Page 105 - Lakeland Catholic Technology Plan

Recommendations:
11. Local Area Network (LAN)
Another great strength of the District are the LANs in each site. Each LAN consists of Level 5, twisted pair cable running from a central closet to every classroom. There are from 2-6 Ethernet ports in each classroom, so a computer can be con- nected to the network and access all network services from virtually every class- room. This wiring was done a little haphazardly in the past, but has mostly been fixed by now. In addition, all hubs and switches have been standardized with D- Link equipment. This is excellent.
A Diagram of the Local Area Network in Each School is illustrated on the next page. This diagram can be used as a reference in this section on Local Area Net- works and the next section on Hardware.
Every school has the same network equipment, the same network design, from the same vendor. This completely eliminates any compatibility issues, and really aids in support costs. Additionally, the use of a 10/100 switch in the central wiring closet, helps segment the network, and provide better overall throughput and sta- bility to the network. Following is a simple diagram of the networks in each school.
The network’s in some schools were originally not done up to specifications. Fortu- nately the technical staff have been able to make reparations and all the wiring is now up to the latest specifications.
One issue that has come up with the wiring is the labeling and documentation. Very few, if any of the wires in the first three schools to be completely wired, were labeled. As such, it has become very time-consuming to trace cabling, find prob- lems with wires, and appropriately document each segment.
In each school, most of the wiring, and servers reside in a central “Server Closet.” However, in most cases this room is neither secure, or appropriate. Each one is discussed in detail in the school overview section.
1. The Director of Technology Services, and the technical support staff should meet, at a minimum, every week.
2. School schedules and priorities should be revisited. Both technical support staff should be on a set schedule. There is always the potential for schedule changes, but the schedule should be strictly enforced.
3. All schools should have a contact person, and a book of issues. A techni- cian should be able to arrive at the school, pick-up the book, and have at his dis- posal a list of issues to be resolved, prioritized by the school contact and/or princi- pal. Additionally, when the technician has completed an item in the book, it
should be noted, and explained.
That way if the same problem occurs in the future, anyone who reads the book will understand the solution. And, any other staff members or technicians can see what has been done in prior visits.
4. Technicians should keep daily logs, that are electronic. This will allow schools and other personnel to monitor what is done at their site, what jobs the technicians are doing, etc. It will also allow the technicians to look back and dis- cover what they are spending most of their time on, and help them better provide their service to schools.
5. Ownership of the District computers must be defined. All parties involved, schools, administration, and technicians should know who owns what, and where it goes next, if moved.
6. Technicians must have well defined times of arrival and departure from sites.
7. Computers that are under repair must be tracked. There must be either a paper or electronic tracking system for all computers under repair. There should be a set time limit for repairs, and when computers are promised for a specific time, they must be delivered.
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