Keith Smith - My Blog

An old grind with a new journey on the horizon

Wednesday, March 4, 2020 - by Keith A. Smith

Two years ago, an opportunity came about to return to K12, where I started my career many years ago. I took that opportunity because it would give me a unique chance to see how much things had changed since I left, and I could undoubtedly make contributions that couldn't have earlier in my career. At the time of my departure from K12 circa the early 2000s technology didn't have much of a place in the learning and teaching areas of the classroom. Projectors and Smart interactive devices were being introduced to replace chalkboards; no mobile devices existed for teachers or students. There wasn't any cloud-based anything or many applications either. Any computing was done in a lab under the supervision of an instructor. Most computers were Windows PCs or Macs loaded with applications that were best suited for curriculum and instruction.

Interactive displays such as promethean's and clevertouch panels are now replacing most Projectors and Smartboard type interactive devices. Interactive displays, referred to as "interactive whiteboards" or "smartboards," became an educational trend in the early 21st century as school districts began clamoring to get them. As time went on and more money was spent on whiteboard technology. Sadly, many of those traditional mounted interactive whiteboards became nothing more than very expensive dry erase boards.

At present most districts are either in a 100% Microsoft O365 camp or 100% google for education camp with some that lye in a hybrid of both. Most on-prem server infrastructures are on the decline, just like in other sectors where organizations have adopted various types of cloud services. Wireless infrastructure along with Mobile devices are rampant now and have supplanted most dedicated computer labs with the google Chromebooks being massively distributed due to them being a very cost-effective learning tool for students.

Some things had definitely changed in K12, but some things are still the same ole same and may continue to be that way as time goes on. A new and exciting career opportunity has presented itself to me, and I will be embarking on another adventure in a few weeks.  I plan to start blogging more once again now that I reclaimed sometime that was previously spent on my commuting, I also plan to start contributing to a few of my favorite open source projects in the near future.

Stay tuned!


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