Education VARs: What's The Next Killer App For K-12?

The question was a hot topic at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), June 28-July 1, which brought thousands of teachers, administrators, technology specialists, integrators, VARs and other education experts to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC.

One of NECC's principal focuses is the K-12 segment, and for technology professionals, the market is right now a study of two opposing forces: unprecedented budgetary constraints on public school systems, but also, much like in the health care sector, a push to implement technology as a cost-saving measure. The education funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will in theory catalyze the latter: money to invest now in technologies that will prolong IT's effect on education without landing schools back in the same budget crunches a few years from now.

Both the stimulus and new technologies in education were top of mind as attendees groused the show floor aisles at NECC. And if there was a particular technology to which most conversations led, it was smartboards -- specifically, how interactive whiteboard technology is a centerpiece of the twenty-first century classroom.

"We're always trying to figure out the next killer app for learning," said Keone Trask, chief technology officer at CSI Technology Outfitters, an Easley, SC-based solution provider. "We got into whiteboards about five years ago, and they've become a big part of our business. But there's been no killer app for education since then."

CSI in 2004 starting selling whiteboard technology from Promethean, which in the past half decade has become one of the most recognizable names in the segment with its ActivClassroom suite of education offerings.

Late last year, Promethean snagged veteran channel executive Taylor Macdonald as its new vice president of channels -- Americas, and in March, Macdonald suggested in a Channelweb.com interview that education, specifically whiteboard and interactive technology, represented some of the most untapped opportunity out there for technology vendors and integrators.

Trask said CSI had seen as much in the past years of its whiteboard sales.

"In 2004, we sold about 100 boards," Trask said. "In 2007 and 2008, we sold 10,000 boards. Its time is here."

For some solution providers, the time of the whiteboard itself has already given way to the broader idea of the interactive classroom, which combines everything from whiteboards to video.

"We wouldn't call it whiteboards anymore so much as the total 21st Century classroom, which includes whiteboards, audio, video, document imaging, projectors -- everything. The point is it being as interactive as possible," said David Perkins, vice president of sales at Howard Technology Solutions, an Ellisville, Miss.-based solution provider.

Howard is the country's largest reseller of technology by Mimio, whose mimio bars combine with computer systems and LCD projectors to convert whiteboard surfaces into interactive whiteboards by projecting what's on the computers.

Mimio has structured its reseller program and its pricing with cash-strapped educators in mind, and Perkins said the technology has definitely caught on.

"About 70 percent of our business is education, and that's 50-50 between K-12 and higher ed," he said. "Boards themselves are out. What's next is products that provide the whole experience."

Next: Over-Stimulated By ARRA?