One of Doceo’s co-founders, Christian White, sat down with Jim Roberts and Scott Rogers of York County School of Technology to find out more about the importance of incorporating technology into the modern classroom. Here’s what they had to say about YCST and the technologies used:

How long have you been in charge of the IT resources at YCST?
I (Jim) came to York County School of Technology 6 years ago, and have been working in Education for 10 years. I have spent 46 years in the Information Technology world, serving in the Marines and in the commercial IT world prior to moving into Education. I (Scott) have been at YSCT for 9 years.

In your opinion, what is the role of YCST in York?
Our primary role is to understand the future needs of employers in York County, and to develop the curriculum necessary to educate our students to meet the emerging employer needs. We operate an Occupational Advisory Committee for each of our educational programs. This committee is comprised of local employers, and gives the business community a voice in ensuring that their future employment needs can be met.

What technology initiatives have you introduced the YCST? 
When I (Jim) first arrived, the infrastructure was inadequate to meet the demands of the future. Step one was to upgrade the capacity and stability necessary to leverage the emerging educational technologies.

We upgraded internal bandwidth from 1Gb to 10Gb, increased internet bandwidth from 10Mb to 350Mb, implemented right-sized hardware in accordance with the demands of each program’s needs, and virtualized our server infrastructure. Once the infrastructure was upgraded, the stage was set to implement new applications to enhance the educational experience for the students and families that we serve.

Is there any means of technology collaboration between YCST and the School Districts of York County?
YCST participates in the county-wide Educational Technology meetings where representatives from York County School Districts share best practices and policies for the utilization of technology in education. Meetings are coordinated by Intermediate Unit 12, and are sometimes hosted by participating schools, which provides for the opportunity to demonstrate these technology practices in action.

Do you think technology is leading towards the paperless school?
While we have seen approximately a 7% reduction of print volume over the past three years, we do not think a paperless school is in the foreseeable future. The way paper is being used has changed dramatically, but people still like to hold a piece of paper in their hands for many tasks.

The biggest change is in how documents are stored, and this has made an impact on how and why we print them. Where a document used to be printed once and stored in hard copy files for future use, they are now often stored electronically at the time of creation, and only printed for immediate use. Once that use is completed, the document is destroyed or recycled, and if it is needed in the future it will be printed again.

What goals are still in your sights?
Our continuous goal is to provide a high level of service to our end users (students, parents, and teachers) who are increasingly dependent upon access to data that is hosted in the “cloud.” Maintaining high levels of bandwidth availability is crucial, and requires continuing investment in infrastructure to stay ahead of the ever increasing requirements imposed by advances in technology.

A curriculum-related goal is to increase the development of coding curriculum, even to the point of introducing coding at the elementary level, as we feel that skilled programmers will be in shortage based on the current lack of curriculum. This is also a key area of concern among our Occupational Advisory partners, as they will face increasing shortages in this important skill set as the demand increases.

York County School of Technology (YCST), located at 2179 S. Queen Street in York County, offers educational opportunities where every student is guided and encouraged to reach his or her full potential. High expectations are established for all students and technical programs offer a well-rounded curriculum for students. YCST has been a customer of Doceo since July of 2017. Learn more by visiting www.ytech.edu