Before joining CDW, I served as the director of curriculum and innovation for a large school district in Texas. In that role, I witnessed the creativity and dedication of teachers firsthand. I often traveled with those educators to conferences where we learned together about exciting new technologies that could transform the classroom experience. When we arrived back at work on Monday, we were often disappointed to learn that the networking or security teams wouldn’t allow us to use our new favorite tool in the classroom due to privacy issues.

Back then, I had a hard time understanding the rationale behind those decisions. I felt like the “Department of No” was simply getting in the way of the real work of the district. Today, that experience helps me understand both sides of the equation as I work with CDW clients to develop their security programs.

I know that teachers are only trying to do what is best for their students, but they often don’t understand that they might be putting children in jeopardy if they’re not using safe, vetted applications in the classroom. That’s why I helped develop the K-12 Blueprint for Security toolkit, to better educate administrators, teachers, students and parents about privacy and security risks.

Even before the widespread closures and move toward e-learning, many schools were investing in audiovisual solutions. The price of AV hardware has come down considerably in recent years, and many schools have been working to create modern learning environments, or MLEs, for their students. And as schools nationwide began suspending classroom activities, the need for education leaders to have a solid remote learning plan in place for times of emergency was made abundantly clear.

These AV solutions are of benefit now and will continue to pay dividends long after students are back in their classrooms with their teachers.

Here are four ways that AV tools support connected learning for K–12 students.

Esports continues to grow at an astounding pace. And I continue to see more districts reach out to me to talk about setting up a league at their schools. One of the first questions that comes up is: How do we arrange competition? Do we join an already-established third-party league; do we join a nonprofit third-party league like North American Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF); or do we create our own?

While each option has its strengths and weaknesses, I’d like to focus on building your own league as there’s more of a journey to it. Setting up your own esports league has some challenges along the way, but I think the benefits are well worth it.

As the current cycle of E-rate funding comes to a close, it’s time for school districts to turn an eye toward what’s coming next.

Fortunately, we now have some clarity on what the next few years will look like. Until December 2019, districts were a bit in the dark, left to wonder what rules the federal government would adopt to govern discounts and budgets going forward. But now that the regulations are clear, school districts can use them to guide their next five years of networking investments.

Here are three steps that school districts should take now to get ready for the next round of E-rate funding.

Winston Churchill once said, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

I always keep this quote in mind when working with school districts on modern learning environments that bring together devices, audiovisual tools and flexible furniture to foster collaboration and student-centered learning. Through our Blueprint to Design™ program, CDW helps schools with each step of a modern technology implementation, and I’m on many consultation calls with educators. They bring great passion and ideas to these conversations, but it occurred to me that the process would be even more effective if educators asked themselves a few key questions first.

While security might not present itself as an immediate emergency, school leaders should consult regularly with their IT teams about this significant technology risk. One of the major barriers to these conversations is the lack of a common vocabulary. The world of cybersecurity is full of technical terms that may be bewildering to school leaders who find themselves more familiar with the world of education. Let’s take a look at six questions that you can use to start an informed conversation at your school.