server-infrastructure
District Management

This is how your infrastructure should look before your next tech rollout


Follow these guidelines to create a technology infrastructure that support teachers and students Most educational organizations want the classroom to change; to improve teaching and learning by leveraging technology. The terms blended and flipped learning are touted extensively as useful educational goals. However, to increase the probability of long term success and to reduce teacher/instructor frustration, organizations need to ensure that the broader fundamentals are in place before asking teachers to change. This is true whether the organization is a large university or school district, an eLearning business, or a small school of a few hundred students. (Note that I am not talking about the success of the “lone experimenters;” the innovators and early adopters who will implement change no matter what the environment is like. I am talking about organization wide long term success.) Fundamentals fall into a number of categories. I will consider one (infrastructure) in this article and others in companion articles. If teachers walk into a lesson and the technology regularly fails, even for just a few minutes, they lose confidence. They become frustrated and lose commitment (and who could blame them?). For long term change to occur, the technology behind the scenes must be like the electricity system in a modern country – it must “just work” – all the time and every time. It must be invisible. If it fails, it must be able to be fixed quickly and painlessly. Infrastructure requirements Thus, there are some requirements for change in the classroom to begin. This is not an exhaustive list, but it contains some major points. While reading these points, rate your organization on a scale of 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent). 1. A solid, reliable, well designed network

a. The network (servers, switches, operating systems) must be fast and reliable. They must work virtually all the time. Logons should be fast and easy. Accessing systems (network drives, online resources, etc.) must be fast and efficient. b. Preferably there should be SSO (Single Sign On) for most resources. Staff and students should have one user name and password that works across all major systems, not a different password for each system. If a password is changed, the change should flow through to all systems.

2. A fast, stable, campus wide wireless network

a. Wireless access is a key part of many modern organizations. The wireless network must “just work”. It should be easy to access, reliable and fast. It should saturate the entire campus, with limited or no areas with weak signal.

More News from eSchool News

Want to share a great resource? Let us know at submissions@eschoolmedia.com.

eSchool News uses cookies to improve your experience. Visit our Privacy Policy for more information.