Week Four Assignment

My question is number three, why is it advantageous for educators to share resources and programs on a network? What concerns are associated with program sharing? Educators can develop and use a force multiplier in the technological learning sphere. There are five areas where a teacher can share and save time, dollars, and resources. The text reveals shared hardware, shares software, data sharing, network tools, and communications are all areas that the teacher can stretch the dollar and save time and resources. For example, multiple teacher classrooms could send their print jobs to a central printer station saving hundreds of dollars in additional printers. The cost is a short walk down the hall to the central shared printer. Software can be installed on a central server which saves time for the user because they can easily access a program without download and installation. Additionally, dollar cost is reduced because a single copyright subscription is paid instead of multiple single use rights. If the software requires update, the support staff needs to only manipulate a single PC instead of traveling to multiple single use stations in every teacher's classroom. As a school networks and takes advantage of the sever-based software and hardware which is shared; school districts will enjoy the cost savings of single loaded programming and multiple use hardware devices such as printers and scanners. Technology hardware and software is very expensive. If today's educators can justify multiple uses and demonstrate cost savings to the school board, then the deployment of advanced technologies will be easier and provide added to our students.