Taking TCO to the Classroom
Winter 2006 Newsletter
Table of Contents
Understanding the full range of costs associated with technology investments will assist school leaders in planning for the future. The TCO Tool is
designed to help schools and school districts make sound budgetary decisions, conduct technology planning in an organized way, establish a baseline
for future analysis and maximize benefits from their investments in technology.
CoSN TCO Project to Perform One-to-One Case Studies
This winter CoSN is performing case studies
at three school districts with have one-to-one student computing initiatives. These studies will determine the
comparative costs of implementing and maintaining a one-to-one computing environment, versus the districts' baseline TCO.
These studies will also address anticipated and realized benefits of providing laptop computers to students. This first
round of studies, to be published
in March 2006, will focus on anticipated costs and benefits. CoSN intends to revisit these schools to measure the realized
costs and benefits of their one-to-one program. This case study effort is CoSN's first project towards the development of
Value of Investment (VOI) frameworks for schools.
CoSN Honored for Helping Educators Budget for Total Cost of Ownership of Technology
Washington, DC (December 20, 2005) -
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has been named to the 2006 Associations Advance America Honor Roll, a national
awards competition sponsored by the America Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Washington, DC for its
Taking Total Cost of Ownership to the Classroom leadership initiative. The
leadership initiative was created to help schools more adequately plan for and support the technology investments
associated with building computer networks and wiring classrooms for broadband. To read the complete press release, please
see www.cosn.org/about/press/122005.cfm.
CoSN's 11th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference to Focus on Measuring the VALUE of Education Technology
March 6-7 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA
This year's event is focused on the next major TCO initiative, Value of Investment (VOI). The K-12 School Networking
Conference is the premier event for education leaders on technology and learning through the Internet! The conference
attracts over 800 district, state and national education technology leaders. Enhance your career and learn from other
leaders as we define the future of the Internet and information technologies in our nation's schools. For more
information, registration and a full conference agenda, go to
www.k12schoolnetworking.org.
TCO in the News
School Planning and Management
published an article by Joe Flick entitled "How Much does Technology Really Cost?" (Source: School Planning &
Management, May 2004). This article addresses indirect labor and other TCO issues highlighted in CoSN TCO case
studies: www.peterli.com/archive/spm/669.shtm.
Converge Online recently published
a Tech-in-Brief entitled "The Real Cost of Technology"
(www.convergemag.com/story.php) by Rich Kaestner and
a follow-on Getting-it-Done entitled "The Value of Investment for K-12," which explains the need to look beyond ROI
when determining the value of technology for most K-12 technology investments
(www.convergemag.com/story.php).
Technology & Learning, with sponsor
support and a host of experts in the field of one-to-one computing, has published a "1:1 Computing Guidebook"
(www.ebookhost.net/TLWP2/onetoone.pdf - PDF). See pages 32 and
33 for TCO and VOI guidance.
Upcoming TCO Training Events
CoSN Internet & Education Webcast Series: Measuring the VALUE of Education Technology - January 18, 2006
With proper diligence, implementation and ongoing costs of proposed technology initiatives can be estimated, as can the
associated savings in terms of reduced expenditures and staff productivity. However, this return on investment (ROI)
approach falls short when the anticipated value is aligned with more qualitative elements of the school's mission. In
this webcast, we will identify qualitative value factors, such as student achievement, NCLB compliance, 21st
century skills and community outreach. Once value factors have been identified, we will discuss a methodology to
evaluate or measure the comparative value of proposed initiatives. For more information, or to register to participate,
please see www.cosn.org/events/webcasts/2006.cfm. CoSN's
Internet & Education webcasts are FREE to CoSN members. Series co-produced by Horizon Wimba, Inc. and sponsored by
Apple, Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, Inspiration Software, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, and
LearningStation, with media partner Distance-Educator.com.
ASBO Leadership Conference, Cost of Technology Workshop, February 9, 2006 in Pittsburgh, PA
This workshop will focus on providing you with the tools necessary to perform a complete TCO analysis for your district.
Following an introduction describing the need for understanding all costs associated with maintaining networked
computers, this session will focus on providing an understanding of the free web-based CoSN-Gartner TCO tool, which has
already been accessed by 1,500 schools and districts throughout the United States. This session is intended to provide
familiarity with the tool's input data fields and resulting output.
Following the review of the CoSN-Gartner TCO tool, Rich Kaestner (CoSN's TCO Project Director) will discuss work that
CoSN is doing in regards to Value of Investment.
Learning Objectives
The participant will be able to:
- Explain the need for a TCO analysis
- Understand the CoSN-Gartner TCO tool, input data requirements and results
- Discuss the value of various technology investments
See asbointl.org/index.asp for more information or to enroll.
Rich Kaestner
Project Director
Taking Total Cost of Ownership to the Classroom |
