Designing Your School Network is a videotape of a satellite teleconference sponsored by the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium. It offers some true stories about school and district networks with insider views about how the networks were developed, and the various avenues taken to get there. Following are these three very different network stories from school districts from an embryonic, one-person effort to a campus and district system.
Technology evolves, networks grow and change, and local planning sets the course.
So, while these stories are snapshots taken at only one point in time, they are instructive because of their differences. In this network story, one person crusaded to bring the future to the schools, piece by piece at first, and finally with a five-year technology plan to prepare the Butte Public Schools students to meet the future. A while back, the Butte economy had been devastated with the closing of a major copper mine. In response, Butte people shaped a fresh future. The community began to transition successfully to a new economic base in medicine and technology.