Staffing for Technology Support

Background

The image of an information superhighway recalls the success of the interstate highway program, which efficiently linked remote areas of the country contributing to decades of prosperity. In order to take maximum advantage of a communication superhighway, schools and districts must provide properly trained personnel to keep the networks running smoothly and help users properly navigate their routes.

Technical support staff falls into two basic types; those that support the equipment such as file servers, workstations and other network components and those that support the users, typically at a software application level. The number of support personnel necessary will be a function of many variables, including the size of the network, its complexity and the level of support desired for users (California Department of Education, 1994)

There is much discussion about restructuring schools and integrating technology into curriculum. Adequate support staffing has not kept pace with the acquisition of new technology for several reasons. Skeptics see the infusion of technology as just another cycle of reform, or educational fad, and have been reluctant to shift scarce resources when many existing programs are already underfunded. Also, those charged with making decisions regarding technology are frequently school boards, superintendents, or in some states, departments of education made up of senior educational administrators who may not have any current technology training or experience.

A 1989-90 survey of superintendents in New York and Rhode Island showed 85% knew nothing about computers, had never used a computer and did not intend to use one. In the same year another study indicated that universities charged with the training of school administrators offered little in the way of computer training or computer-based curriculum training. While these studies weren’t conducted yesterday, they do indicate that part of the problem schools have in providing the necessary support for effective technology based systems is a lack of training and knowledge of educational decision makers (Morton, 1996). An examination of the current requirements for administrators and superintendents at one of the state universities in Arizona confirms this is also a local area of concern and neglect.

Today, schools across the country spend an average of nine percent of their technology budgets on training and support, while experiences of technology rich schools suggest that more than 30% of much larger budgets would be invested in these areas (U.S. Department of Education, 1996).

Some fully equipped schools provide a full or part-time technology coordinator to maintain equipment, provide on the spot assistance to teachers in the classroom, and assist teachers with identifying technology-based resources (such as software, video programs, on-line databases, and use of the Internet). Other schools rely on teachers or part-time aides to supply less than adequate support.

Existing Standards

Nineteen Hundred Eighty-Four is noted by some as the beginning of the computer revolution. Since then we have had a second revolution based on computer networks and a third based on the Internet. This rapid rate of change has made it difficult for educational organizations, with their compartmentalized budgets and financial constraints, to recognize and adjust to the expectations of this new digital world.

How much support is needed and who is going to provide it?

Most school districts have had a data processing department or centralized computer system for payroll and other business functions in place for years. While a single, fully trained support person can maintain a district’s main frame or mini-computer, support needs change when a distributed client-server system is installed. School districts need to look closely at what private sector companies, universities and community colleges have established as standards for staffing complex infrastructure similar to those being planned for K-12 settings.

Forrester Research Inc. conducted a study in large corporations and found that typical support staff includes one support person for every 50 PC’s at a cost of $142 per PC per year. According to the model, a school district with 1,000 PC’s would need a staff of 20 and a budget of 1.4 million (Microsoft, 1996).

A 1993 study by the Gartner Group on the life cycle cost of a single PC broke the total five-year cost into four subcomponents. Capital costs were 17%, administrative costs were 14%, technical support was 12%, and the largest cost was end-user operations for 57%. In other words, for every $1,000 spent on computers, an additional $5,880 will be spent over five years to support the computer (Gartner Group, 1993). These figures were for large corporations. In school districts many of the tasks identified as administrative or end-user operations, such as software license management, installation and training are the responsibility of the technology support staff, and cost such as loss of productivity is typically not measured with teaching staff.

Project Athena was an educational computing initiative conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in partnership with the IBM Corporation and Digital Equipment Corporation from 1983 to 1991. Under Project Athena a mature, distributed computing environment was developed. Support requirements for distributed computing environments were developed as part of the study.

The approach taken by the study was to determine the human resource skills necessary to support the total environment, and then translate this into real numbers based on full-time employees. The following variables and staffing ratios were established.

• Workstations. Resources are required to install, maintain, track and update.

Resource estimate: W/500, where W is the number of workstations.

• Users. The number of users affects account administration, user training and "how to use" assistance, documentation and configuration services.

Resource estimate: U/1000, where U is the number of users.

• Clusters. Clusters are physically co-located workgroups sharing servers, printers and other peripheral equipment.

Resource estimate: C/15, where C is the number of clusters.

• Supported Applications. The number of applications provided and supported centrally affects the resources required to install, update, support, track and document software licenses.

Resource estimate: A/50, where A is the number of supported applications.

• Vendor Operating Systems and Applications. Operating systems for different platforms all have frequent revisions and updates to install and ensure interoperability with other systems and applications.

Resource estimate: V/1, where V is the number of distinct vendor operating systems and platforms.

• Licenses Required. A license is defined as the right to use the application software for multiple users on multiple platforms.

Resource estimate: L/25, where L is the number of licenses.

To determine the total human resources (HR) required use the following formula (Arfman & Roden, 1992):

HR=W/500 + U/1000 + C/15 + A/50 + L/25 + V

An example of this formula approach to determining appropriate staffing levels would be a school district with 1,000 workstations, 2,000 users, 30 clusters (e.g. school offices), 25 applications supported, 3 operating systems (OS400, Windows 95 and Mac), and licenses required for 25 different software packages. The staffing would be determined as follows.

HR=1000/500 +2000/1000 +30/15 +25/50 + 25/25 +3/1

HR= 2 + 2 + 2 + .5 + 1 + 3 (for a total of 10.5 FTE)

Although telecommunications and network support were not included in this study, similar FTE ratios could be developed to establish appropriate staffing levels for these and other skill sets based on industry or university standards.

Current Issues/Options

Schools fall on a continuum for support staff issues and options for dealing with them. A single school will be far different from a larger K-12 district with thousands of network computers and a multitude of supported programs and applications, including the complexity of a distance learning system.

Recognizing the need and determining the appropriate skill sets necessary is generally the first step in building a plan for adequate support staff. This should be included as one of the questions to ask vendors before purchasing any new technology. Other districts with similar installations should be contacted and consulted. Educational or technical consultants may also be used to assist in determining support requirements.

Finding qualified staff who will provide the necessary skills is the next step. Districts have traditionally relied on the famous last line in employee contracts, "other duties as assigned," to assign technical responsibilities to a willing teacher or administrator. A point is reached where the skills become too specialized, or the time demands too great, to continue with a part-time or untrained person. The use of part-time staff or teachers who have classroom responsibilities also means response time will be constrained and users who cannot receive immediate assistance will be angry and frustrated. On the other hand, current market demand for trained technology specialists is very high, and the pay is frequently outside the range of what schools are accustomed to paying classified staff.

Providing effective training for existing staff members who have been assigned the responsibilities and have the basic technical background poses a different set of problems. Training costs are high due to market demand and control of "certified" training by large vendors. A five day class on supporting Microsoft’s Windows 95 can cost over $2,000. Training on operating systems such as Microsoft’s Windows NT or Novell NetWare can cost in excess of $10,000. Once trained, a staff member then commands more salary in the open market than a school’s salary schedule is able to match.

The major option to providing in-house service and support is to outsource these services. Negotiating these types of contracts again requires a district to clearly understand their support requirements and be able to put out a comprehensive request for proposals (RFP) to select a qualified vendor and manage the resulting contract.

Some districts manage to offer classes or create opportunities for students to assist in various aspects of the support function. This requires having someone on the teaching staff with the technical background necessary to offer the class or provide an appropriate level of supervision.

Providing adequate compensation to staff, assuming a district can afford to provide the appropriate training, is another major issue. Unless this is done in relatively short order, retention of the newly trained "techie" may be problematic. Technical staff is in constant contact with other districts as well as vendors and they are well informed regarding current salaries and wages. Any turnover in key technical positions will result in significant loss of support to staff and students. Extensions of employee contracts based on the cost of training provided is one method of ensuring the district receives a reasonable return on its investment of training.

Most districts will have difficulty in meeting the salaries paid by business and industry. However, benefits such as security, more vacation days, and less stress may be used to offset the dollar differential.

Consistent and comprehensive funding for technology systems is difficult due to the common practice of funding the purchase of technology through the use of bond issues or grants. This type of funding typically is good for one-time expenditures, but is inadequate as a funding mechanism for on-going cost such as training for teachers and the necessary support staff. Districts must also establish a replacement cycle for older machines. This will become more of an issue as the technology base at a school expands. Most schools migrate equipment or "repurpose" it in order to maximize the life of a computer. However, at some point it will become more costly to maintain than replace. It will be more manageable to fund replacements through the capital outlay budget rather than relying on passing a bond issue every five years.

Some state and federal funding agencies now require that any technology plans funded by them provide for a percentage set aside for teacher training and support. On-going costs typically must still be funded through the district’s maintenance and operating budget, which is the same budget used for teachers’ salaries and supplies. Reallocation of these dollars tends to be the more difficult for school boards and administrators. Until this can be established, long-term planning which includes operational expenses is not realistic.

Impact on Education

According to Karen Sheingold, "The successful transformation of student learning and accomplishment in the next decade requires effectively bringing together three agendas—an emerging consensus about learning and teaching, well-integrated uses of technology and restructuring. Each agenda alone presents possibilities for educational redesign of a very powerful sort. Yet no one has realized, or is likely to realize, its potential in the absence of the other two.

Successful implementation of technology into education is obviously dependent on a number of variables. While technology supporters are quick to advocate the benefits of technology, the requirements for adequate technical support are slow to be understood and funded. It should however, be fairly easy for most of us to appreciate the frustration teachers face when a piece of "technology" doesn’t work or requires the skills of a technician just to make it work. When you have a class of 30 eager students watching and not always waiting patiently, unworkable/unsupported "technology" quickly gets relegated to the back closet.

The evolving concept of technology-rich education is being defined in many districts and schools throughout the United States by teachers, administrators, or technology committees. These technology plans have many similarities. With few exceptions, the products of technology committees are less working documents than wish lists with timetables attached. The limited and uncertain availability of funding and a clear understanding of technology systems often frustrate the best of intentions.

Probably the most striking omission from technology plans has been a realistic model of technical staffing. While administrations maintain modern staff for business operations, purchasing, curriculum, human resources, building and grounds, few superintendents or planning teams have recognized that a large network of computers will require a substantial group of trained professionals to cope with its many demands.

Districts will continue to build large complex networks to take advantage of resource sharing, Internet access and communication capabilities. School boards and administrations also have increasing expectations for student performance, staff productivity and information systems to provide the necessary data and information for sound decision-making. Teachers and students, without the support of a certified technically component technology coach or site coordinator, will not be able to take advantage of the potential benefits technology can provide. Trained support staff for these technology systems are a critical part of any successful implementation and operation.

Recommendations

Because dollars will always be in short supply for additional staff, especially for those other than teachers, districts must develop a realistic and cost effective support staff plan as part of their overall technology plan.

Develop a blueprint of the support system as part of the overall technology plan. Effective leadership and management of the district’s technology plan and resources are part of a tiered approach to a total support system. Districts have begun to recognize the importance of having an administrator at district level with technology expertise to make purchasing recommendations, advise on new construction and remodels, and work with building level principals to increase the use of technology in the classroom. A survey conducted by School Planning and Management magazine found that two-thirds of the responding districts had a person in such a position and 80 percent of the rest plan to add it within five years.

Today, in most institutions, there are three levels of support in an information system (IS) department. Below the IS manager or Director of Technology there is usually a network administrator and/or analyst who has hands-on management of network resources. The next level is made up of various support providers including workstation technicians, help-desk operators, repair person, installers, curriculum integrators and on-site support personnel such as building technology coordinators or lab assistants. Staff at each level is driven by the size and complexity of the network. Establishing FTE ratios similar to those in the Athena project for each skill needed to provide for future staff additions as the inevitable expansion occurs.

Establish a market-based approach to determine competitive compensation for key positions in the IS department. Schools typically use a point based classification system to establish the pay range for classified (non-teaching) staff. Many of these systems may not take into account the current high demand for skilled network and computer managers and technicians, thereby causing the pay scale to be inadequate. Reference to industry surveys should be used to establish and adjust compensation for key staff positions. This may require developing an alternate pay schedule rather than using the traditional model, which bases compensation, increase on years of service and college credits only.

The following information is taken from a salary and job satisfaction survey conducted by Computerworld magazine and is referenced to provide a sense of current key job functions and average nationwide pay scales. Nonprofit institutions are noted as being the lowest paying among industries surveyed. Compensation is identified by industries including the educational sector. The figures shown are for the educational sector.

Technical Programmer: Performs basic system $ 24, 273

programming tasks.

Help Desk Operator: Answers user support questions. $ 27,560

PC Technical Support Specialist: Responsible for $ 30, 489

overall maintenance of the company’s PC’s.

Minimizing the support staff requirements. There are several things a district may do in order to minimize the support staff required. The most significant approach is to minimize the complexity of the network and associated systems by establishing standards.

In any system there will be a trade-off between flexibility and standards. A set of firm and well-chosen standards is the single most important contribution an administration can make to limit the cost of maintaining a network system. Non-standard networks require one person for every 50 to 70 computers. Highly standardized systems on the other hand, require one support person for every 500-700 computers.

The most significant standard is the hardware platform. Traditionally, Apple Corporation products have been the preferred platform of choice for the K-12 market. However, in recent surveys the WinTel platform has made serious inroads in the educational market share as well as dominating the corporate and home market.

Functional identity is another standard to establish. Every workstation or file server in a functional group should be identical to every other. Exceptions and deviations from this standard cause an enormous increase in documentation and support requirements.

Network components such as routers, switches, hubs, network interface cards, and printers should also be standardized. This will minimize the number of vendors and equipment types staff has to deal with. Medium and large districts will want to move toward the use of network manageable tools allowing for remote access of file servers and network components even down to the desktop. Advantages include being able to maintain systems, upgrade software, track hardware for asset management and configuration settings, and track licenses without expending valuable time driving to individual sites. The ability to remotely log on to a user’s workstation and demonstrate a procedure not only saves the user frustration, and loss of productivity, it provides a learning opportunity, and makes the support staff more efficient in providing support.

Limiting the number of software titles supported is another area a district can control that will have a direct bearing on the cost of software and the support needed by teachers. Typically, vendors negotiate better pricing on a district wide basis rather than school by school, or for lab packs. Training can be standardized and teachers and staff are able to provide support for each other on adopted packages. The perennial upgrades, license agreements and bug patches can be dealt with in a uniform fashion.

Establish a consistent funding process. Base funding on a percentage of the school’s capital outlay and maintenance and operating budget. School budgets can accommodate technological change systematically by using "technology-based budgeting." This is a simple concept: school budgets must have a minimum percentage of their total funds allocated to technology maintenance and change every year. This minimum is 3% of the total operating budget. Changes can then be gradual and carefully planned. Educational authorities must accept the fact that computer technology has a built-in obsolescence period and must be changed regularly. The simple analogy is that computers are like chalk, only more expensive.

Serious mistakes on the part of school administrators in budgeting for technology use in schools have left many districts in disastrous positions. Whole systems have become useless, and replacing them has meant the expenditure of huge amounts of money from single budgets. The process of annual "budget hopping" (leaving an item out one year and picking it up the next year or the year after) cannot continue. The public will not accept the huge outlays or bond issues every three to five years to replace old equipment and planning structures en masse.

Develop a statewide educational technical academy. The state of California has established such an academy for the purpose of providing cost-effective training for school personnel responsible for providing technology support at the school or district level. West-Ed, the regional education lab facilitated the Internet Technical Academy (ITA). ITA was funded by the California County Superintendent’s Educational Service Association and the California Technology Assistance Project. The ITA is conceived as a brokered service that is administered by a contracted agency. An advisory committee identifies the types of courses that need to be offered. Bids are prepared and publicly disseminated. Prospective bidders might include LEA’s, other governmental agencies or training organizations. Courses are offered on a fee basis to cover the costs of the provider and the cost of administration of the ITA.