Infrastructure for Technology

According to the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 there are certain guidelines and goals that are laid out for districts, schools, and classrooms. While the entire document is focused on increasing technology, it is separated into different sections and categories for that focus on different areas of technology. The area of the document that I will focus on is Infrastructure for Technology. Being a network administrator for the school district this area is of particular interest to me and my plans for implementation of new hardware and software at a district level.

Great strides have been made in the realm of infrastructure technology that has greatly increased speed, reliability, and security of networks. It has recently become financially feasible for campus networks to have Gigabit or even 10Gigabit wired connectivity and with the recent ratification of the 802.11n wireless standard high speed, secure wireless networks can be used throughout campuses. These increases in technology have made it possible to implement new technologies such as video conferencing, VoIP, and distance learning without putting a strain on the network or degrading overall reliability of the network, in actuality the networks of today, if properly implemented, can be even stronger and more stable even when handling multiple forms of traffic.

Some of the recommendations that I have for improvements in the area of the technology infrastructure would be to increase the staffing as to increase the response time for work orders and allow for faster diagnosis of technology issues through the district. This would also allow for more time to be spend ensuring that the network is secure and all of the proper procedures are being followed to maintain a stable, secure, and reliable network.