K-12 IT Interoperability May Be the Answer to Teacher Burnout in Illinois

Let’s begin with the basics: what is interoperability, and what does it have to do with K-12 IT? “Interoperability” is the ability for IT systems, software, and hardware to easily exchange and use information. Interoperability should be the main foundation of K-12 IT support for the modern classroom—unified systems that work in harmony with each other, instead of creating tons of bottlenecks within a district’s tech stack.

Without interoperability, K-12 districts burn through valuable time and budgetary dollars with systems and processes that don’t work with each other. The Consortium of School Networking affirms that idea, reporting that districts with interoperable solutions spend less time and money connecting the systems that need to work together.

What K-12 districts need more than ever is streamlined tech solutions. Teachers and staff across the country have experienced huge levels of tech fatigue since the arrival of the pandemic, as they struggle with disparate and siloed platforms on top of doing the challenging work of teaching students. These tech headaches have even made their mark on the nationwide teacher shortage, as more than 50% of educators to leave the teaching field earlier than originally planned. This is certainly not what we want for Illinois students.

But getting better support solutions is easier said than done. Leadership may be nervous to invest in brand-new systems, managers might worry how this would affect department workflow, and technicians will have to learn a potentially new way to work. Those concerns are important, but the need for interoperable tech is too important to overlook. If districts don’t improve critical infrastructure, they may face more teacher attrition, resolve fewer help requests, and affect how much teaching and learning goes on in the classroom.

Wade Grant, Director of Educational Technology at Vicksburg Warren School District, provides this analogy, “[Technology spending] is like a big salami, and we’re always looking to shave off another slice. With strategic investments to improve efficiency and reduce operational expenses, those little slices add up to something much bigger over time.”

Colorful analogies aside, let us dig deeper and see how outdated tech stacks are costing Illinois districts time, money, and effort.

Slower Access Can Cost Districts Big

It’s not a stretch to say that many K-12 districts are using inefficient processes to submit help tickets—we’ve heard from thousands of districts how Google Sheets served as their main asset management system. But in the days of 1:1 device initiatives and more assets in play, it’s time to retire these legacy systems.

Edtech Magazine reported that legacy support systems struggle with interoperability. If a system is industry-neutral (Google Sheets, for instance), they aren’t designed to integrate with the constellation of SIS, MDM, and SSO solutions that K-12 districts rely on. Today’s K-12 demands an interoperable help ticketing solution that integrates with asset management and learning platforms that teachers and students use every day.

Step one to achieving interoperability for your tech stack is by integrating asset data into your help ticketing system. The point of interoperability is to break down information silos, so integrations with MDM and SIS platforms are a great way to get IT technicians the device data they need to accurately resolve a help request. Instead of submitting a general email asking for help, interoperable solutions give technicians relevant information with a help ticket, including the location of the device, the student the device is checked out to, the device’s history, and more.

Daniel Domain, Technology Director for Venus ISD, immediately saw how an interoperable solution saved his team time and energy with API-driven integrations.

“Incident IQ ties into Google so well, and it writes back that [device] information, which saves us time with enrollment of devices. Incident IQ integrates so well with just about everything that we have, so we’re able to pull in information from SCCM, our Active Directory, Google, Skyward—just about anything. Being able to pull all that information in is invaluable.”

Think of all the times you’ve had to follow up with a requestor for more information—what specific issue is your device experiencing? Where can we arrange a device pickup? Interoperable solutions cut through the chatter and put data in the hands of IT teams so they can actively work on a ticket as soon as it hits their inbox.

Slow Resolution Comes With A Cost

This is one area where outdated legacy can really leave a lasting effect on K-12 districts. If your district isn’t using interoperable solutions, there is a fair chance that efficiencies are being lost in the sea of subpar technology.

Let’s boil down some key ways legacy tech can affect help requests. How are tickets gathered and distributed? Did your issue go to the subject matter expert, or was it just submitted to a general inbox that facilities and IT share? Do you have a ticket template in place, so users have to provide detailed information (name, issue, location, etc) before submitting a help request?

With technology requests, K-12 teams need to move fast so that every student and staff member have a functional device. Toggling between MDM and SIS platforms, inefficient ticket routing, and just plain miscommunication can add up and potentially leave students and teachers without working technology.

Jeremy Marin, Software and Computer Support Technician at Simsbury Public School, saw how API-driven integrations empowered technicians and let them close help requests faster.

“I can’t say how much easier and better it is to just have everything in one spot,” said Jeremy Marin.

With Incident IQ, Simsbury has a central place to work on help requests, and it’s powered with rich features like Rules Engine.

Rules Engine automatically routes tickets based on location, requestor, asset, and more, offering an interoperable solution by sending each help ticket to the right technician for the job.

“Before [Incident IQ] it was like, ‘Oh, well I know that’s in a spreadsheet for this, but what’s the name of that spreadsheet, and is it shared with this person…’ And then next thing you know, somebody has six different spreadsheets for different categories. It was a tracking mess. Having automations for help tickets eliminates some of that spreadsheet stuff that you don’t necessarily need to have.”

“We’re able to set rules for different needs,” said Maggie Siedel, Director of K-12 IT at Simsbury. “We’re able to use those rules and so that we can efficiently get whatever the issue is to the right person.”

For instance, Siedel’s team now has a set procedure for when a new student enrolls at Simsbury. Her IT team created rules that automatically fire so the new student has access to technology on their first day of school.

“We have someone who does our student information system with PowerSchool—that person gets that [help ticket]. They’re able to create the PowerSchool accounts. It then goes to our Google person. Then from there it goes to the hardware to get the device. It’s all automated, whereas that used to live in emails, and we had to make sure that we had spreadsheets that were shared with people and completed.”

Interoperable, streamlined solutions are the way K-12 districts can recapture budget dollars and save time and effort for their support teams.

See the Results for Your District with the Savings Calculator

Interoperability is the foundation of today’s K-12 IT support. If you’re considering whether the jump to interoperable systems are worth it for your district, check out our savings calculator. You can see how Incident IQ streamlines K-12 support workflows and brings savings to your Illinois district in more ways than one.

Click to learn how we support teaching and learning in Illinois K-12 school districts.