Microsoft Technology Blueprint for Primary and Secondary Schools
The Microsoft Technology Blueprint for Primary and Secondary Schools aligns educational objectives to the core technology infrastructure that schools require to support these objectives. Supporting documentation is located in the Microsoft Download Center.
Schools at the Dynamic level of the Infrastructure Optimization Model have IT systems that are self-managing and dynamic. When an infrastructure reaches this level, IT teams capture and use knowledge to design and deploy manageable systems and automate ongoing operations using system models. A Dynamic infrastructure requires alignment of development, architecture, deployment, and management tools. Although the Dynamic infrastructure is the final stage of the IO Model, constant changes in technology and IT service capability enable organizations to move beyond the Dynamic level.
Microsoft has established the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) to build software solutions that facilitate movement to the Dynamic level. DSI describes a vision in which IT systems become self-aware and self-managing. From a core technology perspective, DSI is about building software that enables knowledge of an IT system to be created, modified, transferred, and operated on throughout the life cycle of that system. These core principles—knowledge, models, and life cycle—are the keys in addressing the complexity and manageability challenges that IT organizations face.
The IO Model defines a core number of capabilities in alignment with the Dynamic infrastructure. These are:
| • | Proactive component configuration control |
| • | User self-service for common help desk requests |
| • | Automated application compatibility testing |
| • | Optimized firewall and security practices, including network quarantine capabilities |
| • | Secure wireless network access |
| • | Secured third-party remote access to network and line-of-business applications |
| • | Automated desktop health monitoring |
| • | Automated software update management for servers |
| • | Data protection and recovery strategy for critical desktops |
School Challenges
At the Dynamic level, schools use extensive automation to address technical challenges.
Raising academic standards/lack of visibility into student progress
Teachers in schools at the Dynamic level have highly integrated student database systems. Analytical student reports are automatically generated to show the progress of individual students and classes toward specific learning objectives. These systems also provide supportive guides that teacher can use to help reinforce objectives that students have not yet mastered.
Business Management: Inefficient operations and a lack of insight into where money is spent
Schools at this level use their highly integrated business systems to provide proactive analysis tools and reports. These tools provide the schools with warning and opportunity flags, which can assist the schools in making data-driven short term and long term decisions.
Communication and access to information for parents and students
Schools at this level utilize parent and student self-provisioning (in which non-administrators can ask for and automatically receive access to resources) to allow of them to establish informational alerts to be sent to e-mail accounts or to cell phones or other mobile devices. at the Dynamic level can also facilitate school community communications, for example online informational postings or questions.
Curriculum and lesson sharing among educators
Schools at this level can take advantage of a large array of multimedia resources including teleconferences, and can also develop those tools and resources so that they can share or host such teleconferences. They utilize these tools for staff development and as a supplementary resource. A Web-based portal provides educators anytime/anywhere access. Contextual smart searches make resources very user-friendly, such as a library system that provides immediate response to queries, or allows users to request alerts for updated information.
Overview
Dynamic
