Journal # 7 No Data Left Behind

No Data Left Behind By Edwin Wargo
Learning & Leading with Technology February 2006 Pgs. 22-25.

It is very important to use technology to integrate all the educational data to see what the numbers look like in each area of education. It is very easy to track down the comparisons and improvements needed in the school system when proper data is gathered and entered in the computers. Educational related data collection and compilation is called Ed Tech data. This is broken into five important areas:
1. Capacity: this is what tells us what the technology is capable of providing, eg: collection tools like PRTG and Cat Tools. Videoconferencing is a great tool for he students but it requires a bandwidth and high performance computers.
2. Issue Tracking: this is having teachers, staff, administrators and all other district personnel log their issues in a web program called Help Desk software which can be used for teacher training.
3. Logging: this provides information on the internet access, entering to objectionable web sites and all other important troubleshooting. The tool is called Kiwi Syslog Daemon.
4. Availability and performance: this tool provides all staff the important information on how long it takes to work. The best tool available is called Host Monitor. This web page saves the school personnel time.
5. Resource Management: this is where database is created and used for finding out its applications. This consists of network infrastructure diagrams. This can be found through Ilient technologies which can help track and decision making in schools as an efficient tool.

QUESTIONS:
1. How is this Ed Tech data useful in the schools?
Ed Tech Data is very useful in schools for great and important decision making. These decisions may be in the areas of curriculum, instruction, learning and most of all in determining assessments of students and teachers.
2. How is this information presented to school stakeholders?
This information can be presented to the school stakeholders through three different ways: web based reports, dashboards and through e-mails. More information can be found in the following references.
HostMonitor: http://www.ks-soft.net/
Ilient: http://www.ilient.com/
Kiwi Syslog Daemon: http://www.kiwisyslog.com/
National Education Technology Plan: http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/
PRTG: http://www.paessler.com/
Schools Interoperability Framework Association: http://www.sifinfo.org/