hardware purchases in favor of memory upgrades and will do so again next year. We've
examined software expenses and we will toss some, keep others, look to open source when
we can and experiment with other operating systems. But much of my budget is fixed:
internet connections, filtering and virus protection, firewall maintenance and critical
network hardware replacement. That costs twice my software licensing budget.
Preliminarily, it looks like we will trim at least 8% this year, and hold steady next
year.
On the brighter side without all the new installs, we will focus on Professional
Development and getting more and more of our teachers using the "toys" tools they have.
And better for the environment, better for my health, better for students as we all take
a breather from the next best thing.
David F. Withrow
Director of Technology
Harford Day School
Bel Air, Maryland 21014
voice: 410 879 2350 ex 33
fax: 410 836 5918
http://www.harfordday.org
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
- Yogi Berra
A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> writes:
>Hello everyone -
>
>I am curious to know if and how the economic recession is affecting your technology
>budgets and programs for the coming year.
>
>We are re-examining a number of our practices including email (FirstClass versus
>Google), productivity suites (MS Office versus Open Office and Google Docs), databases
>(FileMaker client versus FileMaker web access), web servers (hosted site versus our
>own Drupal server). These are good things to examine, anyway, and we would have done so.
>But there's no doubt that the economy has built a fire under us to look at these sooner
>rather than later.
>
>On the hardware front, we'll be purchasing more RAM to nurse computers along for at
>least a year beyond their normal retirement schedule (typically 3 years for laptops, 4
>years for desktops), and will think twice about CPU-sucking upgrades to
>applications and OS that we would normally roll out on an annual basis.
>
>Our administration has heard from other schools that they, too, are retrenching by
>delaying hiring, minimizing tuition increases, setting aside more funds for tuition
>assistance, and - cutting tech budgets.
>
>So the challenge for us, perhaps others as well, is to keep moving forward with
>technology initiatives, to continue to provide great professional development, and not
>lose sight of "21st century" learning and teaching. Indeed, as an environmentalist I
>have often thought that much of the 21st century could well be marked by scarcity rather
>than the abundance we've grown so accustomed to.
>
>So once again my question to the group: how are you coping with the current situation as
>you plan for the coming year?
>
>s
>
>-----
>Treat each piece of paper as precious and reduce waste - don't print electronic
>documents.
>-----
>Steve Taffee 650.470.7725 (office)
>Director of Technology 415.613.6684 (mobile)
>Castilleja School 650.326.8036 (fax)
>1310 Bryant Street steve_taffee@castilleja.org
>Palo Alto, CA 94301 www.castilleja.org | taffee.edublogs.org
>Women Learning, Women Leading
>-------
>
>
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