We hear a lot about best practices these days, but who’s to say that my best practice is better (or worse) than yours. Well, Brian Parish is one. The President and owner of IData, Parish has put together a set of tools for easing collaboration, communication and documentation so that teachers get down to teaching. He calls it the Data CookBook.
Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Brian to discuss the range of school approaches to IT, from innovative to counterproductive. Here’s what he has to say:
Tech Tools:
Is it a mess out there as far as how schools treat IT with an incredible range of the way things are done?
Brian Parish:
Mess is a pretty strong word. There is a wide variety of systems, technologies and practices that currently exist in education IT. In most industries, IT is seeing a convergence of technologies. Systems and people need to communicate with one another, and this is driving schools towards system integration.
TT:
Is there a battle between using new and innovative gear and the need to standardize?
BP:
Sometimes new technologies and innovation run counter to the need to have integrated and standards systems. The difficulty is striking the balance between continuing to standardize and allowing for new ideas.
TT:
Are most districts and schools wasteful when it comes to IT money?
BP:
Yes, schools can definitely be wasteful when it comes to IT money. However, I think IT waste is not just an education problem. I think the biggest area of waste is in failed projects, failed initiatives and the time that is wasted as a result. I have learned that the most important part of any project planning is whether or not to do it at all.
TT:
Do you have any tips for success?
BP:
It’s important to understand the problems you’re trying to solve. If you focus on solving the problems, rather than the desire for change alone, you can reduce wasted effort. People can look at new technology and think the “grass is greener.” In reality, all the green may just be wasted money.
TT:
Is the key to standardize how schools set up and maintain IT?
BP:
Standardization is critical but difficult. There has been a policy movement to have interoperability between school systems and educational agencies. The trend is to have different school systems and external agencies share data for all aspects of students from pre-K to post secondary. There is also a trend to have standards in administrative systems and learning/classroom technologies.
However, standardization is difficult. It really only occurs when incentives are in line. So you have to ask, what is the incentive for different organizations and different systems to adopt the same standards?
When we work with schools on reporting processes, we try to make sure there is some sort of standardization process of data. This starts with documenting internal standards and then expands to include standards with other schools and organizations. The incentive we use for implementing these standards is demonstrated efficiency, accuracy and repeatability. We have schools do this by documenting the data standards in the datacookbook.com.
TT:
What's the key to success?
BP:
I’ve seen schools that are successful with every type of technology and schools that have failed with the exact same technologies. The schools that are successful have figured out the best practices and how to most effectively use their systems; the biggest part of this success is planning, communication and collaboration. These three components play a critical role in IT.
TT:
Is there a danger that IT gets in the way of education?
BP:
Again, it’s important to understand what problems you are trying to solve and be sure that your project initiative is solving the goal rather than using technology for technology’s sake. Ultimately, the goal is to facilitate learning and student success.
