Conference Agenda

Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - Pre Conference (additional fees may apply)

This workshop will provide participants with the tools necessary to perform a complete TCO analysis for your district. Following an introduction describing the need to understand all costs associated with maintaining networked computers, this workshop will focus on the free, web-based CoSN-Gartner TCO tool, which 1,700 schools and districts throughout the United States have accessed. Through a detailed online demo, this workshop will familiarize participants with the tool’s input data fields and resulting output. Participants will be able to:

• Explain the need for a TCO analysis
• Understand the CoSN-Gartner TCO tool, input data requirements, and results
• Discuss the relationship between TCO and VOI (Value of Investment)

Maintaining a school's Cyber Security requires staying informed about the rapidly changing environment. Policymakers, technology leaders, users, and the community share this responsibility. This session will provide insight on security issues, share what is working, and identify new concerns. In addition, you will learn how to develop and implement an action plan to strengthen your district’s security, including how to determine your schools' security status, create a cost-efficient and incremental improvement plan, evaluate your progress, and—most importantly—gain solid administrative and community support for the effort. This workshop will also explore strategies, tools, and procedures to deal with social networking issues that impact students of all ages.

Linda Sharp, Project Director, CoSN’s Cyber Security for the Digital District Initiative
Ron Teixeira, Executive Director, National Cyber Security Alliance

This workshop will explain a methodology for measuring costs and benefits of your proposed technology projects. The “business” of schools is education—resulting in a different approach than businesses for determining value of investment. CoSN is developing tools to help you to explicitly understand the costs and benefits of technology projects in an educational environment. This workshop will include an online demonstration of CoSN’s VOI website and tools. Participants will be able to:

• Explain why VOI is important, but different from ROI (Return on Investment)
• Use a methodology and tools to measure the VOI for proposed projects
• Discuss the relationship between TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and VOI

Real-time access to information from disparate applications is essential if we are to realize the long-term benefits of data-driven decision-making and No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This half-day workshop will take you on a practical tour of the functionality and best practices in planning for and implementing interoperability among administrative and instructional applications. Attendees will have access to those who are leading data standards initiatives (IMS, SCORM and SIF) and providing applications that facilitate interoperability. Attendees will participate in a simulation modeling how data is exchanged between applications in a School Interoperability Framework (SIF). Participants will have an opportunity to learn from those who have led large-scale implementations and are realizing both qualitative and quantitative benefits in student achievement and school efficiency. Finally, attendees will learn about rich resources and have the opportunity to join an online community to begin realizing the benefits of robust data interoperability. This workshop is appropriate for those who are considering data interoperability or who are early in the implementation process. Attendees will have access to those who are leading data standards initiatives.