Technical Coordination
Focus
Conduct a technical audit, and identify technical needs.
Explanation
For an effective LCO to succeed, schools require a robust and well-maintained internal network, sufficient bandwidth, access to equipment, and technical support. This audit will be essential in the following stage to inform decision-making about possible changes to technical resourcing and additional technical infrastructure required, especially those involving business or outside technical assistance.
Consider also the importance of a cross-school audit and subsequent planning that would leverage an economy of scale for provision of equipment, services and support. This is of particular significance with the development of high speed networks, regional loops, and the National Education Network (NEN) and the ability to aggregate and share technical services and support through cloud computing and hosted applications.
Action
Carry out an audit to identify the available and required technical resources and expertise required for elearning in each school.
An audit should:
- Provide an overview of existing hardware, software, network capability, and peripherals, as well as ongoing costs associated with internet and phone connections.
- Identify additional technical requirements. This process must be informed by the needs of the teaching and learning process and ensure the resulting infrastructure will be reliable, user-friendly, readily accessible, and easily administered.
- Consider a range of purchase or lease options before committing to a particular technical solution. In addition, the level of sustainability, scalability, and ease of maintenance should be addressed.
Establish a small team of ICT leaders from across the LCO who can collaborate to identify shared technical needs and contribute to planning and decision-making.
