Background of Education Work Group Members

Mike Hufman- Indiana

Mike worked in the Indiana Department of Education for over 34 years and has spent more than 26 years
involved in educational technology. He served as IT director for nine years, moving the Department's data systems
from COBOL to relational data base and web-based applications.

Moving on to instructional technology Mike worked with teachers, administrators and students
throughout Indiana to devise ways that technology can have maximum impact on achievement. He first
began working with Unix systems in 1984 and as soon as it was available, began experimenting with
GNU Linux as a solution to the Department's data and access needs.

After transforming the Department's data systems, he began to focus on instructional technology and
how students were able to interact with computers. He recognized that millions of dollars had already
been spent on proprietary solutions - but students in schools still had less than an hour a week access
to technology.

In 2000, he proposed testing Open Source Software in classrooms using free applications. Small
pilots showed high levels of success and were soon ramped up to cover the entire state. Today more
than 150,000 of Indiana's 300,000 H.S. students use open source software every day and the program
continues to grow each school year. Mike does consulting for organizations and groups to help them
better be able to afford, sustain, and replicate successful projects.

Mike has worked in the E-Rate program since its beginning and has an in-depth working knowledge of
the application procedure and how schools can use E-Rate to improve education.