Hosted email and praise for KY tech leaders

I can tell just how buried I've been in my work. Not only have I taken less time of late for personal hobbies, but I've also apparently been very lax about blogging. All of that can be attributed to the KY K-12 education move to Microsoft's Live@edu hosted email solution.

It's difficult to digest everything taking place when you're in the middle of it all. Over the past two weeks, I've conducted several informational sessions and have now participated in some end-user training. There's so much swimming through my brain and I simply wanted to take a moment to think about a couple of things at a very high level.

First, we have many intelligent and dedicated technology leaders in this state. I feel overwhelmed at times when thinking about this project. I've had draft documentation in my hands for a while and have participated in regular conference calls about our plans. Many of our technology leaders are going into this with less information and less time to absorb that information. We've had several opportunities to communicate about the project, but things are really hitting home now that implementation is imminent. I've tried my best to communicate and assure everyone that it will be fine. At times, I'm the one that has to be reassured. Last month, many of our districts massed on a McAfee DAT update that wreaked havoc on networks around the state. Their "can do" attitude got them through the fix before they had time to completely absorb all of the details. To some extent, this project will also test our ability confidently to move forward without knowing all of the answers to every potential "what if" situation. We will get there and it will be largely because of their efforts.

Second, the solution really needed to be a cloud-based solution. There are other choices besides Live@edu. A quick scan of today's technology landscape reveals many hosted options for communication. How do we communicate today? Via mobile phone, Twitter, Facebook, blog entries, texting, Skype and - I almost forgot - email. Very little of that (soon to be none?) is hosted on a local file server. We're an increasingly mobile user base and the applications we use are mirroring that.

Along those lines, one potential concern with Live@edu is the built-in messaging components. Legitimate "what if" scenarios are brought up by districts. However, what successful communications company is developing an "email only" solution for today's users? Yahoo! has an IM client built in and desperately wants to be my collaboration portal. Facebook has the same thing. GMail has built-in chat via text, voice or video. It's where the industry is headed.

It's where we're headed. By IT, I mean "a hosted communication environment that has the potential to positively impact teaching and learning." It's fearful at times to move at this pace, but the need to be flexible and adapt to change is becoming one of the most important qualities of success. We will get there and, though there will likely be some bumps along the way, we'll be better for it.