Final+Words

Lessons Learned:
I created this lab out of desperation two years ago in a school district that provided very little support for technology. Shortly after I created this lab in the summer, I got another job in another school system. Here are the lessons learned through the experience of leaving that district and my hard-earned lab:

> > One sad final note is that after I left the school where my lab was up and running, the teacher who came in after me had little technology knowledge and was not willing to troubleshoot the computers. The district came and picked up all of the computers and took them to a warehouse for disposal. The computer desks my husband built became tables for clutter and junk in the school. That's the way it goes!
 * In a district that now has an extensive acceptable use policy, a strict rotation of equipment in place to avoid addtional maintenance for obsolete hardware, and a great network filter; I realize that my strategies for the previous district would not have worked in this one.
 * One suggestion I have is that if you are in a supportive district that is open to donations, sit down with tech folks and create a minimum requirements for equipment donation document. I found a a great one here.[[file:it_donation.pdf]]
 * Another suggestion is that you start a Tech Team of students to help you with this work. Remember the old "AV Club" of days gone by, well these kids are still out there spending all of their free time gaming and creating MySpace layout codes. Enlist them to help and to be consultants for what students need.
 * I found this great article dealing with the problems that can arise if you just open yourself up to any kind of donations. It can become a real hassle. This article brings up many good points. [[file:donation_policy.pdf]]
 * Be sure to [|give publicity] to the companies or individuals that donate. They are doing it for the tax break, but the publicity will keep you on their list and in their good graces. Thank you notes written by students are also very effective.
 * Finally, if your school district really needs to squeeze the budget, consider looking into Open Source software. I don't claim to know enough about it to install it on a server, but I do recommend that technology folks look into installing details and school packages. Here are some more links regarding Open Source.
 * [|NETC page] on the history, background, and examples of it in schools
 * [|Article] on why schools should use it.
 * Details on [|Needham Public Schools]' use of Open Source