Bill MacKenty

Standardization

Standardization

Today I overheard a conversation about standardization it went something like this:

A: you know, many schools are standardizing.
B: well, it only makes sense - standardized technology is easy to manage, and support
A: yup
B: yup

As I listened to this, a familiar feeling emerged; discomfort and the sense there was something “not-quite-right” about this line of thinking.

In short, I think we can standardize choice. Offer a standard linux machine, a standard windows box and a standard OS X machine.

In a well-managed network, we try to consolidate as much as we can (LDAP, DHCP, DNS, etc…) Especially LDAP, which almost any modern operating system can connect to, offers ubiquitous user and home directory management.

The problem I have with standardization is the subtle, chilling effect on innovation, curiosity and freedom of choice. Do we teach all our students exactly the same? Of course not, we account for different learning styles. When everything is the same, we encounter a style of thinking that wants all the kids to be in the same box, the same row, the same tests.

Being careful of extreme thinking here, we must strike a balance between good IT management, and good educational practice. We must not design our IT management around what works best for a manager, but what works best for our teachers. I also call this “whose side of the desk are you looking from?”.

We can get into proper support later.