What are you paying for?

The Total Cost of Ownership of technology describes the cost of the hardware, software, time, training, and human resources needed to use and maintain technology in the classroom. It goes far beyond the initial cost of the computers themselves.

TCO has become an important part of technology integration because of the fact that school districts are spending such large amounts of money attempting to equip classrooms with the technology necessary to enhance education. District tech coordinators and administrators need to carefully look at the financial impact technology purchases will have on the budget.

A good place to begin is to read Enough to Go Around? Budget and TCO Tool Kit from Technology and Learning magazine. This article provides a general overview of issues regarding both TCO and budget details.

Calculators

To assist school districts in managing their technology TCO, several resources are available:

The K12 TCO Calculator from The Institute for the Advancement of Emerging Technologies in Education (IAETE) is a very powerful resource for school districts. The K12 TCO figures the approximate costs of implementing a five year technology plan. This calculator is very thorough and before using the calculator it is necessary to gather resources and data such as the district technology plan. Since the K12 calculator takes time to complete, users are able to save their data and return to continue working on it at a later time.

The Consortium for School Networking has developed Taking TCO to the Classroom as a resource for school leaders. Part of these resources is the CoSN/Gartner TCO Tool, which is similar to the K12 TCO Calculator. In addition, this site includes publications, a TCO checklist, and case studies.