Getting a Technology Education from Eileen Lento, Intel's K-12 Education Strategist
Lento's Tips: "The biggest tips I can give any district is—take your time planning—and plan well. It really saves you in the long run."
In a recent conversation, Eileen Lento, K-12 strategist for Intel shared 1:1 solutions and Intel’s Computing Blueprint site http://www.k12blueprint.com/ with me.
After a laugh about our last names, mine for giving people the treatment, and hers for its Spanish translation, Eileen got serious about district technology needs. She shared like a teacher, thought like an administrator, and understood the economics of getting things right and sustaining a plan beyond an initial investment.
Eileen Lento—In her own words:
"Intel addresses education in two ways—with its corporate affairs group, there’s their foundation, with such programs as Teach to the Future, and the Intel Science Talent Search. And then there’s the business side, with computing devices and the servers on that end. And we do have solutions that are specifically crafted for education," says Lento.
Note: More about Intel’s Education Initiative can be found at http://www.intel.com/education/.
"When people are talking about 1:1, and solutions for the classroom, that’s what they’re focusing on, and the backend is kind of invisible to them.
When you’re thinking about sustainable IT—it’s a three-piece puzzle—a triad—with the data center stuff on the back, then the mobile-client computing on the front, and there’s all sorts of regulatory compliance, and industry self-regulation that’s popping up. That’s sort of the eco-efficiency people talk about. And of course, that eco-efficiency happens whether you’re talking about clients or servers, but people tend to focus on the servers," says Lento.
Note: Intel has developed a Web site for North America that features everything you need to know in a K-12 computing blueprint—http://www.k12blueprint.com/.When you go to the K-12 Computing Blueprint page, there’s a picture of the part necessary in a technology blueprint.
"We have people who have been working in education for a long time, so when we go to a district that’s interested in moving up the technology adoption curve. Most districts aren’t going to be 1:1 overnight; they are probably going to be moving up the curve. And the reason we talk about it as a curve, is that as you add more devices in the elearning environment, you also have bigger bandwidth needs—more kids on, and richer content. So, we want to make sure people are thinking systemically as they are moving towards these aspirational models," says Lento.
"I believe that the benefits of technology in the classroom are well established and will continue to grow as there’s more innovation for classroom tools—and we’re seeing that steadily grow. We’re hearing through the stimulus that there’s a strong desire to move in this direction, and to be globally competitive," Lento added.
"Furthermore, when we go to a district or jurisdiction—we ask—Why do you want to do this? What are your goals? What are your metrics? What are the goals you’re hoping to achieve? The latter may seem the most obvious question, but a lot of districts really haven’t laid out their goals, or they have too many goals, or they are not well articulated. So, we sit down with them—find out what their goals are, and how they’re going to manage it, measure it, and communicate it to all the stakeholders," says Lento.
One of the biggest tips I can give any district is—take your time planning—and plan well. It really saves you in the long run.
"Districts have their curriculum, what we’re proposing is a new way to deliver it," say Lento. "And all the other components need to be in the equation as well. It’s like a table, if you pull one leg out, it’s not going to support what you put on it. So all the component in our blueprint—leadership, curriculum, professional development, infrastructure, and funding need to be there. And policy is the enabler that allows the model to lift," says Lento.
Note: Visitors to Intel’s Computing Blueprint site http://www.k12blueprint.com/ can dig deeper by following links to any of those categories—from leadership to professional development.
"The idea is to focus on what you want to achieve than on the technology—and therefore better decisions can be made.We talk to them about building a leadership team and funding, because there are too many examples or good ideas going away for lack of planning. We cover everything from looking at leasing to looking at types of grants. It’s really how to budget differently for sustainability, and Intel can help districts do that," concluded Lento.
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