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

"To date, we cannot claim actual deals based on stimulus money," said Trask. "But we've vested a lot of time into knowing about it, and we've reached out with targeted campaigns to to see what's out there."

"We do see grant money for schools accelerating some of the opportunities," added Michael Erickson, a purchaser at Daly Computers, a Clarksburg, Md.-based solution provider. "There's a lot of refresh going on with it, but you do see smartboards and other things moving as well."

Smartboard and whiteboard technology remain strong, and according to solution providers, so too does video, as both a learning tool and a security measure. With entire sessions at NECC devoted to "virtual field trips" -- that is, students interacting with one another on opposite sides of the world through video activities -- the segment is expected to stay hot.

"The ability to link classrooms is huge," said John Tuohy, education industry marketing manager for the U.S. and Canada at Cisco Systems. "But so is video surveillance. You're seeing a big [education] push for that on the security end."

Solving the budget crunches, suggested Cisco's Christian Marin, means helping schools leverage what they already have using stimulus money as a catalyst.

"You're looking to solve long-term problems, so in partners, you're seeing a lot of refocusing on 'what are we good at'," said Marin, manager for channel operations, advanced technology and small business strategy at Cisco. "Schools don't have massive IT staffs for the most part so we have to figure out how to build out solutions around mobility, around security and infrastructure."

Several vendors with large education businesses agreed that it's time to move beyond high level talk on stimulus and focus on the areas and technologies richest for opportunity.

"Anyone else feel stimulated to death?" asked Elliott Levine, education strategist for Hewlett Packard's personal systems group, during a media luncheon at NECC.

Levine suggested schools would in 2011 be back in "the same financial jam they're in now" if they didn't invest in technologies such as client virtualization, green computing and 1:1 computing initiatives (an umbrella term for providing computers -- PCs, laptops, handhelds, tablets, netbooks -- to every student.)

The common theme that emerged for most education technology specialists -- and one echoed everywhere from casual lunchtime conversations at NECC to keynote addresses by the likes of author Malcolm Gladwell and Erin Gruwell of "Freedom Writers" fame -- was rethinking how interaction informs the learning experience.

A town hall panel at NECC hosted by National Public Radio's Robert Siegel suggested that despite the possibilities for remote connectivity presented by Web-based technologies, brick-and-mortar schools would continue to be needed.

"We're heading, I think, toward collaboration communities," Trask said. "How to use Web 2.0 for student learning, and how to use Web-based environments where interaction can occur between trusted sources: student and teacher, parent and guidance counselor, whatever. The classroom is becoming a community that has to be interactive, but also secure. There's a lot of interest and a lot to think about."

For more on the education channel, check out 10 Hot Topics for the Education Buying Season.