Directing Technology/Maintain

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Key Questions How can technology director ensure resources and process are in place to maintain school technology? What must the technology director do to ensure proper technical support for end users? How can the technology director provide support for technology skills development?

Author: Educ 491-13:Budget, Maintain and Evaluate Technology(Fall '07) Lehigh University College of Education

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Overview

In this section we will write an overview of the chapter on support/maintain.

Maintaining Technology

When schools invest on expensive technology solutions, as a technology director, you will be responsible for ensuring that all those systems and the software’s are kept up-to-date and running as intended. This process is known as maintaining technology and is usually an on-going process throughout the systems or software life cycle.

According to wikipedia maintenance includes all those actions that are carried in order to fix any sort of mechanical or electrical devices that have are broken or out of order by performing the routine actions which keep the devices in working order or prevent troubles from arising. This usually requires technical staff and special system known as Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to ensure updates and upgrades to software and hardware is provided in a timely manner. Additionally, maintenance also includes on-going technical support to resolve all of those issues that are not solved by the routine preventive maintenance.

In this section, we will look at some of the ways schools can provide preventive maintenance through backup and disaster recovery procedures, network maintenance, software and hardware update/upgrades as well as corrective maintenance including repair, back-up and restoring techniques. Finally, we will look at the life cycle of system and when and how it can be replaced.

Maintaining Technology

Supporting Technology

Technological problems and concerns can be very frustrating for the students and also teachers. These problems usually derive from different sources. For instance, these sources might be unreliability of the school technology system, not having enough on-going support or the quickly changing nature of the information technologies. As people who are directing the technology at schools, we can avoid these types of problems by having technical support . Technical support is critical for influencing the amount of technological problems and developing an appropriate and immediate response to the problems . Usually technical support has three different sources. First, there is basic hardware support -- the familiar maintenance contract on your computer or printer. Second, comes systems support -- most typically support for network server and operating systems and cabling. Finally there is application support -- providing help with application software like Microsoft Office or a specialist application like an accounts package or database .

Supporting Technology

Technical Support Staff

Once the accessible technology is in place, including new technology, technology staff should maintain technology and continue learning. Technology directors should increase awareness of the accessible technology vision in organization or district, support employees in their use of technology. It is obviously important that school districts plan for adequate technical support for hardware ,software and local and wide area network. The technology plan should state how teachers should obtain technical support, the expected response time, the number of full-time staff needed for technical support, whether students will be involved in providing technical support.

Requirements for Succesful Technical Support

In order to have a successful technical support : Firstly,administrators should recognize that technology experts must be able to focus on their roles full time. Administrators should also be aware that school district should have one-support personnel for every 50 laptops or PCs. In schools that distribute computers to every student.Secondly, these individuals must have an understanding of the educational process, as well as computer technology.Thirdly,schools and districts must budget realistically not only to purchase technology, but also to maintain and upgrade it on a regular basis so that students and teachers can use it. This is a missing point, mostly administrators think that technology plan ends when the plan has been implemented. They should have a philosophy of maintaining and supporting the new technology.Finally,tech staff must be committed to making themselves key members of the school's planning process, not just crisis managers who keep the machines running. The number of computers or users in a school's network is probably the most objective way to determine support needs. The corporate standard is to have one support personnel for every 50 laptops or PCs.

Staffing for Technical Support

As it stated in Shaw`s (2001) technical support staffing model, we need these technical support staff. The director's job is an administrative position. This person is responsible for the overall management of the system and the support staff. Front-line technical support should be handled through a district call center. These technicians are trained to provide phone support to handle routine problems, such as forgotten passwords or "how-to" instructions for using applications. You can look for more information to the section of Help Desks and FAQ databases.

According to Wilkinson (2006), volunteers are good for cash strapped organizations may turn to volunteers for technology projects. Volunteers are most effective when the time frame for a technology project s flexible and the work is interesting to them. Using student experts to help with tech support and professional development: Some of the best-known examples involve schools that are working with the Generation YES project[1]. While the Gen YES organizers say it dramatically increases the level of technology support available, while offering students valuable and marketable technology skills.

On-site technicians take care of back-line support and problems that require physical contact with the workstation. These technicians are assigned to specific locations, such as a building or school, and have the skills to troubleshoot most problems. Problems they can't handle can be escalated to the director of technology or to a vendor's tech support staff. Technology directors can provide on site technicians in three ways: expert students, consultants and specialists, tech mentors Expert students, particularly enjoy dealing with technical problems can be good candidates. Another variant of part time staffing is to hire for a cross- functional assignment that is part time in technical support and part time in another department.

Consultants &specialists: if the school’s specific technology need is a one time event requiring highly specialized skill, a consultant or specialist is likely the best option. However, you can make these people to train the district-wide employees (such as administrators, teachers) train before you release them. Vendors managed services: there are good vendor organizations that offer specific services such as network and hardware infrastructure. Many vendors, in addition to selling products, can also provide highly specialized consultants.

Tech Mentors :In Columbia, S.C., for example, each school not only has an ITS but also one or more regular classroom teachers who have participated in an intensive two-year training program and now mentor other teachers at their own school.

Computer teachers or lab moderators provide a final, two-pronged approach to front-line support. By educating users as thoroughly as possible, the computer teacher reduces the number of "how-to" questions posed to the call center. Additionally, you can also get the support form the university faculty and centers, and governmental agencies chartered to provide assistance. While you are looking for the appropriate technical support, you should also look for sources of help among other organizations similar to yours. These are often the best source of useful assistance, as they may have already faced the same challenges as you. Talk to their decision makers. Ask about the consultants they used. Use the feedback you receive to make informed choices for your own organization.

Help Desks and FAQ Databases

NoteThis chapter is not cmplete yet.I am working on citations It is essential to have planned activities to help and support users when new technology is implemented . Support services, training, and certification must be ongoing to ensure successful post-implementation use of technology. As time passes, personnel change, organizational needs change, and the ways in which the technology is being used may change as well. Any and all of these changes must be taken into an account when planning for ongoing system support.

There must be full support and encouragement at all levels of the organization. Help and support services provide users with ongoing technical assistance for successful technology implementation. This includes both technical questions and application questions. The organization must have a plan for providing timely and useful help to system users, either via available staff or through arrangements with vendors and consultants.

Teachers and other staff members frequently need on site and on demand technical assistance, both with the equipment and software itself, the implementation of the technology in the classroom . The most common means of providing user support is to create and staff a bank of telephones (or at least one phone) with people who are willing and capable of patiently and constructively answering users' questions. Today, most Help Desks in networked organizations also offer assistance using electronic mail, fax and telephones. For most of the school districts, however, it should be sufficient to have someone running the Help Desk for only part of the day, with the number of hours depending on how many users there are and how many questions are being asked. Likewise, it may be sufficient simply to have someone check voice mail or e-mail twice a day to see if any questions have been forwarded.

IT staffers are increasingly relying on help desk systems to help them streamline responses and employing powerful tools that allow them to reboot and troubleshoot systems remotely and install fixes on multiple systems simultaneously. On the professional development front, online communities such as Tapped In[2], My eCoach[3], or TaskStream[4] allow for ongoing idea exchanges, support, and mentoring without a need for geographic proximity .

In addition to solving users' problems on a day-to-day basis, a Help Desk's value is in documenting trends and patterns concerning the use of an application or equipment. It is important to track Help calls and responses. One effective way of doing so is by using a software package that generates reports like 'most frequent queries' or 'call distributions' (i.e., the distribution of callers who have the same problem). This information can be used when tailoring training to users' needs and developing new training materials. Many users will find it helpful if frequently asked questions (FAQs) and their answers are printed in a newsletter or made available via your network .

FAQs provide “just in time information”. FAQ databases are freeing up support professionals to work on the issues related to technology integration and school reform. Similarly, just-in-time troubleshooting databases allow educators to check out and fix minor technical glitches independently without having to wait for technical support staff .

Help Desks and FAQ Databases

Infastructure Support

after a brief explanation of chapter we can start this subsection on a new page. Infastructure Support

Physical & Electronic Security

School districts have many responsibilities when building a technology infrastructure, including devising acceptable use policies and security procedures. Deciding how a school district would respond to technology infractions, such as altered or deleted files, disabled or missing workstations, misconfigured network, misuses of the Internet, is important to determine in advance . It is indicated that there are two types of security issues in a technology infrastructure: physical security and electronic security. According to The Commission on Technology in Learning,CA reports, Physical security include installing and/or upgrading the locking systems throughout the school, installing electronic monitoring devices where technology is stored and electronically tagging all equipment for easy identification if stolen. Electronic security includes designing a hierarchical access structure for the network; installing firewalls and filters; installing continually updating monitoring software to search for and report viruses, thefts, vandals, and installing back up and recovery tools . To create a safe network environment in the school district,the technology coordinator`s handbook suggests school district should own virus detection software for desktops, network servers and also e-mail servers .

Virus Detection Software: In network systems, there are two infrastructure to influenced by a virus: desktop computers and network servers. Desktop security is the installation of virus detection software on all computers. Since new viruses are being created and discovered almost daily, this software must be updated on regular basis. Additionally, virus definitions must be kept current to provide the maximum protection available. Support technicians should keep antivirus software updated at all costs. The expense of repairing infected systems and the downtime they incur is much, much higher than the amount of money that is spent staying updated

Network servers usually require special versions of the anti-virus programs that have been designed to provide protection in a server environment. When purchasing anti-virus software, it is important to also purchase the additional licensing needed to acquire these specialized products that provide server-based security and protection.

Email servers can be set up in order to filter out specific types of attachments. Spyware and adware are becoming considerable problems for the schools. These two types of programs collect information about the user, pop up ads, waste both network and steal workstation resources. These programs may be installed on a user’s computer during a visit at questionable web site or thorough the installation of another program without user knowledge. There are two excellent programs to protect the infrastructure from this type of software: AD-Aware[5], Spyboat Search and Destroy[6]. In order to create more secure networking environment, we should also take care of the user passwords. Requiring users to change password on a regular basis will help avoid these problems. Users should be trained to never leave unattended computers logged onto the network. Another solution for password protection is that network manager log off the users whose workstations have been idle for waste amount of time.

All in all, the most significant solution is that users should be aware of security problems: They follow good security procedures will keep virus infections to a minimum.They should not open the e-mails and attachments coming from unknown people. They should first scan the attachment before open it.They should learn how to create secure passwords.

Software  Support

Training and Expectations

Almost all research on technology and learning concludes that it is imperative for an educational institution to have a technology plan in place and approved before anything else. Two major parts of this technology plan must include setting expectations and effective, complete training of all staff, teachers, and students.

Setting and Maintaining Expectations

The best expectations should be thought of as learning goals. Learning about technology and how to use it properly and effectively must be thought of as a learning goal, not an extra activity or reward as is unfortunately the typical thought process in the past. Setting expectations for staff, teachers, and students is necessary in order to communicate what is expected of everyone, and ensure that each person is performing as desired. Once clear expectations are set, then they must be enforced in order to ensure that each person continues to perform as desired and is given additional training and support as necessary.

According to a study done at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusettes, 99% of incoming students reported having access to computers at home and 96% reported having access at school. But what the study also assessed is how students handled technical problems while using computers. 96% reported that they ask a family member or a friend for assistance. Immediately the issue becomes what happens when students encounter technical problems on their own or at school that should be able to be remedied by the teacher. Who do they ask for help? What if the teachers are not well-trained enough to handle these problems?

In the same study students were given a problem asking them to decide which web site was the more credible of the two shown. One site was from the National Science Foundation while the other was a "hoax" site. According to the study, 76% of incoming students were not able to distinguish which of the two sites was the most credible. This shows that institutions must ensure that teachers are able to distinguish credible sites from bogus sites and be able to teach students how to detect the same.

Furthermore, 33% of incoming students did not know that computer viruses can be trasnmitted through files, disks, compact discs, or via email.

Educators' top priority must be to equip the students with the knowledge and skills needed to be successful. Proper use of technology must be included in today's curricula. Teachers need to train students to be successful technical problem solvers and effective and efficient users of technology. But, in order to help students gain all this knowledge of technology and computers, teachers need to be given enough effective training to bring their proficiency levels to a very solid standard. Teachers should work with the technology department. For example, if a teacher were to assign a project where students have to create a video, the teacher should work with the technology department to determine if video equipment and editing tools are even available. Staff and administration need to be proficient as well both for administrative purposes and being a part of the social support structure in an institution. In terms of setting expectations, it can be thought of as a domino effect and include some expectations similar to the following examples.

Student Expectations

Institutions should expect students to be able to:

• effectively operate technology
• effectively solve basic and some intermediate technical problems
• distinguish between credible and bogus information and sources on the Internet
• be creative and explore technology both in class and independently
• understand the gains as well as the risks involved with different technology
• graduate with the proficiency level required to be successful in future endeavors

Teacher Expectations

Institutions should expect teachers to:

• attend all training, and make up any training missed within a certain time period
• acquire a solid level of proficiency enabling them to effectively teach what students are expected to learn
• supervise students at all times, especially when on the Internet
• know, understand, and communicate the law and regulations students must abide by and be aware of
• design learning environments where technology is used as an integral part of learning
• work with the technology department when designing learning experiences
• effectively use formative and summative assessment to gauge students' level of proficiency

Staff and Administration Expectations

Institutions should expect staff and administrators to:

• attend trainings as necessary to achieve same level of proficiency as teachers
• use well-designed assessments to ensure quality of learning environments and integrated technology
• use formative and summative assessments to evaluate, support, and develop teachers' proficiency
• effectively use institutional software (student records, report cards, etc.)

Training

Training should be based on the expectations that were set. Effective and complete training should be given to all parties in order to meet expectations. Continue to Training for detailed training discussion.