A few general questions...

[Gibson335]

How many of you have a close working relationship with your Curric ICT Co-Ordinator/Head of ICT?

 

How much of a say does the above individual have over your own network development plans?

 

Do you develop according to what you believe is the right direction, or do you work by a long-term whole-school ICT plan?

 

How many of you know that the school ICT development plan is?

[DrPerceptron]

Very close, we discuss things and stuff mostly about their IT lessons though.

 

Some, but not a lot, everyone is free to make suggestions on improvements though.

 

A bit of both, Whole School initiatives get the more attention than more focused, innovations, but the ones that have the potential to actually last more than a week will be looked at closer and discussed and probably implemented.

 

I guess it would be some sort of plan for development in ICT? The next major stage here is looking into VMWare Desktop Virtualisation to spend money on bigger, better things... like Vista (not really, we're going striaght to Windows 7 assuming it doesn't suck)

[Diello]

How many of you have a close working relationship with your Curric ICT Co-Ordinator/Head of ICT?

 

Yes - as their department is one of the major users of ICT in the school. I have a similar relationship with the Head of Admin, and the Head of DT.

 

How much of a say does the above individual have over your own network development plans?

 

None at all. We have an ICT Steering Group, & the teacher representatives may make suggestions which end up being part of the DevPlan though. The Head of Curic ICT sits on this group.

 

Do you develop according to what you believe is the right direction, or do you work by a long-term whole-school ICT plan?

 

50/50 - Whole-school ICT plan is put together from interested parties based on T&L needs, as well as practical IT needs. The technical side of it is down to what I "believe is the right direction" in order to achieve those objective.

 

How many of you know that the school ICT development plan is?

 

Wrote most of it... so yup!

[Bezwick]

Nope dont have a close relationsghip with head of ICT because she has very little understanding of it and within 2 mins of talking i have lost her.

 

She comes up with hairbrained ideas and i crush them.

 

I tend to develop things how i think they are supposed to go as no-one else seams to have any idea. However if something comes up, i usually try and incorporate it.

 

Not sure if the school has one, think its invented adhock depending on which member of the SLT has the strongest part of the magpie gene each week.

 

Not sure if Magpie gene is an accepted term just one that i have coined to explain the inability of teachers/Management to function without a brand new product that was only released 5 mins ago. But those who dont know about it function normally.

[jcollings]

Yes - as their department is one of the major users of ICT in the school. I have a similar relationship with the Head of Admin, and the Head of DT.

 

 

 

None at all. We have an ICT Steering Group, & the teacher representatives may make suggestions which end up being part of the DevPlan though. The Head of Curic ICT sits on this group.

 

 

 

50/50 - Whole-school ICT plan is put together from interested parties based on T&L needs, as well as practical IT needs. The technical side of it is down to what I "believe is the right direction" in order to achieve those objective.

 

 

 

Wrote most of it... so yup!

 

 

I am in an pretty much identical place to that.

[dhicks]

How many of you have a close working relationship with your Curric ICT Co-Ordinator/Head of ICT?

 

Pretty close, I'd say - my office is just outside the IT room, I wander in and out of lessons all the time.

 

How much of a say does the above individual have over your own network development plans?

 

Actually, we all seem to pretty much agree on the most sensible way we want to do things, it's juts a problem of finding the time/money to get it done.

 

Do you develop according to what you believe is the right direction, or do you work by a long-term whole-school ICT plan?

 

I don't get a set budget as such, I just get whatever equipment kind of floats past, so there's no long-term (or, heck, medium or short, either) plan. I have my own medium-range plans of what I want to do next (just updating the list today), but nothing other than that.

 

How many of you know that the school ICT development plan is?

 

Again, we have a very good plan, it's just getting around to implementing it that's proving the problem.

 

--

David Hicks

[Michael]

As an IT Consultant I always work closely with the ICT Co or Head of IT. I think it's crucial to have an understanding and a good relationship for the best possible results. I always sit down with staff, listen to their point of view and answer in a clear and concise way - cutting out a lot of the technical jargon.

 

My role is purely advisory/technical, but I always backup my justifications with a need, a cost and the end result. I'm normally given complete control of network implementation, design, costings and time scales, but of course this is then discussed and authorised by senior individuals within school. If the project is substantial, then the request is forwarded to the governors of the school.

 

It's all about building a relationship, a reputation and trust, either from a business or employee point of view. Working as a team is essential!