The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Libraries Initiative is seeking input from library professionals on how public libraries can continue to serve (and better serve) their communities, as devices are becoming increasingly popular and information is literally in the hands of many. It is an anonymous survey that should take about five minutes to complete. Those interested in taking the survey can access it at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W3DBZ96
Tag Archives: Food for Thought
Insurance for iPads? You Bet!
Last night on the local news there was a brief blurb about a few Minnesota school districts that have looked into insuring their devices (like iPads). Today, I came across the topic again via the St. Paul Pioneer Press. According to the article, Farmington and South St. Paul are just two of a growing number of school districts that are pursuing insurance for their devices.
It works like this… “Parents of Farmington students taking iPads home, typically fourth- through 12th-graders, can buy a $28-a-year insurance policy through the district to cover damage. The insurance fee is capped at two devices per household. If families decide to opt out, they must agree to pay for the devices if they are damaged. The district will pay roughly $50,000 to insure iPads for students who qualify for free and reduced-price school meals, a federal indicator of poverty” (Magan, 12/9/12).
Officials at Farmington explain that putting expensive devices into the hands of their students has many positive outcomes, but that kids have a greater potential of accidently damaging or breaking the device. Insurance is a protective measure to either pay for fixing a device or to go towards purchasing a new device.
Farmington’s insurance plan is provided by a company called Worth Avenue Group. Currently, this is one of the largest insurers of devices for schools – with a total of 1,000 current clients in the education field. This number is only expected to increase over time as more schools invest in one-to-one initiatives.
If your school has a one-to-one initiative, or is thinking about a one-to-one initiative, have you discussed the possibility of insurance for the devices? What is your school’s approach to the very real potential of broken or damaged devices? This is a new frontier… we need to share and learn with one another whenever possible!
State Economic Forecast
According to Elaine Keefe, our MLA/MEMO Library Lobbyist….
“The state economic forecast was released today, and it contained both good news and bad news. The good news is that for the current fiscal year the state is projected to have a $1.33 billion surplus. Under current law that surplus will be used to pay down the education funding shift. The amount the state owes to schools and libraries will be reduced from $2.4 billion to $1.1 billion. The bad news is that the state still faces a $1.1 billion deficit for the next biennium (FY 2014-15). That’s the period that the Legislature will be adopting a budget for in the upcoming legislative session. Forecast documents are posted on the MN Management and Budget (MMB) website at http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/fu-current-fore-nov ” The Forecast at a Glance doc is a short one pager, but if you want specific detail about the School Shift Buyback, take a look at the nitty gritty detail in the 15 pg. Forecast Summary document.
Another helpful general “take” on the MN budget situation arrived in my inbox yesterday through the MN Budget Project’s, Budget News and Tools Newsletter.
Economic Forecast Finds No End to Budget Deficits
“The November Economic Forecast from Minnesota Management and Budget shows Minnesota remains mired in a vicious cycle of budget deficits. The forecast predicts a $1.3 billion positive balance for the current budget cycle, which will go to pay back a portion of the school funding shift. However, there is a $1.1 billion deficit for the FY 2014-15 biennium. When taking the impact of inflation into account, the forecast shows a $2.0 billion deficit in FY 2014-15 and $2.1 billion in FY 2016-17. According to a news release we issued, the continuing budget deficits show that Minnesota needs to move beyond gimmicks and short-term fixes and support the state’s priorities for the long term.
A Minnesota Budget Bites blog post analyzes some of the main issues and concludes:
- Minnesota needs to reform our outdated tax system so that it raises enough revenues to support our needs, and does so fairly;
- The Legislature should act to cover more Minnesotans under Medicaid, qualifying us for more federal funds and allowing more than 140,000 low-income Minnesotans to gain access to affordable health care;
- Congress and the President should end the uncertainty over the federal “fiscal cliff” by taking a balanced and responsible approach to deficit reduction that includes raising revenues and that will support economic growth in the short term and fiscal stability in the long term.
So, I am quietly, carefully optimistic about this forecast (could be worse) and look forward to seeing the Governor’s budget soon. Having said that, it appears the “federal fiscal cliff” is our biggest concern at the moment, and if not settled, could raise our budget deficit to a much higher level. The bottom line according to MMB is: ” If gridlock leads to us falling over the fiscal cliff, the nation would likely sink into a recession in early 2013. And, Minnesota’s budget deficit for FY 2014-15 would increase by $1.7 billion, to a total of $2.8 billion!”
Paying for “Free” Cloud Services
Like many, I have to admit that I’m often attracted to “free” cloud services, programs, and software. Who wouldn’t want to save money where they can – especially when the service offered seems virtually the same as what others are paying their hard earned money for. Well, like everything in this world, there always seems to be a trade-off, doesn’t there?
The Journal’s 12/4/12 article The Price of Free Cloud Resources, highlights the positives and negatives of free cloud resources. There are so many cloud-based resources that either are entirely free, or are free but offer a less-robust version of a for-fee resource. Either way, free resources are tempting, both to the average user as well as to libraries, media centers, and schools. Who wouldn’t want to save money where they can, especially now, when many budgets are so dramatically reduced? Additionally, many cloud-based resources are cutting-edge, new, exciting, and flexible! It’s hard not to be attracted and drawn to that.
But with free, comes a catch… For cloud-based resources the catch or the “payment” for the service is often privacy and personal data. According to Jim Siegl, Chair of the Consortium of School Networking, “Data is the most common (yet invisible) fee extracted from users by companies that make search engines, e-mail, and other cloud computing resources accessible to schools.” As schools (or individuals) enter into agreements with a cloud-based resource, they may be required to sign and agree to a contract. It is crucial that the person reading and signing that contract understands the language and the agreement they’re entering into — and what it means to their school and their students (or patrons in the case of a library). However, because cloud computing is fairly new, Siegl believes that federal regulations are about twelve years behind in responding to cloud computing and related privacy concerns. 
So what are schools and individuals to do? Read! And read carefully! Understand what you’re reading, ask questions if need be. Research it! (This could be a natural fit for librarians….). In schools and at libraries, individuals responsible for technology services need to carefully analyze the agreements they’re entering into. Additionally, technology specialists (or those that sign the agreements) should consider providing opportunities to inform other parties at their school or library about the privacy issues, and about the data that is being collected. For students, it’s important to remind them that what they do on the internet is not private. And that everything they do leaves a digital footprint, and can be tracked back to them.
Additionally, it’s important to know that even some for-fee resources gather data… Again, contracts must be carefully reviewed and privacy should always be of utmost concern. There will always be trade-offs, but we have to be certain the trade-off is truly worth it, and that the cloud-based service meets our basic privacy requirements (whatever they may be depending upon your library, your school, or your personal wishes).
Interested in reading more on this important topic? Checkout the following links to get started…
Cyber Security for the Digital District from the Consortium for School Networking: Tools and Resources
Privacy Technical Assistance Center: Frequently Asked Questions – Cloud Computing
Scholastic Article: Demystifying Cloud
Teen Research Skills on the Internet
So, what do you think, has the Internet harmed students’ research skills?
A new survey of teachers by the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that many educators believe the Internet has shortened students’ attention spans and weakened students’ research skills. I am not so sure about those two statements, but I was fascinated by some of the findings that mirror what our Bridging Information Literacy Across Libraries group discussed this year. A few stats from this blog post include:
- “While 77 percent of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project instructors agree that the Internet and available search tools have had a “mostly positive” effect on student research, 87 percent say the same tools can easily distract students and contribute to shorter attention spans
- Even more disconcerting, 64 percent of respondents say modern digital technologies “do more to distract students than to help them academically.
- The news is not all bad. Of those teachers surveyed, 99 percent say that the Internet provides access to a wider range of sources and information; while 65 percent agree that the web has helped students become self-sufficient researchers
You will have to read the full blog post to get an answer to the six-million-dollar question: Has the Internet conditioned students to expect too much too fast?”
Last of all, as you read this post ask yourself why librarians are digging deep to understand what their role is going to be in the future! It seems crystal clear that we will be needed more than ever!
Read the full blog post at EdTech magazine (12/2012)
If you want to go straight to the source, the overview and full results of the Pew Internet survey about How Teens Do Research in the Digital World is located at http://tinyurl.com/ca2noy5