The following planning efforts must occur at both the local and state level. And coordination of these activities must be accommodated.

District Technology Plans :

Each school district should develop a technology plan. Consideration should be given in this process to the constraints imposed upon each site including size and local resources.

Long-term Planning, Growth, Evaluation and Coordination :

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The descriptions within this document are just the beginnings of what is really needed to serve all the schools in the future. The development of ATM (Asynchronous Mode Transfer) communications technology should be adopted and used to further enhance the capabilities and support the expected increased bandwidth needs of the schools. Discussions with other organizations to provide a statewide backbone for state agencies, colleges, private schools and other organizations are needed to determine the process for growing networks to serve multiple constituencies and to aggregate costs to the benefit of everyone involved.

A Planning Committee should be used to review the use and demand of the network. This Planning Committee should review reports and surveys from districts connected to the network to evaluate the use of the network and the projections for expansion of network bandwidth needs. The Committee will also review the advances in computing and networking technologies to anticipate demands that technology development will place upon the networks.

Bottlenecks in the network will be a major deterrent to the use of the network, and thus its growth and economy of scalability. Bottlenecks cam occur at the district level or the Internet connection. This Planning Committee will help to ensure that the network design and expansion ensures satisfied customers. The Planning Committee will develop standards for measurement and evaluation based on advice from networking experts.

Finally, the Planning Committee will perform an evaluation of all aspects of supporting the K-12 community. They will review accessibility to the network, costs incurred by the schools, training provided to staff and students, and support of users of the system.