How to Future-Proof Your School How can IT teams prepare for the wave of change?

When you're managing an entire school, college or university's devices and infrastructure, it can be hard to keep track of the latest technology and best practice. This can leave the organisation paying more than it should be for certain things or exposed to security risks.

Working with an external partner allows you to tap into the latest thinking, while being able to focus on your core responsibilities. They can help you find quick wins and build a strategic plan for the future.

Look for partners who specialise in education. Schools' IT needs are subtly different to the corporate world. Consultants with a background in education will also be more familiar with how schools are governed, how budgetary decisions are made and what your teachers are trying to achieve.

One of the most challenging aspects of school IT is that it's fairly non-standard. Every school will have a different approach.

A specialist that can provide an end-to-end service will be able to help you define your long-term IT strategy and make sure that your equipment and budget allocation matches your goals.

In the past, IT's role was mainly focussed on managing devices and infrastructure.

Technology has moved further into the classroom and beyond, with IT staff now often expected to work outside of school hours and respond to issues at any time. Now, IT staff split their time between keeping everything working and finding ways to enhance the learning experience.

In order to do this, IT staff have to break out of their comfort zone and have conversations with teachers and management about what they want the learning experience to be.

It's important for the IT team to have a real understanding of what the teachers are doing and what their desired outcomes are. The best way to do this is to speak to them.

This will also help you identify areas where teachers could use more support to get the most out of the equipment you've provided. It's no good supplying interactive touchscreens or whiteboards if only half the faculty know how to use them. Working with a partner that can arrange training for staff might help.

In the past, schools' IT purchases were largely based on what was available or within budget. Now it needs to be led by how the teachers want to teach and how the students will best engage.

Creating an IT platform which is device agnostic will give you greater flexibility and help make sure that you're focussing on the needs of your users.

Technology and how we use it changes fast, so when you're making purchase decisions, try to focus on solutions which give you the most flexibility today and in the future.

Obviously, a device agnostic approach can create complications in terms of device management. How are you going to manage devices which are used on-site but don't belong to the school, or that do belong to the school but are used off-premises' Thankfully, Microsoft and Google both have applications that support this.

If you need to replace equipment, try to avoid like-for-like swaps. What you had before may not be what you need right now, especially when it comes to devices.

Modern devices may cost a little more but they have longer battery lives, more reliable connectivity and they're designed with schools in mind. Cheap devices are often a false economy.

Shifting your investment towards mobile devices such as laptops will give teachers and students more flexibility. Tablets are another mobile option, but they tend to be less flexible in terms of device management and safeguarding, which can create additional work and costs for IT teams.

Desktops are useful in certain cases like Computing and Media classes, but mobile should be the norm.

Knowing where to invest your budget is always a challenge.

Schools with limited budgets can be tempted to put off replacing equipment until it stops working. Unfortunately, this can lead to downtime and the slow decline of your network's speed and stability.

Laptops that are slow to boot or have a slow wifi connection can cost you 5 / 10 minutes of lesson time per class - and sometimes far longer. That's a huge amount of time in the long run.

Every school has a different budget available for IT, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions for where you should invest and how often. But a good approach to prevent these bottlenecks is to stick to product life cycles, so that each piece of equipment is replaced at a specific frequency.

Leasing is another option that can help you manage budgets and equipment lifecycles. Leasing has a bad reputation in some circles but the reality is that most IT equipment does have a lifespan. Leasing helps you make the most of your budget by paying for equipment while it's in its prime.

What are the benefits of leasing?

- You pay less than buying outright
- You don’t own a depreciating asset
- It makes it easier to manage your lifecycles and plan for the future
- You have lower maintenance costs and less downtime
- Supports one-to-one learning schemes

How can you make sure your lease is compliant?

- Check that the lease is for three years or under
- Make sure you’re not paying more than 90% of the capital costs for the equipment minus interest
- Make sure that the software cost of the arrangement is under 20% of the total value of the agreement
- Check that you’re able to return the equipment at the end of the lease period

Trends like 'bring your own device' and cloud computing create security risks which need to be managed.

Investing in firewalls and filtering is a priority, as is making sure that all of your security controls are properly configured. You may also want to introduce multi-factor authentication, which has been proven to reduce the likelihood of accounts being hacked by 99.9%. Our sister company Coconnect, for example, offer Internet connectivity bundled exclusively with Smoothwall, to provide your school with all the security and filtering you need to keep up with the latest government KCSIE legislation.

Obviously, a big part of reducing cybersecurity risk is making sure that the equipment isn't being misused. Filtering should be implemented to control which sites and content users can access. It's also a good idea to write a policy which clearly explains what's allowed, what's not allowed and what the implications of misuse are for teachers and students.

One of the key decisions that every school, college or university IT manager needs to make is which platform to choose: Microsoft or Google?

This decision is more complex than it may sound. After all, every school is different, what works for one may not work for another. On top of this, the two platforms are quite similar in a lot of ways.

Thankfully, there are some subtle differences between the two which might help you to make a decision.

Preparing students for the world of work - Microsoft
Microsoft’s applications are ubiquitous and while a lot of startups may run on Google, most businesses still use Microsoft as their platform. Running Microsoft as your platform will give students a chance to get to grips with the platform and applications they’ll be using in work.

User-friendly design - Google
The general consensus is that Google’s applications and systems are easier on new users than Microsoft’s (although some people may disagree). The designs are clean, modern and easy to get to grips with.

IT administration - Microsoft
Microsoft has been building enterprise IT administration systems for decades. As a result, the Microsoft platform has a massive amount of depth.

It’s packed with features that will give IT teams more control over devices, infrastructure, access and permissions. If you want control and granularity, Microsoft is the clear winner

Cost - Google
The two platforms are similarly priced but there is a difference when it comes to devices.

Chromebooks are, on average, cheaper than most Microsoft laptops. This makes them appealing for schools that need to invest in a large number of devices on a limited budget.

If you need more information, check out our Microsoft versus Google Classroom guide.