Perhaps your district is moving into flipped learning, where students learn content online – then deepen their understanding and expand their knowledge through classroom discussion and interaction with their teacher.
Or, maybe your district is looking to improve professional development, through the use of technology. Or, you have purchased a large quantity of devices and are looking to make the most of them. Or, all of the above.
The New Jersey School Boards Association has a new program that can help districts with technological needs. Called NJSBA’s TEC (Technology for Education and Career), and launched at Workshop 2014, it enables schools to purchase technological tools and services at reduced costs. NJSBA’s TEC is supported by the New Jersey Department of Education.
The program will assist schools by providing cost-saving alternatives for creating, establishing and continuing the most current digital learning opportunities available for students. Your NJSBA membership entitles your school to take advantage of all of the cost-saving benefits.
In addition, by reducing technology expenses, schools will have the flexibility to invest more money in the classroom, to enhance learning and improve student achievement.
The products offered through NJSBA’s TEC range from screen capture and recording solutions, to simple IT infrastructure. Available products include:
TechSmith
TechSmith provides screen capture and recording solutions for all areas of education. The firm’s solutions equip teachers and students to easily create engaging content, track learning and securely share with anyone in an education-only environment. TechSmith’s products work with all the devices your school currently uses including any mobile devices. NJSBA members can save 20 to 55 percent off TechSmith’s standard academic pricing.
Microsoft’s Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES)
Many school districts are saving money using Microsoft’s Enrollment for Education Solutions. The EES program is a simple method of procuring the tools schools need to prepare students for the modern workplace as well as empower teachers to deliver 21st century digital learning.
Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES) provides:
- A simple annual payment based on full-time equivalent employees; not a growing PC count.
- No-cost work-at-home rights for your teachers so they have the same tools at home and at school.
- Student Advantage – Office Pro Plus for your students and families at home on up to five PCs or MACs and another five tablets (including iPads) at no additional cost.
- Professional Development with a focus on building teacher capacity at no additional cost.
- A host of free tools from Office 365 including: Office Online (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, OneNote); Exchange (email) Online, SharePoint Online, Lync and one Terabyte of storage through OneDrive.
Note: NJSBA members can save up to 40 percent on Microsoft products and services through the EES program.
VMware
Is your school using VMware for deploying virtualization to reduce costs and improve performance and efficiency? By consolidating servers and datacenters, and by moving applications to the cloud, a district can achieve short- and long-term savings while improving accessibility to students and staff. VMware provides a platform that delivers a consistent student experience on any device while giving IT the ease of management, security and control it needs to comply with both school policies and standardized assessment test requirements. NJSBA members can save an average discount of 30 percent (or more) off academic pricing on VMware software and services.
F5
Whether your school applications are located in a data center or in the cloud, are they fast, reliable and redundant? F5 allows districts to reduce their data center footprint through consolidation, while cutting operational costs and simplifying the management of the school’s technology environment. F5 can help you better identify and understand solutions to meet your school’s network and application needs. NJSBA members will receive a 10 percent discount off academic pricing for F5.
Nutanix
Nutanix software-driven Virtual Computing Platform unites computing and storage into a single IT infrastructure solution that produces unprecedented simplicity in the datacenter. Schools can start with a few servers and scale to hundreds with predictable performance and economics. NJSBA members will receive a 10 percent discount off academic pricing for Nutanix.
To learn more about how NJSBA’s TEC can help with your district’s technology needs, contact Jo Ann Dempsey.