Outsourcing IT

The idea of outsourcing technology, as it is discussed in the presentation, is an interesting one. One of the more interesting points that they mentioned, I thought, was that by running the e-mail through Gmail, there must be less technical errors and instances of the mail arbitrarily refusing to work at some times. This might, in turn, free the IT department to be able to improve on the technology in other areas and enhance the institution's overall performance.

Another interesting point that they mention is the fact that you can use the various Google services on a number of different platforms (PC, Mac, iPad, cell phone, etc.). With the growing use of devices other than computers to access the internet, it must be important to make sure that the university's services can be accessed in places outside of the traditional computer.

The NETS-A standard applicable here is standard four, the standard that is concerned with systemic improvements, especially the standard 4e, which states that one of the responsibilities of administrators is to "establish and maintain a robust infrastructure for technology including integrated, interoperable technology systems to support management, operations, teaching, and learning."