The School Interoperability Framework's (SIF) vision is to better utilise information and communication technologies (ICT) in schools so that technology is not a barrier but an enabler that allows systemic changes to take place. To materialise the noble goal SIF issues certifications on software products that comply to the standards and specification laid out by them.

This will ensure that there is interoperability between different applications used in schools, e.g. one application can talk to the other one and share the data. This will reduce the amount of redundant data entry in different stand-alone applications, and also enhance the security and privacy issues. SIF, a not-for-profit organisation works with local and regional departments of education as well as with software vendors in the US, and currently also in Australia. SIF certification for interoperability has recently been endorsed by the United States Department of Education.


Jill Hanson from Canada represents Administrative Assistants Ltd. (aal).

Riina: Could you let our readers know a bit more about your product?

Jill Hanson (aal): aal provides local, regional, and state/provincial education agencies with an enterprise-level, web-based student information system called
eSIS. It supports the data management needs for multiple school districts. Using eSIS, education agencies are able to deploy a system that enforces data standardisation creating an environment where educational information is timely, accurate, uniform, comparable and accessible to parents, students, and educators at anytime from anywhere.


Riina: Tell us a bit more about the challenge that your software aims to fix in school administrations?

Jill Hanson (aal): Because much of the value-added information for education is housed in Student Information Systems, SIS vendors have traditionally been
challenged with having to develop multiple interfaces with other applications that need this information. Each of these systems has proprietary data formats which require development of unique solutions to meet the needs.

The promise that the Schools Interoperability Framework specifications and standards offer our customers and ourselves is that we can reduce the overhead of maintaining multiple interfaces by moving towards a single data integration solution. Our customers will also realise the added benefit of having more accurate and consistent data across the enterprise which will lead to improved decision making and reporting.

While implementing new technologies has its challenges, we as vendors also need to be sensitive to the impact it will have on school personnel and the way they do their jobs. Change management is a critical project component that must be carefully planned for from the beginning.

For more specific product information see the web-site at:
http://www.aalsolutions.com

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Michelle Elia, the President of CPSI Inc. participated also on the meeting. CPSI Inc. provides a suite of tools to help schools to make the ever important decisions needed for education. They SIF certified product line includes:

• SIF-Connect Server (A SIF Zone Integration Sever)
• SIF-Connect Universal Agent
• SIF Identity Manager for LDAP Directory Services (Windows, Novell, Sun, Linux)
• SIF-Connect Agent Development Kit
  
  

Riina: What is the challenge for the interoperability that CPSI Inc. tries to solve?

CPSI Inc: The challenge of interoperability in schools is to provide a cost-effective, consistent solution that can be replicated regardless of the applications involved. This type of solution needs an open standard such as the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) and it needs tools such as certified SIF agents and CPSI’s SIF-Connect Universal Suite to achieve complete success. The Universal Suite closes the gap between legacy applications so that they may participate in an interoperability solution. CPSI provides interoperability solutions for a reasonable cost based on the SIF standards and remains on the forefront of integration innovation for schools.

For more specific product information see the web-site at:
http://www.vcasel.com

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Denis P. Doyle, the Co-founder and CAO, SchoolNet, Inc was also part of the delegation.

Riina: SchoolNet reminds us all about European Schoolnet. Tell us about the mission of SchoolNet based in the US?

Denis P. Doyle (SchoolNet): From the company's inception, we have pressed for seamless program integration. The market we found was characterized by multiple (frequently incompatible) systems and programs and one of our prime objectives was to provide a set of offerings (modules) that would both work together (with
each other) as well as legacy systems. As a consequence, we were one of the first members of SIFA and among the earliest supporters of SIF.

Our main response to interoperability is to design and manage our suite of products to be fully interoperable -- our programs are open architecture (SQL, dot.net) and carefully designed to accommodate multiple programs. Indeed, our objective is to become the common platform of choice for users all over the world.


Riina: Anything else you would like to let us know about?

Denis P. Doyle (SchoolNet): On the site (www.thedoylereport.com) you can subscribe to our free e-newsletter "The Doyle Report"on technology and education improvement.

For more comprehensive information on what SchoolNet does see the web-site at:
http://www.schoolnet.com


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Some examples of the use of SIF in schools and school districts in the States:

While there are over 15,000 school districts nationwide in the US, there are reportedly approximately 450 implementations of the Zone Integration Server mode using SIF technology. The number of installations is increasing each day, and more will join the ranks as budget figures are approved at the district level for fiscal year 2005-2006.

Statewide initiatives in Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wyoming are rapidly increasing SIF awareness and use--not to mention saving school systems in these states millions of dollars.

Oklahoma recently mandated the use of SIF-certified products in its schools, and Wyoming is spending nearly $2.3 million over the next two years to implement SIF throughout its 48 school districts.

Although the total implementation is expected to take four or five years to complete, state officials predict SIF will save Wyoming's school districts 88,000 hours of staff time spent producing 25 to 30 state reports each year and 113,000 hours spent on duplicate data entry of student records.

"There's time that gets saved with state reporting, and there's time that is saved horizontally across the district with data entry for each student," said Steven King, director of data management for the Wyoming Department of Education. "It's staff time that gets freed up to do other things."

Plus, the initiative capitalizes on the investments that school districts already have made in buying software, setting it up, and training staff to use it. "By using SIF infrastructure to connect those applications, we're not throwing those investments away," King said. And local control is maintained, he added, because school districts have a broader range of products to choose from.

For further information visit the SIFA web site at
http://www.sifinfo.org

More: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5455