Energy Savings and Magic Packets

Kentucky schools have embarked on an energy management program. This was required by law and every district is participating at some level. This energy saving initiative deals with all aspects of the school, from lighting to HVAC, food service, transportation, etc.

Technology can and should be involved at some level. As a successful CIO, it's always good to demonstrate leadership by participating and cooperating with high-level district initiatives such as these. Along those lines, I thought I'd take a moment to mention the capability of remotely shutting down and starting computers. This may seem minor but, to a lab manager that touches 30 machines in a lab to power off or power on a lab, this will save time and buy you some goodwill. These remote capabilities also could open the door to scheduled shutdowns and power-ons, which definitely falls in line with the energy management initiatives.

Shutting down computers is easy enough and can be done via command line. As most of you well know, if it can be done via command line, then it can be done via script or GUI-based tool. There are countless tools that allow for remote shutdown and I won't bother to feature one here. The point is simply that it can be done and, if you're not doing it now, you should consider implementing this and doing so as part of an energy-saving initiative.

Most are also aware that computers can be powered on remotely as well. The technology involved concerns Wake-on-LAN and the use of a "magic packet". Wake-on-LAN is available on every machine that's even relatively current. To enable this capability, a BIOS setting may need to be changed.

In addition to getting the machine ready, your switches would need to support the use of the "magic packet". As an aside, the magic packet is a special broadcast that is sent to the LAN or specific machines via the network. You'll want to test this to ensure that your switches and your particular network configuration supports proper transfer of this packet, but that packet is what triggers the machine to power on (and, not coincidentally, this is one reason that a slight amount of power still passes through a networked computer that is powered off).

Assuming your switches and computers are capable of supporting Wake-on-LAN and magic packet transfer, you should be ready to implement remote power-on. As with remote shutdown, there are many tools available to send those packets and automate the process. This post wasn't meant to highlight those tools and a few simple searches will lead you to multiple options. However, I thought it was worth a few minutes to highlight the concept of remote power-on and shutdown and ask you to consider implementing it as part of an overall energy management solution for your district.

The Crystal Ball

As I look ahead to the next school year for our districts, I thought I'd take a moment to mention a few trends that we'll all likely face in the next year or two. We're already seeing some of these topics coming up in some districts, but I feel like these trends will continue and accelerate:

* $$$ and doing more with less (or withOUT) - I mentioned Title IID concerns a year ago and they have come to pass, so there will be less federal money for education technology. Kentucky's budget for 7/1/10 through 6/30/12 called for technology funding cuts and that will have a large impact from the state perspective. And then - THEN - it seems that our state may have a $200-$300M shortfall (after these passed budget cuts, mind you) if we don't receive a federal Medicaid funding match. That could mean that we face further budget cuts during this budget cycle. I don't enjoy hearing about and talking about budget cuts any more than you do, but I emphasize these to point out that the cuts are real and we're going to feel them. I have school districts that are cutting staff and hard decisions will also have to be made regarding replacement of aging technology. As one example, a district is considering replacement of some devices with the NComputing 'virtual' computers. As stated in the title for this section, there's no doubt that districts will be trying to do more with less and, with all of the fat trimmed from budgets, I feel like some will be forced to make the tougher decisions to do without resources, whether those be personnel, new hardware or new software.

* Even MORE controversy as boundaries are crossed - I could link hundreds of articles to make my point, but I'll limit myself to a single link and humbly ask that you make the time to read this New York Times article on school districts being pulled into difficult issues related to technology use and abuse. I have several districts who have noted that they're getting called weekly on Facebook-related issues. I know of staff members who have been questioned about their curious choice of Facebook profile picture and/or status, particularly when some of their 'friends' are students. I know of districts who have had to deal with their users posting very inappropriate content to sites like these. The instinct for district leadership is to call the CIO when something occurs, because it's on the Internet and a computer was used. As the article points out, what do you do when the issue didn't occur on school grounds or with school property? Some parents will demand the district to intervene while others would claim their rights have been violated if the district were to intervene in a personal situation. The lines are blurring and it's making the K-12 CIO's job more difficult.

* More personal devices in the classroom - If you think about it, the first two bullets make this one almost inevitable. In most cases, the money isn't there to buy district-owned devices for everyone. More and more high-schoolers (and younger) are carrying personally-owned devices that have tons of functionality. While we will certainly wrestle with boundaries, inappropriate use, Internet filtering and other issues, I feel like some districts will also look to take advantage of these devices. They are resources that many kids are carrying, that CAN be used in positive ways and that the kids really want to use.

I'm sure there are other things on the horizon (eBooks, for example), but these have been on my mind as of late. Agree, disagree or add topics of your own. Take care!