How important is ICT Infrastructure?

In my new role as an ICT AST, I have had the privilege of visiting and working in a number of different schools around Redbridge.

Every school is different and so is their ICT infrastructure, so how important is this in your school?

What is ICT infrastructure firstly?
Well as I understand it it is how all the computers, ICT hardware and software interact.

The Becta website defines it as, "Your ICT infrastructure is made up of your network and the equipment that the network connects together plus applications, services and data."

We as teachers always are talking about using ICT and IWB effectively, but without good ICT infrastructure this can be very difficult.

My 3 top musts for ICT infrastructure are:

1. All computers must be networked to a central server - this allows you to share resources and software much more efficiently and helps in deploying software.

2. Computers need a reliable Internet connection - their is such a wealth of resources out on the
web that to work with out being able to access them is disappointing.

3. Wireless is great for add the odd computer to the network or running class laptops, but don't rely on wireless for your core network, go with wired, it is much more reliable.

Once your infrastructure is up, running and reliable we teachers can get back to using this great technology effectively to teach the children in our classrooms.