Making the Most of Edtech Grant Funding

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Making the Most of Edtech Grant Funding

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Michelle

Hello, and welcome to Insights Tech Talk. I'm your host, Michelle Reaux. Joining me today from Insights Public Sector Team are Eric Hardy, Market leader on the SLED Team, and Bobby Sears, Business Development Manager, also on the SLED Team. Welcome to the Talk. Thank you both so much for being here with me today.

Bobby

Thanks for having us.

Eric

Yeah. Thanks for having us.

Michelle

Absolutely, absolutely. So I want to set the stage a little bit about what we're talking about today. So, the COVID-19 pandemic really created serious issues for K through 12 students. And we all know, we had to suddenly go to school remotely and this did pose a lot of challenges because many areas of the country really didn't have adequate access to high-speed Internet service. And many students actually, didn't have the devices that they need that they really needed in order to connect from home. So, the response from the government was several stimulus packages and they were designed to provide funding for both ed tech and also Internet connectivity. So, bridging that bridge that digital divide has become a really top priority and funds are now becoming available. And school districts are taking advantage of those all across the country. So, money to buy the ed tech devices though, it's only part of the solution. Organizations really need to apply these funds intelligently to receive maximum benefit for their students. So, assessing current and future needs and really taking a holistic approach to device management are key to maximizing that return on investment of those stimulus funds. So, Insight has a wealth of experience expertise along with really deep partner relationships and that uniquely, it's gives us a unique position in the market and it really allows us to be that ideal partner for the ed tech needs. So now that I've really gone into what we're going to be talking about today. Eric, Bobby, I want to ask you a few questions. So, as we said, our topic today is really around educational technology or ed tech, as I've been calling it. So, in light of the pandemic, Bobby, I'm going to start with you. Can you give me some ideas of the types of devices that are really needed in school right now and how has that differed from maybe two years ago?

Bobby

Sure, Michelle. So (coughing) because of the pandemic, you know, the stimulus funds have created such a huge shift in, you know, what's needed in schools right now our conversations have shifted heavily from just the device. And when I say device, I mean desktops, notebooks and tablets to much deeper discovery to assisting and creating the right learning environment for both students and teachers. So, on a very high level what's needed from a device perspective now, includes, it's not really limited to, but mobile devices which are like notebooks, tablets, charging carts and charging systems, wireless networks, audio visual furniture and services, right? So, two years ago, desktops accounted for roughly 30% of our device business. Since students and staff are moved to remote learning. We've seen double-digit growth year over year in both notebooks and had helped devices in a decrease in desktops overall. So, but I want to go back to wireless networks because school districts are seeing a huge increase in digital density with the return in-person K-12 learning. And as an increased number of devices are coming online you know, they're now experiencing this huge burden that the additional devices put on the network. So the result is that, school districts are upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 for increased connectivity.

Because the typical Wi-Fi infrastructures, and they may stagger under the strain causing performance issues. But there's this huge roadmap now. And the questions that we're asking currently is, you know, what your current state of digital readiness, you know, what are your end users, unique technology to know what is your change management approach? How will you facilitate enablement? You know, how will you incorporate going, ongoing professional development for educators? So we're leveraging each of our OEM partnerships as well as solution groups, you know, connected workforce digital innovation, CDCT. Because each of those groups expertise integrating all the components necessary to building (notification sound) and re-imagining learning environments is, you know, in these unprecedented times, it's essential, so.

Michelle

All right, fantastic. So we're talking about big shifts during this pandemic. And Eric, I want to switch over to you. So one lasting impact that we know is going to have on ed tech is the funding that I was just talking about. So can you tell us a little bit about what government stimulus packages are available right now and have them released and how they're helping school districts to support their ed techniques?

Eric

Yeah, sure. So the government really (notification sound) has stepped up this past, you know, year during the pandemic to make sure that the students have access and aren't left behind. So (notification sound) if you look at all the funding, that's come out since the pandemic, there's essentially been, the stimulus packages that have been put forward equal about $5 trillion and those are across three different buckets. The first one is the CARES Act (notification sound) that we saw last March of 2020. That was about $2.2 trillion than the CRRSA which is the Coronavirus Response and Release Supplemental Appropriations Act. That was $900 billion, that was December of 2020. And then, we know about the most recent $1.9 trillion, which is the American Rescue Plan. That one was March 11, 2021. So again, combined, that's about five and a half trillion dollars with the funds that have been appropriated since this pandemic began. Now specifically to education, there's the largest bucket of funds available for the public K-12, is through what's called the E-S-S-E-R, which is the Elementary and Secondary Education Emergency Relief Fund. That's a lot to say. But basically, it's a total of about a $90 billion and has been allocated to this program across all three rounds of those funds, which is the CARES, the CRRSA and ARP. All right.

These funds are flowing from the US Department of Education to every state education agency or the SCA. before being regranted to the SCA is to reach the school districts. Now, one of those funds, specifically, going back to Bobby's point is the ECF or the Emergency Connectivity Fund which pulls its funding from that American Rescue Plan. These funds are for devices. These will fund devices and hotspots and Internet conductivity for the students, when they are working from home. And that doesn't mean they have to be learning from home full-time, as you know, there's also a homework gap. There's people, there's students that need to have devices when they leave campus. So these funds are available for those situations for every student. And it's a hundred percent reimbursable through the E-Rate program. That's about $7.2 billion, and that money is going out for award, or actually, the application start for that money this summer around July 1st. And the application Window, will be open for about 45 days. And then the idea is that funding can start within this school year. So by this fall, we can start seeing that money flow to the students and get those devices and Internet access.

Michelle

That's fantastic. So you just talked about a ton of money that's out there and available. But I want to talk specifically, about the ECF that you were just talking about and-

Eric

Yeah.

Michelle

Having that available this summer. Can you tell us a little bit more about the devices that are qualifying under that?

Eric

Sure, yeah. So the devices are, let me tell what they're not, first of all. They're not smart phones, but they are the tablets. They are Chromebooks, laptops, therefore, any device that's meant to go home with the student. What they are not is the carts that are in the classroom, lab equipment, stuff that's going to be dedicated to the school itself onsite. It's for devices that are going to be in the hands of the students to take with them when they go home. So it'll pay up to $400 per device to the student. Now $400 doesn't necessarily cover every school district standard device, but you can get reimbursed up to $400. There's going to be school districts that will cover a hundred percent of the devices within that $400. They're going to be others that may have a standard device like, you know, it's $600. So they're going to get 400 of the 600 reimbursed. Okay. So those are the devices that are covered. It's also as cover hotspots. So if you want to send a hotspot home it's up to $250 per hotspot and that's also the service, that in addition to that 250, the service for that hotspot as well in the activation for the hotspot. (Michelle murmuring) One service per location, okay. In addition to that, we'll also cover modems, cable, modems or routers, that'll connect to a hotspot or connect to a service provider. There's no predetermined amount for that but it's going to be reviewed by the USAC, once it's submitted. So those devices and components that are covered under this fund.

Michelle

All right, Eric.

Eric

Oh, one more. One more thing

Michelle

I'm sorry, go ahead.

Eric

Also, cover the build-out of infrastructure. Only if that you can prove that there is currently, no commercially available Internet available. So typically, in rural areas, where you cannot go out and just purchase a service for Internet. The funds will allow the school district to build out its own broadband infrastructure to connect you.

Michelle

All right, that's fantastic. So we know that getting all of those devices into the hands of students is critical. We know that connectivity is really critical but it's one component of that solution. So Eric, I'm going to stick with you for another question. What can an organization really do to help with the deployment of those devices as well as ongoing management and maintenance because that's going to be a big piece of this.

Eric

Yeah, absolutely. So this amount of money, we've never seen it. School districts have been a great opportunity to get devices and technology into the hands of every student. But that didn't mean that they were staffed up to do that, first of all. Or they didn't have the right plan in place to do a one-to-one initiative. Not everyone had that, you know, ready to roll out but these funds are available now. So we want to take advantage of it. You know, at Insight, we have our Insight device as a service offering with education specific solutions and advanced options in mind. We can do implementing of the devices into the existing environment, fully managed deployments, the maintenance, the engineering and the life-cycle services, all bundled in. So schools can use our Insight devices as a service to begin the modern IT journey with these funds. This involves adding devices, alongside existing devices, alongside the infrastructure or adding optional Insight managed devices to enable this fully managed digital learning space.

Michelle

All right, that's fantastic. So, Eric, thank you. Bobby, I'm going to shift over to you. We hear a lot and we're talking a lot right now about giving students access, right? They need the right tools for learning. So what about our teachers? How is our technology really helping our instructors to better communicate, better engaged with the students that they're working with everyday?

Bobby

Yeah. As you can see, the funding has been geared toward building the best of both worlds, not only for the students, but also the teachers so. Now for teachers, we've made a commitment to professional development. You know, we're currently building applications through our Digital Innovation Solution Group in partnership with Google. The question we're asking districts and teachers are, you know, are you optimized when it comes to digital technologies? You know, how can we help you and your teachers get the tools to align your learning environment? So, you can have confidence and knowledge to support the highest level of achievement on all educational technological fronts. So, you know, we're exploring several areas of agnostic training and development, including webinars training. And so, through that, you know, we'll break down and help teachers meet their solution-based training goals around teaching online with Google, Microsoft and more. Another is coaching and mentoring. So, we're going to leverage that to build customized coaching provided in Black segments, Uplive, remote support for teachers and staff to deal with the shift from the classroom to remote learning instruction

Michelle

That's great.

Bobby

And online learning. Right? So to get self-paced in Instructor-led learning module based experiences for the faculty and staff on demand, anytime, anywhere, you know, just to name a few. So, a lot to come, 'cause this is a new segment for us from a professional development perspective but each of these tools are benefits for, you know, from leveraging in the cloud.

Michelle

That's awesome. And, you know, having talked to a lot of teachers over those last 15 months, it sounds like it's perfect timing for all of that, so incredible. Now we're talking about all of this access, right? So, children accessing the Internet, sharing data electronically. So, we all know that security is going to be a big concern. Eric, what steps can educational organizations really take to ensure that kids are not only accessing the appropriate information, but also, that their personal data is remaining secure?

Eric

Yeah, that's a, it's a big question, right? And the organizations really have to evaluate the amount of protection they need based on their environment, their budget, their level of risk that they can safely assume. You know, simply wanting as much security as possible is absolutely understandable, but unrealistic. So you bring an Insight, we have a robust security practice and we have the pulse of the IT security landscaping K-12 as well as other sectors. We've helped school districts secure their data and networks for over 30 years. We have a group of advisors, solution providers, technology specialists. Basically, we maintain certification and emerging (notification sound) in the latest technology to really help you to what that looks like. So, I wish security was a fixed with a simple point product solution that gave you one answer. But really, it's a comprehensive understanding of the risks and the understanding of the current landscape. You know, Insights has a team that can kind of sort this out with you. So, in order to help develop that strategy that will protect your organizations going forward, we'll work with you to understand exactly where you are today. We'll, we create, you know, surveys and workshops with your team to help you understand, and the stakeholders, all security stakeholders, to really understand the business ideas the business requirements that result from these surveys. We'll compile these. We'll present it at a workshop, and we're really get down and provide a full-blown landscape of what we need to do to secure it based upon those factors such as budget and requirements.

Michelle

All right, fantastic. So thank you both so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you taking the time and teaching us a little bit more about the current state of ed tech. And really where we're going, and how funding is really helping schools to bridge that digital divide. We keep hearing about this, but we know that it really does exist in the United States. So, are there any closing remarks or thoughts, you guys would like to share before we end?

Bobby

I actually have one. I didn't kind of talk about it a little bit, but just the Internet connectivity. I just wanted to give some stats. So, you know, there are some really (Bobby chuckles) unprecedented times, right? So, at the onset of COVID, more than 55 million K-12 students in the US left traditional classrooms. (Michelle murmuring faintly) Some had Internet connectivity, and some did not. So, creating this, you know, Internet divide has been huge but really happy that ECF came out because now, we'll really be able to tackle this divide and help students.

Michelle

Absolutely.

Eric

Yeah. I like to add to that.

Bobby

Yeah.

Eric

This divides been been around forever, right.

Bobby

(chuckles) Yes.

Eric

You know. It's just students, the idea of school was all your learning was done at school, just wasn't realistic. Because you know, students were you know, equal when they went to school. They have access to the same technology. But when they went home, there was a large portion of the population that still did not have access. And their ability to keep up was just not realistic.

Bobby

Right.

Eric

So the pandemic really shed a light on that. And I'm so glad that these funds are available, not just to address the learning from home during the school day, when the pandemic happened. But they're also a long-term solution to help address that divide. And then, also on the security. We talked a little bit about security. It's interesting that a 68% rated privacy and security of student data, more important they did the prior year. So having this much technology, we've seen what's already happened out in the, not necessarily K-12, but in the world with security. People were starting to really take it, you know, unfortunately, take advantage of the people that don't have security. So that needs to be top of mind.

Michelle

Yeah, absolutely.

Bobby

Agreed.

Well, again, thank you both. If anybody watching, wants more information, you can visit ips.insight.com. This is the place that you can browse all the state and local contracts, and really learn more about our Grant Support Program. So Bobby, Eric, again, thank you both so much for being with me today. And to you watching, thank you so much for joining us. We'll definitely see you next time.

Bobby

Thanks, Michelle.

Eric

Thank you.

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TechTalk Making the Most of Edtech Grant Funding

As the federal government expands its support in K-12 technology, many school districts are wondering which component of their IT environment to tackle first.

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