But don't overlook the training of your support staff as well, which should be the responsibility of veteran technicians. With new software or hardware, negotiate for training in the purchase. Inservice training programs should be continual, not a one-shot deal where, if a teacher misses it, they're out of luck. Training needs to be on a yearly schedule to account for changes in professional staff. Always evaluate a training program to ensure the skills taught were mastered.
Notebook computers can be an effective tool for teacher training.
Load the software they are interested in learning and teachers can take the computer home to learn at their leisure. During the day, with network monitoring software, technical support staff can perform diagnostic work on the network using the same machine. If there will be several labs in a school district, connect them together for cooperative learning activities. This can be as simple as a modem on the lab's phone line, ISDN connection or as complex as a fiber optic link or T1 data line between all schools. Include access to the Internet in your lab.