Starting A New School Year:  
Opportunities In The K-12 School Market 



9/12/01

Just a few days ago, one of my industry friends, David Liddell of IBM, wished me a happy new year.  He had in mind neither the traditional calendar year, which is still a few months off nor the Jewish new year which is much sooner, but rather the start of a new school year.  It’s not just students who think of September, with its cooler evenings and shorter days as a new beginning.  Professional associations, some corporations, and other business activities also think of September as the start of a new year.

That thought served as a jumping off point to filter a lot of news items I’ve noticed lately about the education market.   The question is what they might mean for those of us in the computer industry, whether we sell to schools or we’re interested in the skills and attitudes that students will bring to the marketplace in just a few years.

So, first some data:

Schools Have Changing Needs

(1) Schools used to prefer desktop computer systems to laptops.  They were bigger and, therefore, (conventional wisdom said) harder to steal.  They were also cheaper.  

But if you’ve been reading some of those vendor news releases in the last month or so you’ve no doubt noticed a number of big wins that are about much smaller technologies.  This includes both laptops and (in a smaller number of instances) handhelds.

 
(2) The goal of a school district (the usual organizational unit for most schools) used to be to place at least one computer lab in each school for group instruction, where each student could sit at his or her own computer – typically that means about 30 computers) and at least one computer in each classroom.   Printers are generally shared for cost reasons—supplies and support as well as the printers themselves.

Not any more.  There are, of course, still schools that have these goals (and meet them) and schools for whom these goals would be a wild dream.  But many schools are moving toward a model where each STUDENT has a laptop computer that moves with the student from class to class.  School intranets and access to the Internet provide the glue to offer student-to-student and student-teacher or parent-teacher communication as well as assignments, access to resources, and space and tools to collaborate on group projects. 

 
(3) Teachers were once viewed as a significant barrier to integrating computers with school curricula, especially in the lower grades and for “soft subjects” where teacher training was less likely to have exposed the teacher to computer skills.  

New surveys indicate that many teachers are fairly comfortable with computers and use them for personal work, often for furthering their own educations.  Today, the pedagogic problem is more likely to be finding the right resources and the extraordinary amount of time required to set up computer-based projects that are well integrated with other class work. 

 
(4) Schools need to create web sites and portals to serve as communications centers between the school and its staff and students and the community.

Building such environments and keeping them up-to-date is real work, but schools rarely have the budget to hire web designers and webmasters.  Some students (especially older students) can do this work, but it gives them a level of power and control that makes school administrators uneasy.  It’s hard to reach a balance point.

Schools Have Lots Of Problems To Solve

Schools have a series of tough problems to solve.  They deal with tight budgets, limiting both the amount of hardware and software they can acquire and the skills they can keep on staff for planning, implementation, and support.  Schools have great difficulty getting budgets approved for adequate maintenance, technical support, and software – items that don’t directly appear on test scores, yet are all too visible to parents and the community as signs of a modern school system. 

Then there are the problems peculiar to the school environment: 

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 Administrators’ expectations (based on only their personal experience of technology) may not be adequate to understand the technological requirements for the systems they want to install.  On the other hand, technology vendors often try to install generic solutions intended for business settings, when school-specific knowledge and solutions are required.  This could be a simple as understanding in a 30-minute lab class; kids can’t wait 5 minutes for machines to boot up.

 
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 Few schools have the communications infrastructure to support adequate Internet connection.  Many schools have no or limited connections at the classroom level.

 
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 Students are playful and immature.  That means systems must be protected from the students – and students must be protected from themselves.  Most schools lock down systems to prevent loading non-authorized software, altering settings and screens, or accessing unsavory and inappropriate Internet sites.  In the dynamic environment of the Internet, where web sites may require new plug-ins (or their upgrades), this locked-down environment presents a clear barrier.  

 
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 The school system hierarchy requires that communications with the public be properly approved, although the students or techies managing the web site area often far removed from this approval process and controlling the site can be a problem.

 
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 Theft is regrettably a real factor.  Systems must be physically secured by tethering, storage in locked closets, or other inconvenient means.

 
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 Student computer skills vary widely, based on student aptitude and the home environment.  Teachers have to figure out how to keep skilled users engaged while teaching newbies the basics.  Most students don’t learn touch typing until middle school and keep the bad typing habits they’ve learned earlier.  A student who’s been programming (or customizing computers) since kindergarten is likely to be able to do anything he wants with the school system – the trick is getting him to want to be a guide and coach.

 

Opportunities For High Tech Vendors

Even with their limited budgets, schools represent a BIG opportunity for many types of high tech vendors.  The trick is understanding what they need and how they buy.

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 Schools rarely buy one of anything.  They buy servers, desktops and laptops, networks and printers, in volume.  Their volume buying habits need to be recognized by appropriate buying agreements and discounts.

 
  •  
 Schools buy a much broader range of equipment than you may imagine.  For example, web servers for portals and web sites (and tools for web site development) are important.  So are messaging (email), chat, and instant messaging software. Schools need groupware to build bulletin boards and support group collaboration.  They need administrative and financial applications to manage their business and personal productivity applications for students, faculty, and administrators.  Schools will also buy more expensive specialty equipment for vocational programs – workstations for engineering design and drafting, automotive work, graphics design, and so forth.

 
  •  
 Schools tend to keep equipment for a long time (they’re thrifty) so compatibility with previous systems is an important issue.  So is the ability to keep old systems running.  The insight to know when old systems should be swapped for new ones is sometimes missing.  Vendors need to provide school-specific ROI information.

 
  •  
 Schools have their own budgeting, buying, implementing cycle.  Budgets are generally set for each school year.  Purchases must be made within the budget.  Implementation, as much as possible, occurs during school holidays and vacations to avoid impacting schedules.  

 
  •  
 Government and other grants are an important component of school budgets, particularly for schools located in underprivileged areas.  Vendors are expected to know what qualifies for grants and how to access them.  

 

Lots of school districts have annual budgets in excess of $10 million for hardware, software, consulting, support, and training.  That’s the equivalent of a good-sized corporate account.

Implications Of Success

Selling to schools is a two-edged proposition.  First, you get the school sale.  But secondly, you get an ongoing relationship with the student.  It is the student/vendor relationship that may, in the long run be more valuable.

Students grow up to be workers, professionals, and managers.  Some will even start their own companies.  In each case, they will influence the purchase of technology.  It is possible to predict what technology a generation of school graduates will use by knowing what was popular in the years they went to school. 

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 For example, in the late 70’s and early 80’s Digital Equipment Corporation was the most popular minicomputer vendor on college campuses.  For ten years after that, every startup I knew used their technology.  It was familiar, reliable, and accessible.

 
  •  
 In the early 90’s, Sun’s UNIX workstations and servers played much the same role, following a generation of technical professionals into their new companies.

As we move from the PC desktops of the 80s and 90’s to the more portable and varied environment of laptops and handheld computers, a new generation of players will get its chance to be the familiar companion that accompanies students through their school years and is then called upon to move with them as they graduate to a professional role.  A battle will be – is – being waged as to whether they will be PC laptops or Macintosh IBooks, Palm PDA’s or Windows CE Handhelds. 

Other battles will start here, too.  Students learn to program at an early age (not necessarily at school).  Visual Basic is giving way to Java and XML.  Linux is beginning to appear.  Choices will be made now and long-lasting alliances formed.

With HP and Compaq distracted by their merger, Dell and Apple will have even more opportunities in the school market than usual.  So will other PC vendors – if they are willing to understand the rules of this game and play to them.  

With thanks to Florence R. Wohl, for lending her experiences as a K-12 Technology Manager to the writing of this article.

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