Generative artificial intelligence has adopted a lot of space in the minds of technology chiefs from the Kindergarten to the 12th year in the past two school years.
They had to think about how emerging and rapidly evolving technology will affect the networks of their districts, how it will change teaching and learning and how they can take advantage of it for efficiency.
But AI is not the only challenge to the technological leaders of the districts.
Their jobs are “like plates that turn on these sticks that you see in the circus,” said Diane Doersch, chairman of the consortium board for school networking and main director of information technology for the digital promise. “As you pay attention to a plate and run it, other plates slow down and fall.”
One of Doersch’s biggest concerns is that AI has attracted so much attention that other priorities may not get the attention they deserve.
Despite this, despite all the media threshing that AI generates in K-12 circles, it is not the N ° 1 priority for technology chiefs of the school district, according to a COSN report published last month. It’s n ° 4.
This result raises an important question: apart from AI, what is in the lead for the leaders of district technology?
Here are five other things they put at the top of their priority lists:
1. Cybersecurity
Schools have become the main target of cybercriminals. This is why cybersecurity continues to classify as a priority n ° 1 for district technology chiefs, according to the COSN report, which questioned 981 district leaders between January 10 and February 29.
The cybersecurity “touches everything”, said Sarah Radcliffe, secretary of the COSN board of directors and director of learning ready for the future for the Altoona school district in Wisconsin. “Cybersecurity is not only the safety of our office computers. These are all systems because so many systems are online. If it’s online, it’s piratable.
Cyberattacks are financially expensive and bad for teaching and learning. The loss of learning time after a cyber attack has varied from three days to three weeks, and the time to recover the attack can take two to nine months. School districts have also lost between $ 50,000 and $ 1 million per cyber attack, report.

2. Confidentiality and security of the data
Confidentiality and data security have classified as priority 2 for district technology leaders this year, a higher place than in 2023. It is a problem related to cybersecurity. Cybercriminals target schools because the data they have on students and staff are precious.
Because more tools that schools use daily are online, it is more difficult to ensure that all data is secure.
“Previously, to ensure the security of students’ data, you had a workbook locked with students information,” said Radcliffe. Now there is so much more online data, and “not everyone has a common understanding of their risk of having all this data. He falls on our shoulders to protect this data, but we are not the only ones to touch it. I think that’s what makes him delicate.
This challenge has also drawn the attention of federal and state decision -makers, who introduce and promulgate data privilege invoices.

3. Staff recruitment and retention
Districts do not only deal with teacher shortages; They are also dealing with shortages in the technology department.
At least half of the district leaders said they were not properly equipped to provide educational support around the use of technology in class, provide distance support to students and families and integrate the Technology in the classroom, according to the COSN report.
This challenge has led the districts to outsource certain key functions of technology. For example, 57% of district technology leaders said they are outsourcing cybersecurity, compared to 23% last year, according to the report.

4. Training
For district technology leaders and their employees, emerging technologies such as AI and requests for modernized infrastructure require continuous professional learning. It is also their responsibility to train students and staff how to use new digital tools that the district uses and how to have good cybersecurity practices. However, there is not always time for these opportunities.
“Helping our humans understand the dangers and knowing how to avoid things like phishing attacks” is important, “said Doersch. “It would take time for your staff to do it, but look at the school districts that had to stop learning because their systems have been compromised or have paid a lot of ransom to recover their data.”

5. Funding
Budget constraints and lack of resources make it difficult for districts to implement and maintain digital technology, according to district technology leaders. Federal emergency fund, which expire this yearhas facilitated the implementation of IT programs 1 to 1 and buy new software for teaching and learning. Without these funds, district technology chiefs are afraid of maintaining these programs.
