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Chapter 7: Knowing How to Support and Maintain Your Technology Solution
Objective: By the time you finish this chapter you will know how to plan for the ongoing and long-term support and maintenance of your technology solution.
Your new computer technology is up and running. This can often constitute an anti-climax. Is life in your organization perfect now? No. Is it better than it was before? It will be. But first, you need to ensure that the technology is used properly and that it is systematically maintained and supported. This requires providing ongoing training and assistance for all your user groups, and ensuring proper maintenance of the equipment, software and network connections. Once you have instituted these activities, you will see a dramatic difference in the way that your organization operates. If your technology focuses on the provision of instruction to students, you should begin to see some new excitement in the way students approach learning in general, and in the use of technology in particular. This chapter will look at specific issues pertaining to the support, maintenance and use of your technology once it is in operation. When we talk about maintaining the physical aspects of your computer technology throughout its life span (generally 3-5 years for many applications), we must think seriously about what maintenance requirements actually entail. We have previously mentioned some aspects of ongoing maintenance, but haven't discussed the entire process, or other issues that will surely arise as time passes. For example, the following is a list of key ongoing support and maintenance issues:
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