This is a summary of the information, a synthesis and a personal statement. I speak for myself and no others. Today is Oct. 13, 2001.

What references I have are to be found in a more detailed review of the information previously published as The Problem Exists. But it's pretty dense reading and I have to keep fixing moving links. So here's something ment to be more readible - more of an article, if you will.

The problem is having computers working for student use especially as they are used more and are more common.

Tech Support is actually a combination of factors that lead to the successful use of technology. Tech support is of two kinds . 1st is fixing - it's broken and doesn't work (hardware, software, and config issues all together.) The other is training tech support and that has two levels - training on being able to use the technology itself and second is training on how to deliver curriculum to students with technology.

Success in use of technology depends on both fixing and training. Any time one is provided without the other it isn't used well enough to make a difference.

It is also true that functional tech support has to come first because in system after system it is clear that integration trainers end up doing fix-it tech support if these people are not provided.

So the question becomes how much do you need in terms of fix-it tech support and training tech support. It seems clear that there should be some relationship between how many computers you have and how many people you need and how much you use them vs downtime whether from broken, lack of training or not the right tool (though how much you use them and how many you have are probably related - it would be hard to have a lot of computers without any reason that requires they be used often.)

OK - a ratio of techs to computers.... Almost no information exists in the nonprofit worlds about how much you need and what techniques can spread resources out best. That is beginning to change but it's very slow - www.cosn.org and my own work are about the only one's I've seen. COSN is fine but while officially neutral they aren't - I'm not saying it's exactly their fault but they cannot be neutral when most of their money comes from the wintel world. If you dig into their numbers it assumes wintel consistently. In private conversations I've had they recognize much of this but since apple appears not to want to support them....

There is a fair amount of info available from the business world though it is rarely all in one place, in fact that's because the people who would put it all together are a business and want to sell it for hefty sums. Fine for them. I have no money, nor can i get those that do to consider paying for it. I'm sure they can give you better information.

Meanwhile I was the butt end of binge/bust cycles of technology so i put what i could dig up together and it seems to be of some use.

Part time support averages about 20 computers per tech with minimum down time and maxes out around 25 not counting advances in technology relative to full time tech support personnel. Part time means people whose main job and or interests are something else. Not that these people aren't trained though ussually they are less trained.

Just going to full time personnel will most often support 50-60 computers per tech in the business world. This is the single biggest effect to keeping computers up and running. People who do a job regularly find the best way to do it and find repeated problems and can find systemic solutions to systemic problems and are often more trained to solve the problems they run into. Ultimately their employment depends on doing this job rather than another.

The average in the business world is about 72 computers per tech as of about 1997. Note the difference. Its kind of an off center bell curve. What most businesses do is 50-60 while the average is 72. It means many are not using advanced techniques to maximize the power of individual techs or means which secure systems from downtime.

I have done a lot of digging and references to techs supporting around 200 computers given the right stuff. But beyond that, rround 300 computers per tech the technology seems to become extremely limiting - banks have totally locked down systems with extremely high up times and they appear to max out around 300 computers per tech.

Now before i go on to see what can be done to get from 60 to 200 let's take a look at reality. I have a modestly detailed picture of NC and hear bits and pieces from beyond. Basically in the k20 world tech support is almost never around 1 per 200 computers and is more commonly 1 to 500 computers and is definitely sometimes in the 1 per 1000 range.

Additionally every school system is basically adding more computers every year and retiring relatively few so that the ratio of students to computers goes down and the school system looks good. But buying more computers seems to be entirely disjointed from hiring more techs. Imagine getting hundreds of new students every year and not hiring any more teachers. Actually that's illegal once they hit certain ratios though of course administrators trying to spread around limited resources tend to push that ratio. So only the most vigilant far seeing school system will hire more people as they need them. Instead they often go through cycles of hiring only when support has reached some critical stage.

So if business is running often in the 50-70 range but can reach 200 how can school system run with 500 or 1000 computers per technician?! The only way this can be done is large downtimes whether of disuse or broken or whatever.

Now whether we can end up around 1 per 100 or 1 per 200 we have a long way to go from 1 to 500 or 1 to 1000. Double, quadrupling or more the work force dedicated to supporting technology and keeping track of technician hiring even as computers are added.

That's the crux of the problem; one only few understand and even fewer (and often not the same people) can do anything about. Up until 1998 there was no significant awareness of the problem at policy levels in most or all school systems and state agencies. 1999 saw some adoptions of some standards. 2000 is seeing some implimentation. 2001? You decide.

Ok so anyway back to the tech side of tech support. What techniques can extend tech support across more and more computers and still keep downtime low?

Let's start at the beginning of the numbers - 1 tech per 20 or so computers.

The largest bump in ratio comes from going to fulltime tech support (people who also have to account for their time and money spent.) It's about a 300% effect.

The next most effective step after hiring full time tech support is training users. It about a 50% effect. This is just training on use, not on the next step which teachers are far more familiar with which is integration training - how to use it to teach. Seems like this first kind of training needs to be about 24 hrs (or 3 8hr days or 6 4hr days) on task per year. Less doesn't do much good and more does not help much more. Note however that integration training has to be added to this after it has succeeded.

Doing these two things - hiring enough techs and doing enough training - has alone made workable technology a success in k12.

Then there are a couple of 25% effects but exactly how much varies and solid numbers drift. Basically they are platform, and network based management. Most of the development in this area has been in either network leveraged hard drive copying (automated or computer assisted software distribution and client configuration.) On the Mac side there are programs like Network Assistant and on the PC side things like Imagecast, Lab Expert, and Altiris, etc. One new entry worth noting on the PC side is DeepFreeze (locks down Win95/98 to the point no user choice can corrupt the workstation short of opening the box.)

But yes i did say platform - Macs were easier to keep up (stay up and fix) than pc's. Of course neither platform is supportable with ignorance. But both platforms are evolving. Now however true this was it remains an open question whether the changes we go through maintain that. OSX and Macintosh Manager, however much the theoretical core or heritage they belong to are better they are now new consumer technologies. They have great promise. But for the first year (1999!) it was not ready for production use (really just for beta testing.) Of course Apple didn't give k12 a choice then. 2000 was alittle better but there was a pretty tremendous learning curve which many haven't hit yet. 2001 has produced some significant improvements but these changes are again substantial over last year, again, and still new on their own. The hope is that radical annual radical changes are pretty much over and it's more an incremental change from now on.

So anyway depending on how many things can be brought together you can probably support a ratio of 1 to 200-ish all parts considered. In NC those parts have different names: computer technicians and technology facillitators being the core. Because of this split official recommendations speak of 1 computer tech per 400 computers PLUS a technology facillitator and assistant PER SCHOOL. (except for the smallest schools.) Each of these is full time people. Preliminary surveys reveal the 2000-2001 average across North Carolina is 30% of this level.