Today's road is the electronic network. The PC provided a powerful mechanism to accommodate applications such as word-processing, graphics, spreadsheets, databases, and others. However, the information that resided at the specific PC was not accessible by others, nor could PC's share common devices such as printers. It became apparent that the ability to share documents, spreadsheets, and information from one PC to another would be a great advantage. This sharing of resources and information is made possible by computer networks.
Networks can range in magnitude, and type.
A local area network, commonly referred to as a LAN, describes the connection between two or more computers that can occur in the same room, different rooms, the wing of a building, or the entire complex. This is commonly the first network to be established within a school. The downside of networking is that it can be expensive to implement. See that instructional and administrative applications drive the selection of the network-related technology. Stress the need for all involved in the project to communicate clearly with each other.