US/ND-1: Re: topic suggestions
Re: topic suggestions
Richard Buro (rwburo@tenet.edu)
Wed, 28 Aug 1996 09:50:32 -0500 (CDT)
>None of this connectivity is of any use if teachers don't know how to
>use it. How will they be trained and by whom? What provisions will be
>made for technical support after installation? What about experienced
>teachers and/or administrators being offered supplements to support
>their co-workers?
Hi, Jim. This is an excellent set of queries. In my honest opinion (IMHO),
we need to have our curricula driving our networks, not the other way round.
We also need to realize that regardless of how much money we target at
"stuff," that is only 33% of the project. Another 33% is training, and the
final 33% is technical support for sustainability. So a $ 6 million
technology project done right would have $ 2 million in hard-/software, $ 2
million in training, and $ 2 million in tech support. I know that sounds
optimistic and perhaps too simplistic, but reality states that if you look
at total cost pictures, you are spending about that much to do all the
pieces anyway.
I believe also that we must train our own people to work on our own stuff
for the most part. Aides, maintenance staff, custodial staff, etc. must be
able to handle about 75% of all the problems related to technology -- most
of the time it's a disconnected wire, or a server that needs to be rebooted.
We can train our own staff to handle simple problems and to complete a
troubleshooting problem report to direct technicians to the right problems.
I feel that our own people can train each other using cadres and teams. We
have been successfully doing this in Texas for several years with the Texas
Education Network's Master Trainer project.
The real problem with be with remote and rural areas -- lots of places have
little or no service provision. If we want true universal service in
telecommunications, we must look at it like the REA did back in the 30's and
40's -- every house gets it -- that's true universal service. I know the
thrust is for schools in this legislation, but that is also what needs to
drive this -- every red school house gets connected.
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