When planning a technology project or initiative in a K-12 school environment, there are four pieces that need consideration for a successful outcome. Every project does not necessarily involve all four pieces, but certainly some of them. Those four pieces are the school network, educational software or web resources, hardware or equipment, and professional development or training.
1. The School Network. The school network supports an enormous number of applications and services such as access to the Internet, video, audio, shared use of files and documents and storage servers, printers, and fax machines, and use of email and VOIP phones. This formidable collection of technology requires skilled network management personnel to keep it all running reliably. Being a school network administrator is literally the saying, Jack of All Trades, Master of None. A good network admin needs to know a little about a lot of things.