key trends and developments aimed at saving schools money--while expanding their access to technology resources.

--The Editors

News Stories

eSN Special Report: Virtual Desktops
Wed, Apr 30, 2008 Primary Topic Channel: Networks and infrastructure
A revolution is taking shape that will forever alter how educators and others view and use technology. Gone will be today’s most stubborn IT challenges: conflicting operating systems bulging with fat applications, duplicate programs that must be installed and maintained on individual computers, user-instituted security breaches that threaten whole networks. All these challenges that have drained IT resources and kept hardware costs high soon could be just quaint memories. Reason: The era of the “virtual desktop” has dawned [ Read More ]
‘Virtual’ software: The future for schools?
Mon, Jan 09, 2006 Primary Topic Channel:
As school administrators consider ways to make technology more accessible to more students—and as broadband networks continue to play a larger role in the delivery of everyday instruction—experts contend a new “game-changing” technology is poised to alter the paradigm of school software administration. By “virtualizing” software applications, network technicians are able to beam them out across the entire network, cutting down on the time it would take to install copies of these software programs individually and giving technicians a means to conduct maintenance and troubleshooting from a single, centralized location [ Read More ]
More bang for your technology buck
Thu, Mar 01, 2007 Primary Topic Channel: Funding
Confronted with the reality of shrinking federal budgets and growing technology demands, school technology chiefs must do more with fewer resources at their disposal. And yet, by taking innovative approaches to their deployment of computers, some districts have achieved remarkable success. In South Carolina’s Orangeburg Consolidated School District 4, for example, district officials have leveraged the processing power of 250 existing computers to create 750 additional student workstations—at a cost of only $250 per seat. [ Read More ]
Free software turns one PC into two
Fri, Feb 22, 2008 Primary Topic Channel: Computers
As school leaders look for inexpensive ways to extend computing resources to every student, a Canadian company says it is giving away software that turns one computer workstation into two. Userful, a privately held company based in Alberta, makes software that allows a user to connect an extra monitor, USB keyboard, and mouse to a standard computer box, making it possible for two users to work on the same PC at the same time. [ Read More ]
Web-based applications mark a paradigm shift for school software
Mon, Oct 23, 2006 Primary Topic Channel: Broadband
With the proliferation of high-speed networks and the ability to run software from a central server, many schools are now using web-based software programs that are accessible over the internet and hosted by the application provider. These programs resolve many software compatibility issues, because users don’t have to have the same version of an application installed on their machines—and they eliminate the need for school IT departments to install and maintain the software. Perhaps best of all, many of these online tools—such as Google’s productivity suite—are available free of charge to users. [ Read More ]
eSN Special Report: Open-source software on the rise in schools
Mon, May 02, 2005 Primary Topic Channel:
In Kearney, Mo., district IT director Keith Waller recently established four new classroom labs for teaching with technology. Each includes an interactive whiteboard, a teacher workstation, a teacher laptop, and a student-to-computer ratio of 2 to 1. The computers in two of the labs run on Microsoft’s Windows operating system, while those in the other two labs are powered by Linux, the open-source software platform that is mounting a growing challenge to Microsoft’s dominance in the computing world. Not only did the Linux-based labs cost half as much as the Windows-based labs to equip—but system upkeep is much easier, too, Waller maintains. [ Read More ]
Microsoft pledge could cut tech costs for schools
Fri, May 23, 2008 Primary Topic Channel: Software
Conversion to open software programs for creating spreadsheets, documents, and other standard office files could become more commonplace in school districts, if a May 22 pledge by software giant Microsoft Corp. comes to fruition. In a development that could make it easier for schools to use cheaper, open technologies instead of proprietary programs, Microsoft said it will make its Office 2007 software compatible with the OpenDocument Format. [ Read More ]
Florida adopts open-content reading platform
Thu, Jan 24, 2008 Primary Topic Channel: Open courseware
Tired of investing in expensive textbooks and proprietary software programs, Florida education officials are looking to an open online-learning platform to teach young students basic reading skills. Advocates of the program say the idea that a public, collaborative, continuously modified online curriculum can be used in the classroom is gaining momentum in schools. [ Read More ]
eSN Special Report: Converged Wireless
Tue, Jun 05, 2007 Primary Topic Channel: Wireless Technology
Two technology trends that have been taking place separately in K-12 and higher-education institutions across the country are now beginning to come together: (1) the proliferation of wireless networks, and (2) the convergence of voice, video, and data on a single network infrastructure. When considered on its own, each trend makes sense in terms of cost and convenience; now, as new technologies continue to improve, some schools are combining the two efforts. [ Read More ]
HP unveils low-cost laptops for students
Tue, Apr 08, 2008 Primary Topic Channel: Computers
Hewlett-Packard Co., the No. 1 seller of personal computers worldwide, on April 8 said it’s throwing its weight behind a new class of miniaturized laptops targeted primarily to students, a fledgling market already populated with products from Intel Corp., the world’s largest semiconductor company, and Asustek Computers Inc., the world’s largest maker of computer motherboards. HP executives say their new machines are an important piece of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company’s effort to build market share in schools, where machines have to be smaller and cheaper without losing too many functions. [ Read More ]
Low-cost XO laptop now runs Windows
Fri, May 16, 2008 Primary Topic Channel: One to one computing
Microsoft and the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child organization announced May 15 that OLPC’s green-and-white “XO” computers now can run Windows in addition to their homegrown interface, which is built on the open Linux operating system. That had been anticipated for months, but it amounts to a major shift in the market for low-cost student computers. [ Read More ]
New tool helps make smart tech purchases
Wed, Oct 04, 2006 Primary Topic Channel: School Administration
The Consortium for School Networking has unveiled a new web-based program designed to help budget-conscious school administrators get the biggest bang for their high-tech buck. Calling the initiative “one of the most important things” his organization has done to date, CoSN CEO Keith Krueger said the program—which includes an interactive calculator for predicting the educational value of technology projects—is intended to assure stakeholders that they “are getting some kind of return on what [schools] invest in technology”. [ Read More ]

Print management software gives schools another cost-cutting tool
Wed, Jun 01, 2005 Primary Topic Channel: School Administration , Budget News
To manage the increasingly expensive cost of printing in an academic environment, many schools have begun using print-management software designed by third-party providers. [ Read More ]

Clark County schools give coax the ‘ax’
Tue, Oct 02, 2007 Primary Topic Channel: Video technologies
Saving anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 by not having to install coaxial cable TV networks in each new school that is built would be a welcome development for any school system. When you’re building 10 or 11 new schools a year as Nevada’s Clark County School District is, however, you’re talking about a significant amount of money spared. [ Read More ]