Page 57 - Lakeland Catholic Technology Plan

“A CATHOLIC COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS OPENING HEARTS MINDS AND DOORS....”
GOAL FOUR
TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Introduction
Implementing information and communications technologies means much greater invest- ments in developing, establishing and maintaining Technology Infrastructure and Technical Support. In this regard, school Districts are at an early stage of development throughout North America because of the rapid rate of change in network and Internet technologies and the recent rapid rate of adoption by school Districts. The private sector is much more advanced in this area, but their standards are not completely transferable to the education sector.
NOTE: Any major changes in the Wide Area Network should be taken cautiously and in consultation with Alberta Learning as the Alberta Government may be announcing a major development for the implementation of a high-speed telecommunications network infra- structure in Alberta. This network would be built over the next three years and could poten- tially save school districts considerable dollars.
Benchmarks, Practices, Targets and or Standards
Fortunately, there has been progress in identifying best practices to assist school Districts and help them avoid major pitfalls. First, a major study to establish network infrastructure best practices for school Districts was published in 1997 by Alberta Learning. These and other identified best practices can assist School Districts and help avoid major pitfalls. The Executive Summary of the Alberta Learning study, Technology Implementation Re- view: Best Practices and Key Learnings with Respect to Technology, Its Implementation and Management in Education, indicates that the two school Divisions that were studied have succeeded in making a major improvement in teaching while reducing the cost of administration.
These best practice findings are reported in five themes: • Technology Integration in Education;
• Technology and Administration;
• Technology Planning and Management;
• Funding and Fiscal Management of Technology and
• Telecommunications Infrastructure.
For example, selected best practices from this list of themes from this study include:
Technology planning and coordination should be done centrally and take a District wide perspective to be effective. Technology in a school District should be
implemented in a planned and coordinated manner according to a central release strat- egy.
The cost of technology is not a one time expense. There are down stream costs that must be considered, planned for and funded. These costs include the support and maintenance of networks, hardware, software and modernization.
School Districts should recognize the long term nature of technology investment and make provision for the continual support and modernization.
To effectively maximize a school District’s investment in technology, there should be a cen- tral group with the authority to allocate fiscal and other resources for developing, maintain- ing and evolving the technology of a school District.
Some estimates place the cost of the original computer at only 40% of the actual cost of implementation. The rest can be attributed to networking, software, training and building modifications. This concept needs to be recognized and appreciated by schools and school Districts.
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