Episode 18 on student users.
Students of course comprise the greatest number of IT users in schools.
When considered together, K-12 students represent a group with a very wide range of skill sets and needs.
The youngest students have emerging literacy and numeracy skills,
and their hands are too small to fit full-size keyboards in the manner they were designed to be used.
Even if their hands did fit, they're not yet typist so their ability to use computers can be very limited.
But they tend to be very curious technology users and they're anxious to learn and to use the devices that they know are used by others.
Technology used by those younger students tends to be highly prescribed by their teachers.
They often use websites intended to facilitate learning academic skills.
They use applications for artistic creation and for electronic books, among other things.
Teachers will often integrate computing devices into centers in their classrooms when students have choice about what they study.
Of course, many primary teachers are very cautious about using computers in their classrooms.
As there are many other valuables and necessary skills that students must learn when they're at this age.
While the youngest students in our K-12 schools are just learning to read and write, the oldest students are adults.
Most of them turn 18 during their senior year in high school, and they are likely to be engaged in independent research and design projects,
and many of them are taking classes in which the curriculum is designed to give them experience using the same software that professionals use.
They tend to be creators of information with the school IT as well as consumers of information.
The specific resources each needs depends on their plans for post-graduation as well as their coursework.
So it's very likely IT professionals are going to be asked to configure different devices for different students.
Standardization has many advantages for those who manage IT.
If all users have the same permissions, then we need not configure and manage different organizational units.
If all devices need the same software, then we can use imaging to deploy changes.
While standardization can ease the work of technology management, it may prevent students from being able to do what they need to do.
It is reasonable for school and technology leaders to consider the nature of students and their learning needs,
as well as their teachers' needs which are grounded in their students' needs, when making final configuration decisions.
No, actually that's not correct. It's essential that they consider these needs when making those decisions.