For technology directors and other IT personnel in K-12 schools, the new year means many things, including fixing technology devices and other repairs.

So says Carlos A. Garcia, veteran in technology administration for school districts, who offers six "tech checks" for 2015 in his article on eschoolnews.com.

"Amid all the chaos, it can be easy to let general maintenance slip under your radar," Garcia said. "But in my years as a tech director for districts around California, I realized that staying on top of the small things helped me be more prepared to handle big issues as they arose. So I came up with five essential 'tech checks' to complete at the beginning of each calendar year, and I hope they’ll be as helpful to you as they were to me"

The first "tech check" Garcia recommends is to "count 'em."

"Take an inventory of your current devices and accessories like carts and charging adapters, and make sure the counts match up to what you should have," he said. "If there are missing devices, find out where they may have been moved or used. Need help with device management? Something like the Casper Suite from JAMF Software will quickly become your best friend."

The second "tech check" is to "check 'em."

"Once you’ve located all of your devices, go through them to check for damage or any other issues," Garcia said. "The holidays may be over, but you can still create your very own 'naughty or nice' list, separating the bad devices from the good. This will give you a more accurate count of how many good devices you actually have available."

Garcia's last "tech check" is to "update 'em."

"The start of a new semester is the perfect time to install software updates and deploy images, especially if you can make a habit out of it every year," he said. "Test new software packages on a few devices before doing a large-scale rollout. For easy updates to laptops and desktops, check out the free open source program DeployStudio; for iPads, you can’t beat the free Apple Configurator available on the App Store. In order to take full advantage of Google’s device management solution for Chromebooks, make sure to enroll the devices with Google upon initial setup. For larger deployments and mixed device environments, check out AirWatch."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor