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If a computer teacher spends 75% of his time resolving
technical issues for his building, it shows up as a "shadow cost"
because his salary is budgeted from the teaching staff line. Computer
aids may be spending 50% of their time on technical support issues
but they are budgeted from the instructional support line and become
"shadow costs". In some buildings it is not unusual to have teachers
who have become technology gurus in their colleagues eyes spend
20% of their time resolving technical issues for teachers in nearby
classrooms.

Before a district can fairly consider performing
a cost analysis of outsourcing technology support, it must come
to terms with the true cost of in-house support.

The following is a list
of tips for educators considering outsourcing:





1. Develop an outsourcing strategy that minimizes the number of
   vendors you work with. The more vendors involved the more complex
   it is for you to manage and the more difficult it is for you to
   demand accountability.
   
   
   
   


2. Diligently check every reference that is supplied by the vendor.
   Be sure they have enthusiastic referrals from other schools. Vendors
   tend to overstate their roles in technology projects. Never outsource
   to someone without verifying successful prior experience.
   
   
   
   


3. Before beginning a partnership with a vendor, jointly develop
   and approve a list of functional outcomes and a timeline. These
   outcomes are the items that if completed in the period of time
   agreed upon will allow you to accept the work and say, "thank
   you". Many novices to outsourcing get caught up in creating
   detailed task lists. ( i.e. TCP/IP will be configured on every
   workstation, rather than stating every workstation will have high
   speed access to the Internet.) You should provide clearly stated
   outcomes and leave it to the vendor to worry about the tasks and
   resources necessary to achieve them.
   
   
   
   


4. Be sure to develop a detailed service level agreement (SLA).
   This agreement needs to specify all the commitments the vendor
   is making to you and what will happen if the vendor does not live
   up to these commitments.
   
   
   
   


5. If in doubt get a second opinion. Sometimes unreliable vendors
   are driven by their own self-interest and not by your best interest.
   They may have special relationships with particular software or
   hardware manufacturers and steer the project in directions to
   maximize their profit. They may try to get your project into their
   "cookie cutter" approach. Checking with another vendor can be
   a healthy step in the decision making process.

Outsourcing presents many benefits to schools that have
historically not been able to pay the going rate for qualified
technical support. It can also bring a wealth of technological
expertise at a fixed expense, which can easily be justified to
administrators and school boards.

The addition of a help desk staff is not always easily understood and
accepted, especially by taxpayers who are more amenable to
brick-and-mortar expenses or dollars spent to improve student-teacher
ratios. Outsourcing can make a slice of the technology budget a
fixed-cost item. This benefits those who submit and approve school
budgets, as well as those who are attracted to line items that don't
change.

Outsourcing is also efficient. Help desk technicians are experienced
in handling a variety of technical inquiries. A representative who
deals with the same hardware inquiry several times a week will be
more effective in resolving that issue than a school employee who
deals with the problem once during a school term. Not having to
troubleshoot day-to-day problems also frees school staff to
concentrate on tasks of critical local importance.

Questions they are asking at Sedgwick High School:

- does it really make a difference?

- do students really want to come to school?

- do teachers teach differently?

- are students excited about learning?

- does it help to install the love of lifelong learning?

- does discipline go down?

- do test scores and attendance go up?

The answers are all YES

Mike: we decided initial training would not be nuts and bolts

- rest was: how do you teach data collection and analysis with spreadsheets

- now we have regional content meetings

- we get people early to share their issues and concerns, and then shape the presentations by the end of the day focused on those issues

- are working with the principals to make more embedded training as part of the staff day (quick skill shops)

Other contexts: have mentor teachers to provide just-in-time support to balance pullout training

- this seems to balance training well

- having 1 mentor teacher per school