Students and Network Cables

[tarquel]

I wish we cud enforce that somehow too you know

 

Seems as if they can mess around as much as they like sometimes and certain individuals dont bother to do anything to stop them :(

 

Nath

[ssimstar]

The point is that every teacher in my school was given a laptop, purportedly for wireless registration. Except now, they expect a laptop AS A RIGHT, not the privilege it should be regarded as. ICT has now become the universal panacea for delivering education to students; I say no, a GOOD teacher can deliver an interesting, enlivening, engaging lesson with just their ability. Data projectors, IWBs are great in the right hands, disastrous in the wrong hands. I point these things out, but SLT don't listen. They will readily admit they don't understand ICT in that "Ooh God, what would we do without you?" way, but they will not listen to someone who has been at the bleeding edge for too many years.

 

And no Ric, I won't identify myself - I am that paranoid!

[spc-rocket]

The thing to remember about spanning tree protocol is not to enable on access points i.e. ports where the PCs/Workstations connect becuase eveyrtime something is connected to the port and has STP enabled on it will do a check on that port to see if there are no loops on the network. This delays the connection by approx 15 sec which is not a lot but of course most PCs are nowadays so fast at booting up it may cause a probelm and may take some time to "Prepare Network Connections".

 

The solution is to enable STP on ports that connect to other switches i.e. ulinks etc.

 

Ashok.

[kingswood]

We've had this recently (twice now in the past year) and we can't turn on STP for various reasons (connections to hubs, possible unknown connections which might cause loops that would be hard to trace etc). You need to be careful when turning it on when you have services like DHCP running- those requests from clients might fail with errors that the server can't be contacted. There's a 15 second delay as the STP protocol configures itself (but this can be turned off).

 

Paul

[Sirbendy]

The point is that every teacher in my school was given a laptop, purportedly for wireless registration. Except now, they expect a laptop AS A RIGHT, not the privilege it should be regarded as. ICT has now become the universal panacea for delivering education to students; I say no, a GOOD teacher can deliver an interesting, enlivening, engaging lesson with just their ability. Data projectors, IWBs are great in the right hands, disastrous in the wrong hands.

 

HERE HERE!

 

It makes me SO annoyed when I hear "the whiteboard/projector/network is playing up, and I NEED it for my lesson."

 

I was taught from books, on chalkboards. We occasionally got a video, or on one memorable occasion a loaned videodisc player with the doomsday project on it, that staff were scared to touch. We had 10 minutes every few months on Prestel.

 

I'd say I got a better education that this lot do. My missus was educated here, and she has huge gaps in her general knowledge etc..I find it quite shocking TBH. I never minded a "drier" education either! The chalkboards taught me to duck the "teacher hurled" rubber if I was talking etc. If they liked you, you got the soft chalky side-if not, you got the wooden one, and that hurt.

 

You just CAN'T get the same effect with SMARTBoards.. More's the pity.

[penguinpowered]

A similar thing has happened to us loads of times. The switches just start twinkling like stars and you can hear them whining.

Then you spend the next couple of hours trying to find a 6 inch piece of cable between 2 sockets. Fun fun fun.

I'm just hoping the kids are doing it by accident and not because they know how much disruption it causes.

[ssimstar]

The point is that every teacher in my school was given a laptop, purportedly for wireless registration. Except now, they expect a laptop AS A RIGHT, not the privilege it should be regarded as. ICT has now become the universal panacea for delivering education to students; I say no, a GOOD teacher can deliver an interesting, enlivening, engaging lesson with just their ability. Data projectors, IWBs are great in the right hands, disastrous in the wrong hands.

 

HERE HERE!

 

It makes me SO annoyed when I hear "the whiteboard/projector/network is playing up, and I NEED it for my lesson."

 

I was taught from books, on chalkboards. We occasionally got a video, or on one memorable occasion a loaned videodisc player with the doomsday project on it, that staff were scared to touch. We had 10 minutes every few months on Prestel.

 

I'd say I got a better education that this lot do. My missus was educated here, and she has huge gaps in her general knowledge etc..I find it quite shocking TBH. I never minded a "drier" education either! The chalkboards taught me to duck the "teacher hurled" rubber if I was talking etc. If they liked you, you got the soft chalky side-if not, you got the wooden one, and that hurt.

 

You just CAN'T get the same effect with SMARTBoards.. More's the pity.

It's gone crazy here. The question "why hasn't so-and-so got a laptop?" is set to drive me mad. If I reply "it's because they BROKE the one they had, I have NO spares and you won't release any funds for me to replace it." they might scratch their head and tacitly give you the impression that YOU just aren't trying hard enough. Obviously my complete failure in having no ability whatsoever to transmute base metal into laptops is a sad reflection upon my

obvious incompetence. I'm just not trying hard enough, obviously.

 

The credibility gap is growing wider here. Expectations engendered by our recently acquired Specialist status have risen to ridiculous levels. Personal laptop a RIGHT, IWB/Data projector in my classrom a RIGHT. Instant response to staff who can't find their ass with two hands, a RIGHT.

 

But change is afoot. New (additional) servers? Sure. Consult your Network Manager. Why, what does he know? Make his job even harder, make his responsibilities higher (but don't pay him more), and break his balls over the NOTHING issues.

 

And, if I hear SLT saying to me, just once more, "I don't have an agenda" I may have to kill.

 

Am I bitter? Dunno. I don't know what rights and responsibilities y'all enjoy as Network Admins; I know that I used to be allowed complete responsibility to manage the systems as I saw fit, liaised with my manager in useful, concise meetings where issues were thrashed out in an atmoshere of mutual respect and solutions decided and put into process

with positive outcomes. No more. New manager. Proving himself, naturally. Regards himself as network admin. Isn't, (can't) but his word is law, and being reduced to Network Manager by proxy is bad for my soul.

 

In short, I'm looking to leave before it all goes completely tits-up. And, sadly, I'm not picky - I might get a job in a call-centre trying to sell crap that nobody wants. Or maybe I can get a job with PC World?

[Andrew_C]

ICT has now become the universal panacea for delivering education to students; I say no, a GOOD teacher can deliver an interesting, enlivening, engaging lesson with just their ability

 

OK, I think I'm going to defend our teaching colleagues a little here!

 

Most teachers can deliver the exciting lessons to which you refer. The problems really kick in when you assure them that the £££ spent over the summer to improve the log-on times, that the spanking new interactive board is fine and all is good. They spend a chunk of precious time preparing a whizzy interactive lesson, and it all goes to rat-shit in front of 20 teenagers with no network and a dead projector. If the teacher has been in the business for a few years they will extemporise and get away with it, but pity the technophobe or newb fresh out of college.

 

It would have been just as traumatic for our teachers to turn up in a room to find that there someone had nicked the blackboard!

[beeswax]

In short, I'm looking to leave before it all goes completely tits-up. And, sadly, I'm not picky - I might get a job in a call-centre trying to sell crap that nobody wants. Or maybe I can get a job with PC World?

 

a colleague and I have a little mantra when we find ourselves in similar situations. stand in front of a mirror, look yourself square in the eye and say,

"Would you like fries with that?"

It works a treat.

 

sorry to read you're feeling so p*ssed off tho'. I think a lot of us have been there.

 

beeswax

[Ric_]

@ssimstar: I know how you feel (head and brick wall syndrome) - my last job was getting like that. The school I'm at now is a hell of a lot better.

[MkII]

I know that I used to be allowed complete responsibility to manage the systems as I saw fit, liaised with my manager in useful, concise meetings where issues were thrashed out in an atmoshere of mutual respect and solutions decided and put into process with positive outcomes.

Sounds bloody familiar. Here politics and the number game seem to have turned us into shallow sales guys.

[E1uSiV3]

Ran thru a similar situation here, and luckily i start my new job on monday and i wont be working with kids anymore! I will still be tied to the DFeS (theres no getting rid of them) but its for adult training in the energy and utility sectors.

 

I do feel for you ssimstar, but jus keep looking, something good will come your way soon.