2013-2016 Technology Plan - Osceola County School District

Administrative and Instructional Technology
installing and implementing new instructional materials. Currently, the district supports a wide variety of
software applications. Please refer to Exhibit 6-10.
Exhibit 6-10
Summary of Instructional Applications Supported in 2000-2001
Software Application
Number of
Schools
Number of
Students
Number of
Teachers
Number of
Staff
Accelerated Reader 34 37,000 2,000 500
STAR Reading 31 25,000 1,125 375
Pinnacle Excelsior Gradeboook 12 20,000 1,025 60
STAR Math 16 16,000 720 240
Accelerated Math 13 13,000 585 195
Compass Learning 13 10,000 294 5
Read 180 5 6,000 325 20
Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) 5 4,000 205 25
Classworks 3 3,000 210 15
Computer Curriculum Corporation (CCC) 20 3,000 5 15
A Plus 3 1,200 22 3
Scholastic Wiggleworks 6 900 30 30
PLATO Education Services 9 550 9 2
Waterford Early Reading Program 2 80 4 4
Source: Osceola District Media and Instructional Technology Department, March 2002.
According to the 2001 Technology Resources Survey, other software supported by schools in the include
Carnegie Cognitive Tutor, Cornerstone/SkillsBank, Ellis, Lightspan, Magellan, Math Keys, Nova Net,
Reading Counts, Riverdeep, and Sequoyah.
Providing support for too many software applications can be a costly burden to the district, and
purchasing licenses for applications that are underutilized is costly. Cost savings can be realized by
evaluating the use and effectiveness of these applications. The focus of the evaluation should be in how
well the application meets district performance goals. The district should then focus its limited resources
on supporting only those packages that best meet performance expectations.
On average, over the last four years, the district has spent an average of approximately $681,000 per year
on software. 6 We believe the district can cut costs as much as 5% by systematically evaluating and
analyzing the usage of currently supported software so that less effective and underutilized applications
are eliminated from the inventory, thereby ensuring that the number of licenses and level of third party
support is appropriate.
Asset management-technology resources
Tracking the utilization of technology resources is beneficial because the overhead of housing and
maintaining underutilized technology resources is costly. The opportunity cost of keeping underutilized
hardware exists because the space that underutilized hardware takes up could be freed for classroom use
and storage. Asset management applications exist to track the utilization of technology resources but the
successful implementation of the application often depends on the level of standardization. Because asset
management applications track utilization of resources running under the same operating system, the first
step is to meet standardization goals. When considering the purchase of an asset management
application, the purchase price of the application should be offset with the value of the man hours saved
6
From Purchasing Department records; includes administrative and instructional software.
OPPAGA 6-15
2013 Educational Technology Plan 15/40 School District of Osceola County Florida