Survey: K-12 Tech Leaders Interested In Cloud Classrooms As A Solution

Citrix Systems has announced it surveyed technology leaders of kindergarten through to grade 12 at the recently held 2009 Consortium of School Networking (CoSN) Conference and its main finding was that 80 percent of respondents were interested in desktop virtualization as an implementable solution in school classrooms.

"The need for IT in the K-12 environment has grown exponentially, while budgets and staffing have remained flat," said David Podwojski, Director of Government, Education and Health for Citrix Systems (News - Alert). "Technology and administration experts are looking to IT - specifically, virtualization solutions - to improve the delivery of education and to help the IT team do more with the resources at hand."

TMCnet has earlier reported on the explosion and extraordinary popularity of wired and wireless broadband and all related technologies, and commented, “A far reaching environmental impact, with potentially everything going digital and on-line, could be saving trees by not printing documents and books. Other positive fallouts could be the gradual switch in schools and other educational institutions to go broadband and maybe then children will then not have to carry back-breaking books.”

Citrix officials revealed some results of its survey that more than 45 percent of respondents wanted delivery of applications and resources to the right students at the right time, more than 43 percent desired simple delivery of semester, quarter or course-based instructional applications and resources, 42 percent of respondents demanded reduction of IT costs by extending the lifecycle of existing hardware and 42 percent preferred if IT personnel had more time to work on other projects.

"The responses we received make it very clear that the most meaningful technical benefit of virtualization in the K-12 environment is the ability to spend less time on the management and support of software and hardware," said Podwojski. "And, with stimulus funds reaching the educational system, school districts can implement the virtualization solutions that will deliver these time and cost savings - benefits that will last long after stimulus money has been spent."

The timing is almost perfect for schools to leverage technologies such as wired broadband, Wi-B (News - Alert) and virtualization, cloud computing since there is a fervent drive and desire to revamp the educational system in America, and, importantly, funds are available.

ARRA has set aside $7.2 billion, TMC (News - Alert) reported, for the development of broadband and Wi-B in USA and $350 million from this fund reservoir is earmarked for the Broadband Data Improvement Act of 2008. $2.5 Billion of the $7.2 billion is set aside for low-interest loans, loan guarantees and grants at United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development and Utilities services Program’s (USDA RDUP’s) discretion and that the remaining $4.7 Billion is allotted for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to decide on grants to deserving companies and technologies via its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. In addition, there is another $1.3 billion set aside in the form of loans and grants to enhance broadband and telecommunications services in rural areas within the federal budget for the fiscal year 2010.