OT/ Suggestions for High School Technology Plan (Much Punch per Dollar)??

[Steven Cappiello]

Hi there,

I am advising my old high school in the area of web development and school technology. They need a lot of help.. they have an old NT network and about 20-30 rickety PCs running Windows XP.

I realize this is a hard question to answer without having more details, so please throw any ideas you can back at this..

The school is putting together a technology plan and I was wondering what sorts of cool initiatives a school in financial trouble might be able to consider.. on a budget..

ideas:

-alumni laptop donation program -- what are the concerns and ways to manage something like that -- how to easily re-image laptops

-how to manage all of the computers Mac & PC from a central hub ?? on a budget

-a Mac lab-- run from OS X Server with 10 or so thin clients -- (is this possible and if so, how, and how much, ballpark, could something like that be done for)

-e-reader program- a la Kindle or something else-- as a way to provide reading material cheaper than going out than buying books--- perhaps if not cheaper in the short run then cheaper over the course of a few years-- my concern here is obsolescence.. (the kindle isn't even color yet!-- that must be coming soon I hope)

-new content management system to run the school's web site-i've heard of Finalsite.com and EducationalNetworks.com -- any others we should look at-- no Joomla/Drupal is not an option because we don't have much manpower to administer everything.. it would likely be secretaries doing much of that work

ANY thoughts any of you have would be tremendously appreciated..

The school has around 400 students.. if that matters..

Any other technologies we should be thinking about ?

Linux ? etc..

Any other initiatives -- teaching all the kids HTML etc ?

Installing a FileMaker Server?? : but for what ?

:

thanks all.

[Fitch]

I suggest this NPR story:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105259682