The importance of Technical Support
Given the increasing complexity of Digital Technology Infrastructure (DTI) in schools, it is critical that a well thought out planned approach to technical support is in place. Schools that have a high quality technical support process in place with suitable external IT providers benefit greatly from this model, as IT providers can focus their technical expertise on the technical areas, such as having a high quality, robust and reliable DTI in place, and this enables the school to focus their energies and expertise on teaching and learning areas to support students. PDST-TiE have developed a ‘Technical Support Guide’ for schools to assist them in managing technical support. This guide can be downloaded using the link below.
Digital Technology Infrastructure (DTI) Audit
A Digital Technology Infrastructure Audit is recommended by PDST-TiE for schools to check the status of their DTI, to check if it is fit for purpose, robust and meets recommended minimum technical specifications.
The Audit should check if the school infrastructure meets recommended minimum technical specifications which are outlined in the Technical Support Guide and the DTI Audit template (below).
The state or quality of infrastucture in a school can be affected by a range of issues which can cause it to be degraded or no longer be fit for purpose. These issues may include increased demand on the network, equipment issues causing degraded performance, external factors, undiagnosed problems, configuration errors, out of date software, hardware issues, increased cybersecurity threats etc.,
DTI Audits need to be carried out by professional IT provider(s) with the relevant level of technical expertise, and who have experience of working with schools
Following the DT Audit, an Audit Report should be generated by the IT provider to the school.
A DTI one pager summary can be downloaded using the link below.
